During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for July.
It was a berry, berry good month at Rosings Park (as we call our happy half acre). Gloomy June faded into memory, the sun came out, and the berries ripened. This is the time of year when there’s little to do in the garden but water the plants and harvest the produce. There’s plenty of work to preserve the food, however: canning, freezing, and drying.
Raspberry disaster
At the beginning of July, we discovered we had no raspberries. We usually get several pounds from our over-zealous canes, but this year we only got a few nibbles — they weren’t even worth weighing.
We’re still not sure what went wrong, but the most likely cause of our raspberry disaster is poor pruning on my part. Our guess is that I either pruned the canes back too hard, or, more likely, pruned them too late. We do expect to see a fall crop (and probably a good one), but our summer crop of raspberries never materialized.
Sharing food
This project is interesting because it has forced us to decide how to classify certain costs and “profits”. For example, we don’t actually grow cherries on our property, but the neighbors let us harvest 12.5 pounds (5.649kg) of fruit. Should we count that in our totals? At about $2.99/pound, that’s $37.38 of cherries!
We’ve decided instead to keep a separate tally for produce received through other methods. There’s certainly a cost savings involved, but we didn’t actually grow it ourselves.
Meanwhile, we’ve found a way to deal with our excess berries while also compensating for our inability to grow carrots and lettuce. We’re trading berries for greens grown by one of Kris’ co-workers. This is a great deal for both parties. For accounting purposes, we’re ignoring this deal, however. After we harvest the berries and weigh them, it doesn’t matter what happens after that.
The fruits of our labor
Here’s the complete tally for this month’s garden production.
- 0.79 pounds (0.360kg or about 1 pint) strawberries @ $3.13/pound = $2.47
- 2.92 pounds (1.326kg) snow peas @ $5.99/pound = $17.49
- 5.91 pounds (2.681kg or about 8.5 pints) red currants @ $3.99/pint (~300g) = $35.66
- 5.23 pounds (2.376kg or about 8 pints) blueberries @ $2.99/pint (~300g) = $23.68
- 1.52 pounds (0.689kg or about 3.5 pints) gooseberries @ $3.99/pint (~200g) = $13.75
- 6.52 pounds (2.965kg or about 10 pints) caneberries (blackberries, boysenberries, and marionberries) @ $2.49/pint (~300g) = $24.61
- 1.27 pounds (0.575kg) of string beans @ 1.99/pound = $2.52
- 5 zucchini @ $0.50/each = $2.50
- 2 cucumbers @ $0.50/each = $1.00
For the purposes of this project, we’re using “best match” pricing. Based on GRS reader suggestions, we’re obtaining typical pricing from our local farmers market. In some cases, we use pricing from a local organic produce stand. In all cases, we’re trying to be fair, but this is more art than science.
Our total harvest in July yielded $123.68 in produce, including 31 pints of berries.
Time in the garden
This month Kris spent about an hour each weekend fertilizing and keeping tabs on the garden. Together, we spent one hour this month tying up the tomatoes, spreading mulch, and other chores. But most of our time was spent picking berries. We combined for about six hours harvesting our produce. We spent eleven hours total working on our crops this month.
Summary
During July we spent $20.94 on the garden for three bags of soil to go around the roots of the blueberries. (The bases of the blueberries are mounded, and the soil tends to erode, exposing the roots.) Here are the running totals so far:
| Month | Time | Cost | Harvest |
| January | 4.0 hours | $27.30 | – |
| February | 2.5 hours | $0.00 | – |
| March | 3.5 hours | $130.00 | – |
| April | 5.5 hours | $28.51 | – |
| May | 5.5 hours | $110.89 | – |
| June | 7.0 hours | $0.79 | $50.83 |
| July | 11.0 hours | $20.94 | $123.68 |
| Totals | 39.0 hours | $318.43 | $174.51 |
We also harvested $37.38 in fruit from the neighbors.
As July draws to a close, the tomato plants have reached the top of their cages and are loaded with green fruit. The Sungold cherry tomato will be first to ripen (we’ve nibbled a few already), followed by Stupice. The cucumber and zucchini are beginning to produce regularly and the corn is thriving. In the herb bed, the elderberries are growing dark and gleaming, and the nearby fruit trees each bear a load we’ll enjoy late in the summer.
Kris has put away snowpeas and grated zucchini in the freezer, along with several batches of freezer jam (my favorite). She’s also put up several varieties of cooked jams and jellies, canned cherries in light syrup, pickled green beans with dill, garlic and ginger, and has dried cherries, blueberries and currants for future use. (One of her co-workers came over on Wednesday to learn how to can pickled beans.) We’ll be glad to have this summer’s bounty during the long rainy winter.
Final word
Just to be clear on the purpose of this project: This isn’t a formal experiment. Kris and I are long-time hobby gardeners, and we have set ways that we do things. This year, we are not trying to do anything different than we have for more than a decade. We’re not trying to be 100% organic (though we are mostly organic through our normal practices).
Nor are we trying to be 100% frugal. Instead, we’re trying to see just what our garden costs and produces based on our normal habits. We hope the results of this experiment will help us find new ways to economize and to improve our crops.
You can read about my goals for this series in The year-long GRS project: How much does a garden really save?
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JD, why do you refer to your estate as “Rosings Park.” I’ve noticed you use that term often over at Folded Space, and I’ve been curious about it for quite some time.
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Raspberry pruning: My technique.
It sounds like you have the everbearing variety where you have two seasons of fruit (June/July and August/September). I have this as well.
Late, late Fall/early winter: Cut back all canes to knee height…. all of them.
Early Spring, before new growth: Pull out the two year old canes, leaving last year’s new growth. You’ll see what is old, because it will be very dead, brown and easy to remove. Thin as needed (maybe I’m lucky in this regard.
Dave @1: I would assume Rosings Park is in reference to “Pride and Prejudice”.
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Is there some way I can finnagle some of those red currants off you? I grew up with a bush of them, but haven’t been able to locate anyone since growing them.
I’m not sure how to best transport them, but if Kris were to make a red currant jam I’d pay handsomely for a jar!
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Dave said: JD, why do you refer to your estate as “Rosings Park.” I’ve noticed you use that term often over at Folded Space, and I’ve been curious about it for quite some time.
Two reasons, both of them silly:
1. Rosings Park is a location in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, a book that Kris and I (as lit geeks) both love. it’s the home of the pompous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and treated with great reverence by the obsequious Mr. Collins.
2. When we moved in, the property had over 125 rose bushes. (We’ve since given away about half of these plants.)
I’m not sure who suggested it first, but “Rosings Park” seemed like the perfect name, and it’s stuck!
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Very jealous … not a whole lot of room to garden in Japan. We have a few spices and tomato plants on our balcony, but that’s about the extent…
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Your produce prices are MUCH lower than I pay here in Sedona at the supermarkets – except possibly for the string beans. And “pints” of blueberries have dropped to 12, 10, and even 6 ounces! Cukes are often $1 each; corn this year is cheap when 4/$1 rather than the usual 10/$1 during its peak. Strawberries are usually $3.99 on sale, though some sales are 2/1.
Having an acre to play with is wonderful. I’m so happy for your bounty and the fresh air and back-to-nature lifestyle it offers you! And all the BERRIES! Yay!
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Lance, my tiny currant jelly supply is already spoken for, but I have found that currants are a delightfully easy crop to grow. They take practically no work, are simple to harvest and bear heavily. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of currants to make much of anything.
Where do you live? I know some areas have problems with a virus called “white pine blister rust”, which causes minor problems for currants but is lethal for 5-needle pines. Currants are banned where these pines are grown for lumber. I thought it was only black currants that were banned, but some sources say all currants are forbidden. I got my plants from “One Green World” nursery. I wonder if you could grow a currant bush in a half-barrel….
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This is the best series on the web, or at least the PF part of the blogosphere. It’s very interesting. And the pictures are to die for. You should attach a “deliciousness” value to each harvest, to show the true value of the wonderful produce you’re growing.
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I’d buy red currants and gooseberries from you… They are such a deficit here in the US, much as sour cherry is. Anybody knows why it is so? They are all over European markets and stores, but in the US you cannot get them anywhere but on a rare farm or farm market.
I used to drive for 2 hours to a farm to pick up sour cherries, red currant and gooseberries, but passed on it this year – given the prices at the farm and the cost of gas, they might as well be golden.
So does anybody has an explanation why there is such a deficit of these berries in the US?
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I wonder if you are also “tracking” the other benefits of this project – the satisfaction of being at least partially self-sustaining, the time you and your wife spend together tending the garden, the peace that comes with having your hands in the soil. I travel a great deal for extended periods for business but when I can, even if it is a tomato plant in a container, I try to garden. I have never tracked the time taken and money saved but I know how much it means to my state of mind to tend a living thing and get my hands in the soil. One year for instance I had a tomato crop that I swore ended up costing me about $7 per tomato however the joy I got from the process was worth every cent!
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Those berries look good!
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recipes? please?
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Has anyone ever read “The $64 Tomato”?
Interesting book!
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I am fascinated by your garden report. I am an obsessed novice, working on getting my garden beds in before winter. Every heard of Square Food Gardening? Seems to take less time with great results. I’ve been frequently the u-picks near me and canning like crazy. I love Pomona Pectin, and I use honey instead of sugar with great results. Thanks for sharing!
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The raspberries at my folks’ house actually didn’t winter very well this year – we got some temperatures into the -50 w/ windchill, and almost all the plants that are usually good for that ‘zone’ that were along one side of their house died and didn’t come back, or they came back poorly. unfortuantetly that also included their massive patch of raspberry bushes… the ones that did come up were bitter.
i think what they usually do in the fall is to wait for the plants to dry up a bit, and then cut down to the point just before they see ‘life’ or green… then let them be until spring.
they do the same with their clematis as well – and it sprung back this year with a vengeance.
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“Freezing grated zucchini”? That sounds like a good way to get rid of the stuff. But what do you use it for once grated? I’ve never frozen zucchini (courgette) before.
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LOL. I caught the Rosings Park reference right away. My wife and I love to watch the mini-series that was produced by A&E. (The one starring Colin Firth). Excellent adaptation. I confess I haven’t read the book since high school though, and I’m sure I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
My wife and I don’t have space for a garden so we tend to visit farmer’s markets on the weekends. I much prefer to buy local.
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Wow! Great post. I am lazily following your tallying instead of tallying my own efforts — it’s such a great idea.
For those craving currants, I’d suggest contacting local u-pick places — that’s where we found ours last year. Great for freezer jam. I make it in the bread machine – soooo easy and nothing to heat up the kitchen.
I think one of the great satisfactions is growing food you wouldn’t buy. Would you pay $6 a pound for snow peas? Yikes! But with your own garden, you can snack on them to your heart’s content …
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your writing about personal finance has helped inspire me to get out of debt, and now this year long series about your garden is inspiring as well. I don’t have a place to garden at present, but would absolutely love to. My goal is to find a patch of land somewhere over the next few months to try something similar to this next year… Thanks for taking the time to write!
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I commend you on documenting your activities so thoroughly! This is a very interesting project.
I couldn’t help but notice, though, that you don’t seem to be getting much financial renumeration for your time. In fact, based on the numbers you posted, if you take just your gross harvest amount of $349 and divide by total hours spent, 78, this amounts to about $4.47 per hour. If you account for your costs, so far you are losing money for every hour worked. That may change over the next couple months as you continue to harvest.
I know that this wasn’t the point of the original post. But I susupect ultimately you may find you wind up in the hole.
Obviously you enjoy gardening and that plays a role too. But I’d like to pose the question…what if, say instead of working on your own garden, started a business tending other people’s gardens? If you charged $10/hour and spent the same amount of time you’d have gross income of $780 doing something you enjoy anyway….and the expenses would be paid by your clients also.
Just a thought!
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Lovely fruit! The TipNut blog has links to some free printables for canning-jar labels: http://tipnut.com/canning-jar-labels/. Thought you might like them for your preserving/jamming purposes.
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Would you have honestly purchased all of the food you are consuming? You would have otherwise purchased? Our garden produced 8 lbs of green beans, I ate them all, but wouldn’t have otherwise purchased this many. Therefore in this analysis I would have only counted the 2 lbs I would have bought.
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Any possibility Kris might share her bean pickling secrets/methods? I’m on green bean overload…
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I love the reader questions on our gardening project! To answer a few: the food we get from the garden during the harvest season replaces foods we might otherwise buy. So, for example, I probably wouldn’t have purchased 12 pounds of cherries, but since I have them, I’m going to be taking cherries for lunch instead of buying bananas at the store. And by preserving and drying cherries for later, I spread out the savings throughout the year. Likewise, I wouldn’t want to keep up with the bean, zucchini and tomato crops when they’re in high production, by eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I can them, freeze them, dry them, etc. I think food preservation is a must once your garden gets to a certain size, otherwise too much food can go to waste.
The suggestion (#20) to forgo our own garden and go into the garden-care business for other people sends shivers down my spine! That would make it work! At the moment, gardening is not a chore, it’s a labor of love, and the delicious food is all the payment I desire.
Here’s the recipe for my pickled beans. They usually get rave reviews (alas, not from Jd, who won’t eat green beans– isn’t he picky!) If you like them spicy, you can put a small red chile in each jar.
Pickled Green Beans
2 pounds fresh thin green beans, trimmed
4 large cloves garlic, peeled & smashed
4 tsp. dill seed, or 8 heads fresh dill blossom
4 inch-long pieces of peeled fresh ginger root
4 tsp salt
2 ½ cups white vinegar
2 ½ cups water
Cut green beans to fit inside pint canning jars. This recipe makes 4 pint jars.
Steam the green beans for about 3-5 minutes, until tender but still firm. Plunge into ice water and drain well. (this makes them a bit pliable so they’re easier to work with and also stops enzymatic action so they stay crispier)
Place 1 clove garlic, 1 piece of ginger, 1 tsp salt and dill into each hot, sterilized jar. Pack beans in, trimming any that are a bit too tall.
Heat together vinegar and water until boiling. Pour over beans, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims, add lids and bands. Discard any extra vinegar/water or save up to a week in the refrigerator for your next batch.
Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Allow at least 3 months for the flavor to develop.
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So jealous! Our garden rarely amounts to more than a 24-hour buffet for the wildlife–even with fencing.
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That Kris is one hard-working lady!
I’m envious of all the berries.
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An inspiring spread of berries you have there! You or Kris need to share some berry recipes.
We’re going to try a garden next year. I fear our brown thumb abilities (rather than green thumb).
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Just f.y.i. re: poor raspberry crop. I have recently read that raspberry canes are biennial. Which means that they grow one year and produce the next. The best way to prune them is to prune the canes that have recently produced. I just planted a couple of raspberry bushes this year, so I haven’t yet put this information to practice.
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[More on the zucchini thread...]
Do you need to blanche the grated zucchini before you freeze it? Some veggies have enzymes that cause them to deteriorate, even when frozen, don’t they? Or is grated zucchini OK?
[Karen - I'm not sure biennial is the right term, but some raspberries, along with quite a few other fruit trees/bushes, fruit on the previous year's growth, so it's important not to prune off the new growth. Except for shaping, etc., when you are prepared to accept some loss of fruit for a longer term strategy. Note that this depends to some extent on your type of raspberries as some late croppers fruit on the growth from earlier in the current year.]
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