Welcome to the GRS Garden Project. Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for August 2011. (Here are the results for 2008 and the results for 2009. We rested in 2010.)
August finally felt like summer here in Portland. The entire month was sunny and warm, and there was very little rain. The garden rewarded us with productivity. Our harvest in August wasn’t huge, but we expect to pick a lot of fruits and vegetables in September.
A harvest of beans
Still, we did begin to harvest many favorites, including nearly four kilograms (or nine pounds) of green beans! Our harvest for August included:
- Zucchini: 29 at $0.50 each = $14.50 (plus nearly as many donated to friends)
- Tomatoes: 9.01lbs (4.090kg) at $1.99/lb = $17.93
- Green beans: 8.68lbs (3.959kg) at $0.99/lb = $8.59
- Peas: 2.88lbs (1.309kg) at $1.69/lb = $4.87
- Cucumbers: 22.25lbs (10.102kg) at $1.49/lb = $33.15
- Yellow onions: 2.52lbs (1.144kg) at $0.99/lb = $2.49
- Jalapeño peppers: 14 at $0.50 each = $2.80
- Elderberries: 3.52lbs (1.599kg) at $2.99 per pint = $16.45
- Blackberries: 2.60lbs (1.182kg) at $1.99 per pint = $5.97
That’s a total of $89.45 worth of food harvested from our yard, and that doesn’t include the stuff we gave to others or that we harvested from elsewhere.
For instance, Kris and her friends picked apples at the house next door. We ended up with about 50 pounds of fruit, enough to can three gallons of juice and four pints of apple butter. Plus, Kris picked enough roadside blackberries to make two batches of jam. Yum!
Speaking of canning, Kris has been hard at work storing up the food from our yard (and from the local produce stand). She’s canned zucchini bread-and-butter pickles, dill pickles, ginger pickled beans, and a variety of jams. She entered some of last year’s goods in the county fair, and came away with prizes for her plum jam, bread-and-butter pickles, and pickled carrots. Plus, her sour cherry jam won a special award. (It’s just that good!)
The products of a single canning session
We’re looking forward to a big harvest in September. The forecast is for hot, clear days, which should keep our garden producing. Our fruit trees are laden with apples, plums, and pears, and there are still blackberries to be picked. Plus, by the end of the month (or perhaps early in October), we’ll start to harvest grapes.
It’s a wonderful time of year to be a gardener.
Weeds
This month, the cats weeds got out of control. As you’ll recall, we used to have four cats weeds but one died last February. We were doing fine with three, but when my mother had to move out of her home, we adopted her two cats weeds, giving us five. That’s a lot of weeds.
To make things more interesting, if you follow my personal blog, you know that we’re dealing with a new weed over the past ten days. A rabbit appeared in our yard one morning and adopted us (and our cats) as his own.
Two new weeds in our garden: Silver and Blackberry
Nobody in the neighborhood claims this rabbit weed, nor have our attempts to find his owners on-line come to fruition, so Blackberry (as we call him) is living on our property for now. He’s a cute little sucker, as this video demonstrates:
That’s enough weeds for now, though. We don’t have room for any others!
Yearly Totals
We had no expenses during August, and we worked very little in the garden. Our only time was spent harvesting. Here are this year’s totals through the end of the month. (Note that I’m using a Google spreadsheet to keep track of this data. Posting a screenshot of this is much easier than updating an HTML table by hand.)
Final word
This garden project is not a formal experiment. Kris and I are long-time hobby gardeners, and we have set ways that we do things. This year, we’re trying to incorporate some new ideas from GRS readers, but most of the time we’ll do things the way we have for more than 15 years.
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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This article is about Food, Frugality, House and Home
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Is it possible to get the plum jam recipe?
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Our neighbor has a Damson plum tree and this delicious plum jam is worth the effort to make. Getting the tiny pits out of the tiny fruit, though, is quite tedious! If your plums are of a different variety, look for a suitable recipe elsewhere.
This recipe is from The Joy of Jams and Jellies by Linda Ziedrich (this is a great book, as is her pickling book) for Damson Jam.
2 pounds Damson Plums (still with pits)
1/4 cup water
about 2 cups sugar
Put the plums and water into a wide skillet and simmer, covered, about 15 minutes until their skins have burst and juices run out. Uncover and simmer 10 minutes more, stirring, until pits have separated from the flesh.
Remove from heat and either press the mixture through a colander or food mill or individually pick out the pits. Measure volume of the pulp.
Return pulp to wide skillet and add 3/4 cup sugar for each 1 cup of pulp. Over medium heat, stir until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to medium-high and cook until it reaches a set point (check to see when a drop gels when put on a chilled plate).
Ladle into jars and add lids and rings. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Makes about 3 1/2-pint jars.
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“Still, we did begin to harvest many favorites, including nearly four kilograms (or nine pounds) of green beans!”
I was just wondering, why are you reporting quantities in kilograms first? Don’t tell me America is now being conquered by that ghastly metric system. I’ve lived in several metric countries, but I love units like ounces, pounds, inches and feet, because they’ve clearly developed naturally in relation to the sizes and quantities people actually use, not the mistaken assumption that everything in life is divisible by ten.
That being said, for the first time I have grown my own cucumbers this year and I would totally recommend it to anyone, not just for financial reasons. The work involved was minimal, and it was really convenient just to be able to step outside and pick a new cucumber instead of having to add it to my list for the grocery store.
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Hi Annelise,
Even though I have lived in the US and can kind of figure out those pounds, I appreciate JD posting the kilos to help his European readers out
However unnatural the metric system seems to you, to me it is a logical system that doesn’t require me to remember correlations between different measurements, since the correlation is always divide / multiply by 10.
Maybe you have some answers to my questions on these measurements:
- I was really puzzled in grocery stores when I wanted to compare the price of vinegar by the price per unit and one bottle’s price per unit was for ounces and the other bottle’s price per unit was for pints. Is that just a store mistake or a common thing? I couldn’t compare at all haha.
- How do you know how much of a vegetable / flour / whatever you have to buy if your recipe’s ingredients are listed in volume measurements (cups) but the packaging of the products in the store have a weight measurement and you have to weigh the vegetables as well? I would love to hear your advice on this, since I have a few American cookbooks that I want to use more often, but the measurements get me confused… I know that there are online conversion websites where you can how much a cup of rice weighs, but you can’t possibly be researching that every time you go to the store… Do you just eyeball it?
JD, sorry for getting a bit off topic I also have a question for you or maybe for Kris. It’s actually a bit related to my off-topic questions! I was wondering what the rules are on substituting canned vegetables in recipes that call for fresh vegetables. Do you have any advice?
The rabbit is cute
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@ Joke – I think your example of the two bottles of vinegar priced in different units sounds like a mistake or a careless grocery store. And as for volume measurements such as cups, I find those easier as you can work them out by eye rather than weighing everything. But I suppose recipes could be written with weights in ounces or pounds too.
@ J.D. I was going to write more on your use of metric units since it jarred with me, but stopped in order to get on to the topic of growing vegetables. But anyway, YOU might like metric units, but why force that on your readers (or in this case, jar the reader by putting their usual units in parentheses)? I can’t imagine it’s because you’re trying to appeal to an international audience, since most of the other information on this site is U.S.-specific. As for how ounces, pounds etc. relate to the real world, there’s a great book I once read called “About The Size Of It” by Warwick Cairns which explains it all. In France they once tried “metric time”, with ten-hour days, ten-day weeks and ten-month years, but they abandoned it because it just didn’t work in real life. I think that’s why the U.S. and (to a lesser extent) the UK still cling to the old units. They just work. And lastly, I think degrees celsius is a terrible system – go up just a few degrees and the difference (as perceived by humans) is enormous. Again, metric is fine for laboratories but isn’t right for human beings in their daily lives. Sure, people will use metric units when they are forced to, but that’s precisely why I’m so proud of my American heritage – Americans are far too freedom loving to have foreign units imposed on them by government. It made me laugh a little that you’re re-educating yourself – you’re doing the totalitarians’ work for them!
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How are ounces and pounds (or inches and feet) naturally related to anything, Annalise? They seem just as arbitrary to me as the metric system, and far more confusing. I rarely need a calculator when I’m working with metric units, but I often do when I’m working with Imperial units. Metric measures seem far more natural to me. I’ve been working to gradually convert my mental framework to mental, and after about five years, that’s how I do most of my thinking. (Exception: I still use miles instead of kilometers, but I’m working on it.)
If I could encourage the U.S. to adopt just one metric unit, it would be to use celsius/centigrade for temperatures. So easy to do, and it makes so much more sense!
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For what it’s worth, J.D., I use both US cup measurements and metric and if anyone so deeply dislikes an inanimate, neutral form of measurement that’s their problem (if quite disturbing to other readers in the manner it was expressed… honestly, I am quite uncomfortable with that inflexible, extremist outburst.)
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Here here! I adore the metric system. I wish the US would adopt it.
As to comments that it doesn’t make intuitive sense, that’s just because you aren’t used to it. Everyone has an idea of how much liquid 2 Liters are (think large soda bottle). If we used the metric system, it would make just as much sense to you as pounds and cups.
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@ lyf – Whenever discussing the metric system, metric fanatics always use that “get a life”/”who cares?”/”why are you getting so upset?” argument…. while getting *extremely* upset and caring a lot that someone dares express their dislike of the metric system! Oh, the irony
We use these units all the time in our daily lives. They matter. If you don’t care, why post here?
And @ Kimberly, I’m perfectly used to the metric system, since, as I said, I’ve lived in several metric countries. It’s my experience of using the metric system that made me realise how awful it is – lots and lots of measuring things out with strange-looking numbers of grams and millileters, for example, when I could easily measure out quantities by eye or hand if the recipes had been in U.S. units. I’ve already suggested a fantastic book which explains why pounds, ounces etc. just feel “right” and how they developed over centuries of real life. And in my experience, metric countries often keep a load of “unofficial” traditional units (Japanese tatami mats, Dutch “ons” and “pond”, Korean “pyeong” and inches for screen sizes) – why would they do that, if metric units are so wonderful.
And by the way, I forgot to say, recently got some free thyme seeds on a packet of butter. We now have lovely fresh – and free – thyme in our (non-metric) meals.
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You honestly are asking how *feet* are related to anything in nature? Look down. Take off your shoe.
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My foot is 4 sizes larger than my best friend’s. The foot as related to the human foot makes little sense, except in a very general ‘its roughly more or less this long’ way. The idea of what it was is much different than the reality. That’s why metric was invented. Metric is the same everywhere, across all kinds of measurement (multiples of 10), across different countries and cultures. No ‘Imperial vs. American’ gallons etc., As someone who was taught and has grown up with both systems, I find it makes far more sense than having to remember the number of inches in a yard (which was supposedly based on the measurement from some old king’s middle finger to his nose when his arm was fully extended?!). Besides which, Its J.D.’s blog, he can use the Kelvin scale for temperature if he desires to. If any of us don’t like it, there are thousands of other blogs out there to read. And thousands of conversion scales and sites as well.
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“Besides which, Its J.D.’s blog, he can use the Kelvin scale for temperature if he desires to. ”
Sure he can. He could also write the blog in Swahili, or list the ten best savings accounts in Papua New Guinea, but it wouldn’t be very useful to most of his readers. Nor is it particularly considerate to start using a system of units that the majority of his readers don’t use. That was the point I was making.
And this “it’s difficult to remember the number of ounces in a pound” argument is very tired. That would be like forgetting your own age or the number of brothers or sisters you have or your house number, just because they’re not divisible by ten.
At least admit that you care about what system of units we use, rather than pretending you don’t mind either way while promoting metric. I’d respect you more if you did.
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Here in CT the garden was a complete disaster this year. We had way too much rain early on so what didn’t drown got blight, then whatever was left hurricane Irene demolished. Out of 30 tomato plants I think we had 12 salvageable tomatoes. Very disappointing.
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More than the tomatoes we got this year just north of you in MA. Very disappointing this year
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I did find about 100 green and mangled tomatoes here and there after the storm… in places where tomatoes belong like the window frame, inside the lawnmower blades, on a tree branch and stuck to the fence. It looks like I threw a tomato launching party!
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Glad to hear you had such good results. My tomatoes, like most on the East Coast, were a complete failure. But my green beans, and peas were unexpectedly fertile. Reading your gardening experiment has inspired me to add more fruit next year, including dwarf peach, columnar apple, blueberries and possibly blackberries and/or raspberries. But we’ll have to see how far my motivation gets me with a new baby expected at the beginning of next year’s planting season.
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Blackberry is the cutest. volunteer. bunny. EVER.
That is all.
D.B.
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Blackberry is cute as can be. Looks like you could hire him and some of his friends to keep your yard trimmed.
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Thanks for the garden update! Always love to read about them.
What a sweet bunny. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get any replies to your flyers – rabbits are the 3rd most abandoned pet in North America (after cats and dogs). I’ve been involved in rabbit rescue groups since I was a teenager and have seen many, many cases first hand where people will just dump a domestic rabbit because they are tired of them, the bunny chewed a wire, a baby came along etc.
Please, please, please contact your local rabbit rescue group (in Portland it is Rabbit Advocates: http://www.adoptarabbit.org/) talk to them about options for the bunny. They also have lots of great info on their website about rabbits, their personality and care.
I saw on your other blog that you are considering keeping the bunny as an outdoor pet. **Please do not do keep the rabbit as an outdoor pet**. Rabbits are incredibly social animals and being cooped up in a cage outdoors, away from you, is not a good life for them. Predators coming near the cage at night can literally frighten a rabbit to death. Domestic rabbits are not equipped to survive free outdoors like their wild counterparts.
For more information on keeping rabbits outdoors please read this page on the House Rabbit Societies website: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/outdoors.html
The entire website is full of fantastic information about rabbit care and is the best place to go for anyone considering getting a rabbit as a pet.
Rabbits make absolutely wonderful pets, they are as personable as cats or dogs, but they are also at least as much work to care for, with special health requirements that not all vets are familiar with. Anyone considering having a rabbit for a pet needs to be committed to educating themselves about all aspects of bunny care.
Good luck with the little guy, and keep us posted on what happens to him!
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Heather, thanks for the info. The link to the local group didn’t work for me when I clicked on it. In case any others have that issue, copying below without the extra slash
http://www.adoptarabbit.org
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Yes! This! The bunny is adorable, but he’s clearly not a wild bunny, and is really not equipped to live “wild” outdoors. I have had pet rabbits for a long time (both indoors and in cages outside), and completely agree that they make much more satisfactory pets indoors. A lot of people don’t believe it, but they really do have very developed, very individual personalities. They are very smart, and love to play with toys. Please, please contact the rescue group!
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I LOVED the video of Blackberry! He is adorable. I do wish you’d reconsider keeping him inside at night though – I worry that something will eat him.
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CUTE BUNNY!!!!! What a blessing that it knew to choose your safe and happy home!!
Please do consider making it a semi-indoors bunny when winter comes. I know several people who have bunnies without cages in their homes – they run around just like cats. And some even use a litter box. Or you can use a porch or screened in area. At the least, an insulated dog house or something to keep it warm in winter. And lots of food once its natural sources have gone away for winter.
Also, for what it’s worth, your gardening project would be showing a much bigger return in lots of the country! For example, I definitely can’t buy decent tomatoes for $1.99 a pound in DC. They are at least $2.99, often $3.99, and organic or heirloom can be even more.
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I’m returning to gardening after a 14 year absence. I have some tomato, zucchini, bell pepper and basil plants in large pots, whereas previously they were in raised beds. And I lived in an area that was maybe 10 degrees warmer. Still, with the unseasonably cool weather and late rains in June, the yield has been lower than I remember when I had a veg garden years ago. Still, what I have received has been yummy. Not tracking costs, but I suspect it is fun as a hobby but not sure about the economics due to the yield.
Also, about the bunny, so very cute. Love how bunny interacts well with kitty and is free-roaming. It’s sad when they’re abandoned and left to fend for themselves.
Although, JD, I was disappointed in seeing the screen flash up that bunny can stay but you’ll only provide table scraps. What if bunny gets sick and needs medical attention?
I know, you’re not responsible for him being abandoned. But, if you decide he is “yours” (you’ve already given bunny a name) then I urge you to be fully responsible for Blackberry and to educate yourself on what is needed to provide for Blackberry’s needs (as if you really went through a formal process to adopt Bunny from a rescue organization)
If you’re not in a position to do that, please reach out to a local rescue group to see what help can be provided for Blackberry.
Unlike a true wild bunny, Blackberry is an abandoned pet and may not be able to survive life like a wild animal.
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Goodness, I’d say Blackberry is lucky to have happened upon a friendly garden — and especially friendly cats! That bunny would not have been so lucky in my neighborhood. He is not their responsibility now just because he came to their yard and they are nice enough not to chase him off! They have their share of pets already — infact more than allowed where I live.
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Beautiful beans!
I have a small container garden on my balcony. The only useful food I grow is lettuce. While lettuce is inexpensive at the grocery here, I enjoy being able to make a small salad from the bevy of greens I grew myself! The other things I grow are parsley, basil, carrots, baby bell peppers, chives, and lavender. I have a cucumber plant finally getting larger but not expecting much from him.
I don’t track my harvest, but I track my expenses. I spend no more than $25/month, though normally it comes out to $25 over two or three months. It’s a fun project!
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Gotta jump in here , rabbits are low guys on the food chain and have PREY written on their backs in bold letters. Take the little dude in or call a rabbit rescue group. You folks will be pretty distressed if you find him dead in the garden one morning.
And he is so damn cute!
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Warning: posting of bunny rabbit video in article may distract readers.
No one is actually reading this article. We are just looking at the bunny. Very cute! ; )
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Spring just officially hit down under so I’m about to start digging over the veg patch (tend to leave it alone in winter to much frost) and plan on getting the tomatoes and other summer vege’s in shortly.
We used to have a pet rabbit, he was house trained to a litter box just like a cat and used to love laying on the lounge in summer in front of the air conditioner…talk about personality
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Bunny is going to help fertilise your garden- rabbit poop is excellent for nutrient hungry plants like squash.
Speaking of squash, I wish mine would give up its dream of total garden domination and just make some squash already! All I’m getting is more and more vines and leaves, and I can see the buds forming, but no flowers or fruit as yet.
My success this year was corn. Probably a completely alien concept to an American- I have NEVER seen corn growing. It was kind of magical watching the male flower spring out on top and then seeing the female tassel appear underneath and then watching the cob swell. Plus it tastes amazing raw, straight off the plant while the kernels are still full of sugars.
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Hi JD,
Might want to check the math on your harvest!
I see that you list 14x J. Peppers at $0.50 each. That’s $7 not $2.80
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Some folks have mentioned JD taking the bunny to an animal rescue group. But, then it seems the chances are high that some idiot person will stick the bunny in a sad cage – often bunny cages are just a few times bigger than the bunny itself. This breaks my heart. Bunnies are meant to run free, like cats, not to live isolated in tiny cages for the enjoyment of humans. This bunny is so happy in the backyard – I’d rather live free and a shorter time than live longer in a cage. Obviously, the bunny will need some protection in winter. And I think it’s ethical to keep a bunny indoors if it’s free and allowed to run around like a cat.
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Blackberry is a very cute bunny, congratulations on the new garden guest! Friends of mine who have house bunnies recommend that if you want to pet or pick up Blackberry, the best strategy is to approach from the front and let the bunny see your hand coming. Bunnies have a hard-wired avoidance reflex for any movement coming at them from above (such as hawks) and following too closely behind (such as coyotes and foxes), so any such attempt is likely to result in failure and an unnecessarily alarmed bunny.
Cat/bunny interactions are very cute. Even though buns may be kitty prey, their body language is very different from that of cats, which is confusing and often freaks cats out. Buns tend to like cuddling with cats, but cats prefer to not reciprocate the interest.
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Some of your calculations for profits/savings are off.
The first one i noticed is Jalapeño peppers: 14 at $0.50 each = $2.80
It should be $7.
Sorry to nitpick, but you may have saved more money than you initially thought!
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