How to measure the value of what we grow

[Dick Shannon]

I have spent a lot on raised bed materials, a hoophouse, etc. I've had great vegetables, but when I look at prices in the supermarket I'm glad I'm the one doing the shopping not my wife.

In my dreams, I can be organized and successful enough to rent a booth at the local farmers market. That's when I think about the dollar value of what I produce vs. what I'm spending to produce it. So this year I'm on a quest to increase yields without increasing spending.

How do other people here measure or evaluate the cost benefit of what they grow in their garden (or farm)?

good luck all, Dick

[SeattleJohn]

I think every gardener should keep track of costs, but if you are doing it as a business (or "hobby income") it becomes much more important to track costs/income. Just for chuckles, you should also track how much time you spend producing your bounty.

If you are running your garden as a business, you need to be more practical with space (and time) allotment than you are just putting some fresh goodies on the table. After a plant has peaked, you will need to jerk it out and replace it with something else.

Unless you are in business, it is hard to put a cash value on it, and determine what your time is worth.

[Dick Shannon]

Originally posted by SeattleJohn:

. . . you should also track how much time you spend producing your bounty.

Good point, SeattleJohn.

I have friends at a real farm in town. They get about 1 month off per year, and the other 11 months they work at least 12 hours/day.

Fortunately for the people in our town, this family is a major source of produce, the best sweet corn, apples, blueberries, strawberries, you name it.

Dick

[SeattleJohn]

If we calculated our time (at minimum wage), we might be surprised how much our veggies "cost" us. But to me, it is worth it because they taste so much better, and I don't need to guess what they might have been drenched in.

[SeattleJohn]

It takes a lot of time & labor to produce bountiful commercial crops.

Ex-President Eisenhower saw the future of farming and quoted:

"Farming is easy when a pencil is your plow, and your desk is 1,000 miles from the corn field."

[smwlindy]

For me, the benefit hinges on there being more than one kind of 'compensation', which must factor in more when producing small-scale veggies for our own nourishment & enjoyment than when bringing veggies to market. Though for those of us who love it, I can't help but think the compensation of working the soil, watching that seemingly inert seed spring to life, listening to the birds and other side benefits will still offset some of the undeniably hard work of gardening.

Too much of my life is spent indoors at a desk & computer, and gardening is precious time spent outdoors. In our little suburban yard it's also social, because neighbors stop by to visit nearly every time we're outside.

Yes, I do get thrilled from a simple harvest of ~40 pounds of French Fingerling when I realize that each 2 pound bag costs around $6 at the store (when we can find them)...but we are compensated in so many other ways that I gave up with the $ value about a year ago...we're going to do it anyway. I'm thoroughly grateful we can afford the luxury to feel that way.

That said, I can't begin to say how I appreciate our CSA and Market farmers for all the real work they do!

[seeds]

love home grown stuff . So much better than the super market stuff~~~

[LisaInOregon]

Looking at value we should not just look at price... that's a big hole in the way our culture relates to food - quality is very important too. The vegetables we grow ourselves not only give me a pure sense of connection to the land (which you can't really put a price on...), but I think they have more reliable quality healthwise than even the farmer's market... even organic, the standards allow some things that I don't want on my food. With my own, I know exactly how it was grown.

But really, I just love gardening, and as hobbies go, it's less expensive than many. Insofar as we sell farm products (other than for the tax incentive), we don't really enjoy the selling part, but bu defraying the costs, it makes the hobby expenses more justifiable.

Lisa

[steev]

I'm sure the cost of my produce production pales beside what I save in psychotherapy and medical expenses due to the stress reduction and exercise my garden provides. That it may grow into an income source is lagniappe. Although I wouldn't garden if I got no food from it, I don't require much to feel adequately rewarded. I'd no sooner value my garden by the money and time it costs than I would value my child so, although I would refer back to the psychotherapy, it's true.

[FeralVermonter]

I agree that the real value to be found in gardening has little to do with money... I'm a pretty new gardener, and it still gives me this feeling like I'm doing magic... there's this other feeling, this wonderful feeling of decreased dependence, of increased freedom... it's good for my mind, and my waistline, so that's a trip to the therapist and the gym saved, not just the cost of a tomato... that said, saving money was the reason I got into gardening in the first place.

But as a chef I'm doing these sorts of calculations all the time: how much money goes out, versus how much comes in, how much should I spend on getting a given task done, etc.; I started gardening to get a break from my job, and so I don't really do my accounting in the same way. That is to say, you want to ask yourself what sort of accounting you're doing, here: are you running a business, or are you just trying to make sure your garden isn't a money pit? Because if it's a business, you need to figure out how much to pay yourself, per hour, which makes it a lot harder to achieve a profit. But if instead you look at your time spent gardening as a net gain, (like I said, cheaper than therapy and a gym membership) then it's really just a matter of materials purchased versus the approximate dollar value of your yield, and I don't think it's too hard to come out on top of that equation, especially when the cost of equipment is averaged out over its total estimated lifetime (in other words, you don't have to keep buying shovels and raised beds and hoop-houses, you use them year after year, and you can factor that into your calculations).

But all that said, I think that a really great way to keep costs down is to just refuse to buy anything you don't ABSOLUTELY need. Do you really need that fancy trowel with the special gimmicky thing? No, you don't. The flipside of this principle is, when you do REALLY need a piece of equipment, buy the highest quality you can afford (consider the lifetime of the tool here: high quality is actually cheap, when you look at it that way). If, that is, you can't find a way around buying it in the first place, if you can't make it, or borrow it, or beg it. For example, I don't buy pots: I collect old wooden boxes and big cans from restaurants, and borrow a rototiller from a friend of my father's, my girlfriend made us a soil sifter from some sticks and some chicken-wire, you get the idea. I find that trading crops for favors is not only a fantastic way of getting things for the garden, it's also a wonderful way to fill up the days, and build connections in the community.

[Dick Shannon]

WOW -- so many great responses, thank you everyone.

QUOTE: you want to ask yourself what sort of accounting you're doing, here: are you running a business, or are you just trying to make sure your garden isn't a money pit?

I think FeralVermonter really highlighted my issue.

I don't really have enough land to rent a booth at the Farmer's Market week after week. On the other hand, maybe I just need to look at the money I've lavished on my garden as an investment in a glorious hobby, one that allows me to give away food to my neighbors, and lots of people who come by tell me they love "just looking at" my garden.

At first I was so excited that I bought way more seeds than I could plant; now that I've found which ones I can save, I cut my seed expenses way down this year. Also finding more ways to keep the harvest.

Thank you everyone, for a much needed "reality check."

Almost time to plant onions & still eating onions from last season

Dick

[steev]

I just got back from my week-end working for no money on my hobby farm. I cursed the plague of voles that has befallen me this year, calling upon all the old gods of Nature and Anglo-Saxon bodily functions; they've killed a four-year-old olive tree and seriously nearly ring-barked another. I tilled in some weeds, which I will re-till next week for a seed-bed. I planted onion plants, carrots, radishes, turnips, snow peas, beets, and spinach. All week-end, on the county road that fronts the farm, the off-roaders were going to-and-from the wilderness area with their dirt-bikes in pickups and towing their toy-haulers. Next week I'll have two tin cats for the voles, and next month I'll start eating some of what I planted this week, unless the voles eat everything, in which case I may eat them. Cats and coyotes like 'em a lot; how wrong could they be? It is claimed that Sir Isaac Newton was partial to mouse-on-toast. They don't say whether that was before being thumped by the apple. All things considered, I come back tired, but refreshed. Now that's a profit!

[Zurdita]

Originally posted by FeralVermonter:

But if instead you look at your time spent gardening as a net gain...

That's it! In a nutshell! Thank you for expressing it so well. I enjoy the results of my labor. I feel a special pride when I sit down to a meal I grew myself. I enjoy giving away plants and vegetables, but the reason I keep going is that the time I spend gardening is a "net gain".

I have moments when, like Dick, I lavish money on my garden, but more and more, I spend more of my time trying to find solutions in the garden itself, i.e seed-saving, compost, using pruned branches as stakes and trellises. But I can do this because the gardening I've done for the last four or five years has changed the way I perceive plants and gardens, wildlife, food, seasons, my place in the universe...

And my hairdresser gave me a break on my haircut yesterday because I took her some baby tomato plants and some bok choi as a present. So, I guess that some of my investment is paying off in a tangible way also!

Damiana

[SeattleJohn]

As a hobby, gardening is unique. It is far cheaper than most hobbies, yet more rewarding and practical. How many other hobbies produce something of practical use for the homestead? Are beneficial to your health? Improve the real value of your property? Give you a feeling of accomplishment? The worst tomato in my garden still tastes better than any I can buy in the stupermarket.

[Karak.D]

Another cost factor is "water". How much are you spending on it? I've been investing in rainbarrels. Now I'm about to buy a 275 gallon water tank off craigs list. The water tank wont pay off itself until next year but the RBs paid for themselves last summer.