Its just not worth growing some vegies

Sculkrusha · #21 03/12/13, 02:53 PM

Thank you all for the replies. Its very interesting eh.

Cheers,,,,,,,,,,Skul

In Australia

Sonshine · #22 03/12/13, 02:53 PM

As others have said, if you save your own seeds, then the only cost to me is the cost of gas to run the tiller. We don't buy fertizer since we have goats and chickens that supply that. We started buying heirloom seeds a few years back, now we only use seeds we've saved from them.

**Tiempo** · #23 03/12/13, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

I've never seen an Adirondack Red potato in a store. I've never bought a tomato as good as one I've grown, no matter the variety. I had an amazing cucumber last year and saved some seeds. I hope that later this year I can consider that to be a "normal" tasting cucumber.

Worth the money? I can't buy this stuff. It's worth whatever I put into it.

Have you tried Adirondack Blue? hands down my favorite potato for texture and flavor.

Bettacreek · #24 03/12/13, 03:49 PM

I'm with you. It's cheap enough and easy enough to just buy a few bushels of certain things from the amish. Unless you're farming full time, and heck, even if you are, sometimes it makes your life easier to just buy certain things instead of growing them yourself. If you count your time, which might be precious, then it's sometimes cheaper to just buy it. I mean, really, I have two little ones, the birds and all these plans and I simply don't have the time or space to spend on potatoes or carrots. It's easier for me to just buy them.

Vermontelf · #25 03/12/13, 04:40 PM

My husband and I have talked extensively about this. Yes, it's nice to grow our own for many reasons, but space becomes a key factor. Since I'm limited in growing space and storage space I buy our potatoes and onions. SOMEDAY when we have larger space we'll grow them too.

bja105 · #26 03/12/13, 04:52 PM

Carrots, onions, and potatoes don't pay to grow your own? Those are the only crops I grow well! I do consciously grow those as practice for a time there is no grocery store. Its also fun to be successful.

I quit growing sweet corn. My friends grow acres of it, and they are better at harvesting at the right time. Watermelons might be the next crop to get subbed out.

Johnny Dolittle · #27 03/12/13, 05:06 PM

There is no chance to save unless you do your garden well. You will not do it well if you don't like doing it. For me it is all a challenge ... a challenge to do it better and better. You can't compare the quality of store bought frozen peas or corn . I freeze my own sugar snap peas and sweet corn. A few things are cheaper to buy in the store but I keep growing them for security and my own satisfaction.

ChristieAcres · #28 03/12/13, 05:11 PM

All I can say is we all better be growing everything we possibly can. No longer can we expect food to be regularly available. It will also depend on if you are in a drought stricken area.

I use Heirloom seeds, so I can harvest my own. I agree with Johnny Dolittle for sure! Let's not forget the cost of fuel for the vehicle driven to buy the food... I don't use power tools, do no-till gardening here. Keeps us in shape, too!

Wayne02 · #29 03/12/13, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danaus29

When I was buying 55 pounds of spuds for $10 there was no way I could have grown it any cheaper once you figure that I could spend the time working on another crop that I couldn't or wouldn't buy from the store.

Yep, opportunity costs are an interesting thing indeed. Peoples criteria for their opportunity costs are as varied as the day is long. That's one of the cool things about the homesteading type lifestyle, it provides much flexibility.

Quote:

Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative forgone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices.[1] The opportunity cost is also the "cost" (as a lost benefit) of the forgone products after making a choice. Opportunity cost is a key concept in economics, and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice".[2] The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently.[3] Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered opportunity costs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

Danaus29 · #30 03/12/13, 05:29 PM

That's exactly why sometimes I have to figure my time. It could often be spent in other ways where I earn an income or I put my time into something that is more worthwhile.

On the flip side, if I can get more than 5 pounds of decent looking tubers from planting one little spud in a 5 gallon bucket (the blue or red potatoes. Red flesh, not red pontiac) that would be worth the time and effort because 5 pounds of those sell for more than $15.

Silvercreek Farmer · #31 03/12/13, 05:32 PM

If it is cheap and easy to grow, I will grow it, if it is cheap and hard for me to grow, that pretty much makes the decision for me! Right now cabbage is on the naughty list.

tentance · #32 03/12/13, 05:40 PM

have you thought it through on herbs? they are cheap seeds to buy, and pay for themselves many times over in nutrition. grocery store herbs are ridiculously priced!

Bettacreek · #33 03/12/13, 06:01 PM

Personally, I like expensive and easy to grow. I won't buy peppers in the store. $1 per green pepper? Are you kidding me? Even at the farmer's market, it's 2/$1 at the best price, and often they're little peppers. Peppers are almost too easy to grow... Why would I spend a fortune on peppers when I can grow them so easily at home?

mtnviewfarms · #34 03/12/13, 06:09 PM

Maybe I missed it in the previous posts on this topic, but what we don't grow
in our homestead garden, orchard and berry patches or get from our keeping our Heritage Breed chickens, growing out and selling our chicks, to-die-for compost from using the deep litter method in the chicken house, tons of extra large eggs ( more fun to watch than ANY TV show nowadays ) -
whenever possible and during the seasons when our local Farmers Markets
are up and going we either buy and/or barter for it with what we make, grow and get from our Homestead.

We plan our meals around what is locally available and go with the seasons
thus rarely support 'big business' commercial supermarkets where even the
'cage free and pastured eggs' in their coolers have taken up to a MONTH to
make it there and the fruit and veggies have usually been picked so green and/or loaded with toxic chemicals to make them uniform to the eye and keep longer for the across country shipping, etc.

We support local and buy local from the people who actually grow, raise, tend and maintain Homesteads and self sustaining farms in our area - like we do.

Fantastic websites that support this kind of thinking and buying make it easy
to locate 'fresh and locally grown, raised, etc. almost anything you want' -
Local Harvest and Real Time Farms are just a few. We have our farmstead
listed on both and it has brought us a lot of traffic and interest.

Supporting the 'current agribusiness commercial machine' is a last resort for us!

plowhand · #35 03/12/13, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darntootin

I don't care what anybody says its still WAY, WAY cheaper to grow your own. Beside seed ( a one time purchase which provides years and years of crops ) and a little fertilizer (only for some things ) it is free to grow your own. Some here must either be paying a ton for seed, or buying fancy potting soils and expensive disposable seed cups or something. Whatever you are doing, if it costs you more to grow veggies at home than buying them in the store, you are doing everything wrong. PM me and I'll give you some tips.

Amen!

lemonthyme7 · #36 03/12/13, 06:52 PM

I don't grow sweetcorn because for what I get in return it takes up to much space BUT my mom grows a large patch of several varieties with staggered ripening dates every year and is begging people to take some so I don't need to grow it. Potatoes I have grown but don't on a regular basis although what you grow yourself are going to be the best you ever taste!

I grow a lot of heirloom tomatoes (can't get that taste in a store or at the farmers market, usually)
peppers - sweet and hot
cucumbers because I want them fresh and crisp just picked
green beans (in my case a variety of purple pole beans - very tender)
yellow and zucchini summer squash
snow peas
lots of greens
kohlrabi - you can get it in some stores now but the quality of homegrown is much better)
broccoli - sometimes
winter squash - love to grow unusual varieties
garlic - SO much cheaper to grow your own than buy it!

I am always trying something new every year and that helps keep it fun, but some things I find easier to buy. Onions I have had mixed success with so I end up buying them lots of years. Same for carrots. Grow what you are good at first but I do think it's good practice to try growing other things just once at least. What some people find easy to grow might be someone else's challenge crop.

snowcap · #37 03/12/13, 07:01 PM

I have the problem that my garden is an inbetween size. Not tiny by any means but I would love it to be a bit larger. So I am getting so I like to raise just enough potatoes to eat what we can for "new" potato use.
Then I grow cash crops that take up little room and buy our bulk potatoes with what I make with that.

ChristieAcres · #38 03/12/13, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tentance

have you thought it through on herbs? they are cheap seeds to buy, and pay for themselves many times over in nutrition. grocery store herbs are ridiculously priced!

That is a great point to make! Of course, Wild Edibles are often overlooked, free free free

DH and I picked 47#s of Chanterelle Mushrooms last year, still enjoying them immensely as I preserved them!

Johnny Dolittle · #39 03/12/13, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonshine

As others have said, if you save your own seeds, then the only cost to me is the cost of gas to run the tiller. We don't buy fertizer since we have goats and chickens that supply that. We started buying heirloom seeds a few years back, now we only use seeds we've saved from them.

Well I do like my hybrids but this year I am planting some open pollinated varieties and will save seed. Also many of the varieties I grow are O.P. .... so why have I not been saving seed ???? duh !!!!!

However I can not get a crop using OP peppers. I like King Arthur and Early Sunsation but seed is about 7 cents each. Last year I noticed a big pepper at the Amish produce auction named Aristotle .... so I did some research and they are 15 cents per seed and minimum order was 100 seeds from Homes Seed Company. That is a lot .... but not much if I get a really good producing variety ..... one that consistently produces in adverse conditions.

Soooooooo .... yes you can do a garden on a shoe string budget .... but you can also spend money and get a good return.

So I will do both .... and start saving seeds. Also have lots of free manure if I just go pick it up.

Fat Charlie · #40 03/13/13, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiempo

Have you tried Adirondack Blue? hands down my favorite potato for texture and flavor.

I haven't yet. It's only my third year growing potatoes and I've been expanding the garden a bunch. I'm going to see about planting some in a non-formal garden area to see how it goes, then maybe next year I'll see about planting multiple kinds. My favorite part of growing potatoes is that they don't need attention (at least, mine grow without getting any). Not much in the way of opportunity cost the way I do it.

Opportunity cost is important- it's the reason I haven't brewed in almost 10 years. The wide availability of really good beers in amounts less than 5 gallons and with less than 5 weeks' lead time just made making my own not worth the effort.