Someone asked me to follow up with a return-on-investment for my 2009 summer garden. The life of a homesteader, even a kitchen gardener, is a life of chance. There is a chance that the elements will be favorable and a chance that the elements will not.
The summer of 2009 was not a good one for farmers and gardeners in this area. A sudden, violent rainstorm dropped 19 inches of water onto my garden just as it was going good. The rain beat down many healthy plants and drowned many others. Most of the butter beans and all of the okra rotted in the field before they had a chance to produce a crop.
Then, before I could recover from that, a heat wave destroyed almost all of the corn crops and my daughter-in-law and I had to scramble to get the potato crop in before it, too, was ruined. We salvaged about half of the potato crop. I did manage to eek out the can-equivalent of the following.
Veg/ INVESTMENT Can equivalent *Cash-equivalent Profit
Potatoes $6.00............95 lbs. .....................$47.50............$41.50
Corn $4.50..................17.............................$16.15.............$11.65
English Peas $0.45......8..............................$6.00..............$5.55
Okra $0.28................**0................................0.................-$.28
Lima Beans $0.50........2..............................$1.70...............$1.20
Green Beans $0.68......10.............................$7.50..............$6.82
Tomatoes $12...............60............................$45.00............$33.00
*Based on the quality of product purchased for this household.
**What the rain didn’t wash away, the heat burned to a crisp. Last year okra was such a bumper crop, neighbors were sneaking into yards and anonymously leaving bags of it on doorsteps just to get rid of it. This year there wasn’t any. C’est la vie of a homesteader.
The final cost of the garden was $24.41. The estimated profit was $99.44. Of course, this does not take into account the cost of fuel for the tractor and the tiller or the cost of the electricity used to run the irrigation system. The water is from my own well so the water itself is free. Also not taken into account are the many, many hours of back-breaking hoeing, thinning, weeding and harvesting of the plants.
I suppose $99.44 is not enough profit for some. But for me, it was not only profit enough but the pleasure was immeasurable. I got farm-fresh food for many days before nature turned against my efforts. I also managed to freeze/preserve/can enough to get me and my family through the winter. Most importantly, what I did can or freeze was done so with no artificial preservatives and under conditions that I know for a fact were as clean and wholesome as humanly possible.
Will I do it again next year?
You darn betchya.
