Poll:Growing food to save money (and other reasons)

[savory]

Love it! Have you had chickens before? I used to and hopefully will again someday. I will say that I definitely didn’t save any money on eggs by having them, but they were worth it. Entertaining to watch, ate most of our scraps, and made fertilizer for the garden.

No, I never had chickens. But where I was living in RSA, there were about 20 hens, 3 roosters, and 5 goats. They stayed on the property but we're mostly on their own. Given that we had no TV, radio, or other close by entertainment, they served as a distraction.

The 3 we will be getting is for fresh eggs. Our SIL has raised them in the past so he is experienced. Hope to save some money but either way is fine with us.

 

[pjigar]

The second option should say "handful of food plants"! I am land limited in my track housing so I grow what I can but if I had the land then I can see me growing over half of the food we eat. My motivation for growing the food are two fold:
1. I LOOOOVE gardening. It is miraculous and magical so see the life emerge and grow over a relatively short period and enjoy the fruits of it (literally).
2. I like to know how my food is grown. Growing my food is the best way to know what goes in the process.

By the way, I grow high yield, low space plants like peppers, okra, tomatoes, herbs, etc. We can a whole year's worth of hot pickled peppers which we love to eat.

 

[Totoro]

Frites in the Netherlands is probably good enough then!

Not really. It's not the same generally. Sauces are different too, the standard mayonaise is sweet which you can't even find in most places in Belgium which has lemon in it.

If you really want Bintjes (and yes, they rock for frites), you can grow them yourself - seeds seem to be for sale on Amazon.

If you fry them, here's the trick: you fry them in two sessions!

 

[Totoro]

Some locals will argue with you over that point, but that is like eating a Maine lobster in Portsmouth, NH. In any case, it's local.

Which locals? Belgians eat 65% of the Zeeland mussels production (!). Used to be poor mans food, nowadays much more upmarket. The Dutch have more a thing for their herring.

Belgium itself has almost no production to speak of by itself. A few attempts were made, not much dice. It's really part of the culture, quite a few local scouts have an annual 'mussels fest' fundraiser for example.

 

[Sue J]

DH has had a garden since he retired. It starts with great ideas and lovely seedlings and it goes downhill from there. This year’s success was the cherry tomatoes and the Japanese eggplant but the 2 green pepper plants produced one pepper each. He tried okra for the first time. Nice plants and plenty of buds, but if you don’t pick them small they very quickly turn into large tough inedible pods. Years ago he planted asparagus. Never could catch those tender shoots on the correct day so he lets them grow into an interesting fern type thing.

The last couple of years his biggest success is sunflowers. They grow tall and showy with large heavy heads that attract plenty of birds like goldfinches and plenty of bees. DH feels like his gardening is more beneficial for the bees than for our food, which is fine.

Other years he tried zucchini, cucumbers or yellow squash. We enjoyed the first couple batches and then quickly became overwhelmed with volume and veggies that grew too big to be usable.

He still enjoys the tilling, weeding, watering but the birds and bees get more out of it than we do.

 

[braumeister]

Belgians eat 65% of the Zeeland mussels production

I've read that over 60,000 tons are consumed annually in Belgium, and as you say, practically all come from Zeeland.

To be fair, I love the Dutch herring nearly as much!

 

[sengsational]

I figure growing your own food is a little like brewing your own beer...even if you put a fraction of minimum wage on your time, it's cheaper to buy.

Back in the old days, when you couldn't get good beer, it was worth it. Now, it's got to be a "fun hobby" for people to continue. I imagine that gardeners, now that they can get organic heirloom varieties at the (right) store, it's got to be "fun" to garden to make it worth it.

 

[CardsFan]

Which locals? Belgians eat 65% of the Zeeland mussels production (!). Used to be poor mans food, nowadays much more upmarket. The Dutch have more a thing for their herring.

Belgium itself has almost no production to speak of by itself. A few attempts were made, not much dice. It's really part of the culture, quite a few local scouts have an annual 'mussels fest' fundraiser for example.

I've read that over 60,000 tons are consumed annually in Belgium, and as you say, practically all come from Zeeland.

To be fair, I love the Dutch herring nearly as much!

My first comment about "some locals might might argue the point" was referring to the source (Belgium vs Netherlands), and was based solely on my experience with the Belgian culture. Seeing the numbers, I am probably wrong on that point.

As far as the moules being local, I stand by my comparison to a maine lobster in New Hampshire

 

[braumeister]

As far as the moules being local, I stand by my comparison to a maine lobster in New Hampshire

Oh, there's no question about that.

Although lobsters from Nova Scotia and PEI might be bigger and better.

 

[NW-Bound]

I forgot to say that we do not grow food to save money. Just can't. Here in the Southwest, produce is just so cheap being brought up from Mexico, or grown in the Imperial Valley.

My wife likes growing as a pastime, and what we spend on soil amendment, fertilizer, and water can never make enough compared to what we pay at a local store. Examples: $0.99 for 3 lbs of tomato, or 3 lbs of onion, or 5 cucumbers, or 3 lbs of apple, etc...

Yes, the stuff we grow often tastes better, but the yield is so low that we would either die of starvation or spend $300/month on water. Remember that this is the arid SW.

WOW! If I could get $0.99 produce like that, I'd be thrilled...

Yes, the standard sale price at a local market is $0.99 for 3 lbs, and it can be tomato, onion, banana, apple, whatever is in season ... Occasionally, we see $0.99 for 5 lbs of onion. When avocado is in season, we can get 5 small avocados for $0.99. Or 3 bell peppers when they are in season. Now, the fruits are small and cannot compare to the large "premium" size elsewhere, but we have found that the smaller size works out well for the ration of one for lunch.

I recently read somewhere that a huge amount of produce is thrown away each year because buyers want only the "best". Heck, we don't care.

To show how expensive veggie can get in places where it cannot be grown, I will post a photo I took in the recent trip to Alaska. Again, I can get 2 or 3 of these bell peppers for $1, or 5 cucumbers.

 

[HFWR]

Since FIRE, I’ve abandoned all hope of gardening. Disappearing for 2-3 weeks at a time means plants get no attention, or water...

 

[Beer-man]

We have 6 4x8 beds and have grown for 6yrs. Year round as we are in the south. Even with composting we have to amend the soil and fertilize, I’d say we break even $ wise.
Our kids love Vegas and I give credit to them being so involved in our gardening. We just harvested sweet potatoes and by we I mean my 2 and 6 yr old. They had so much fun digging through the soil to find sweet potatoes. Pulled about 60 sweet potatoes out

 

[LOL!]

My in-laws have a serious 40 x 60 ft garden of vegetables. They trade vegetables for meat and wine, too. Add some fishing and they are self-sustaining as long as they have electricity for their freezers.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

We have 16 apple trees. Every fall we invite friends over to press cider. Last year I put about 20-gallons to ferment.

We have 90 high-bush blueberry plants they produce way more blueberries than any sane person would want.

We breed pigs. We have made the transition from home-butchering for ourselves, to hauling them to a licensed processor for retail pork.

I am a beekeeper.

I sell farm produce in a Buyer's Club and my wife is a vendor at a Farmer's Market.

 

[pjigar]

Since FIRE, I’ve abandoned all hope of gardening. Disappearing for 2-3 weeks at a time means plants get no attention, or water...

I use a water faucet timer and micro sprinklers to water my garden. No worries other then picking the produce

 

[pjigar]

I am a beekeeper.

Me too!

 

[Car-Guy]

None.


I planted a couple of vegetable gardens in the past. I suspect the cost of starter plants, dirt/mulch/fertilizers, fences and nets to keep the deer, birds and other critters out, plant stakes, tools, etc, ended up costing me more than the money I would have spent just buying better vegetables at the local Walmart. (Not to mention all the work).

 

[KB]

I have 5 4x8 beds at home where I grow a warm season garden of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and sometimes peppers. Cool season garden is beets, greens, carrots sometimes lettuce. I grow potatoes and garlic too. And I have a small strawberry bed and a few blueberry bushes.

I also work in a demonstration garden with 8 4 x 20 beds and a bunch of barrels. We grow lots more than I can at home, and I get to share some of the produce. There is an orchard on site that shares too, peaches, pluots, plums, asian pears and lots of berries and grapes.

So between the two gardens, I buy lettuce in the summer and occasionally potatoes after mine are gone, and onions. And tomatoes in the winter.

 

[davebarnes]

If you are concerned about grocery shopping, then you need to look way beyond growing your food.

 

[mountainsoft]

We have a 16'x24' garden but produce very few vegetables. We live in the forest so we're lucky to get 2-3 hours of sunlight on the garden each day. That really limits what we are able to grow. Potatoes seem to do OK with minimal sunlight, in fact, the potatoes we planted two years ago came back up on their own this year (we must have missed a few). Bush green beans seem to do fairly well too. I plant green onions and radishes every year but this is the first year in a decade that we've actually had any usable crop from them. Most other vegetables die shortly after planting, or never grow big enough to produce any crop. I did grow a 1" head of broccoli once. We have two blueberry bushes that typically produce enough to snack on when we're out in the garden, that's about it.

We garden mostly for the entertainment. We can buy better groceries from the store, but we can't replace the forest we moved here for.

 

[audreyh1]

Not really. It's not the same generally. Sauces are different too, the standard mayonaise is sweet which you can't even find in most places in Belgium which has lemon in it.

If you really want Bintjes (and yes, they rock for frites), you can grow them yourself - seeds seem to be for sale on Amazon.

If you fry them, here's the trick: you fry them in two sessions!

This was in response to someone who traveled at 16 or 17 and didn't quite make the Belgium frites/fritjes.

 

[audreyh1]

I've read that over 60,000 tons are consumed annually in Belgium, and as you say, practically all come from Zeeland.

To be fair, I love the Dutch herring nearly as much!

Me too. Plus the smoked mackerel.

I'm told that mussels in Netherlands/Belgium come clean/debearded and ready to cook - just throw in the pot. In the US I don't make them even though I can get Penn Cove mussels, because it takes too long to clean them.

 

[audreyh1]

Since FIRE, I’ve abandoned all hope of gardening. Disappearing for 2-3 weeks at a time means plants get no attention, or water...

Same here - vegetable gardening, like pets, is not compatible with frequent travel. Our butterfly garden requires much less attention and no harvesting.

 

[Sunset]

Same here - vegetable gardening, like pets, is not compatible with frequent travel. Our butterfly garden requires much less attention and no harvesting.

This year I didn't plant any vegies, as we knew we would be traveling all summer.
Have to make a choice sometimes

 

[Fedup]

Yes for more than 30 years, but not to save money but for taste and convenience. I got exactly one corn since I got back, which is amazing.. One plant and one corn. I used to be able to harvest 80 corns per year. But I grow the usual vegs like cucumbers, tomatoes, squashes, beans. I have not been as successful here as when I was at my previous yard. I used to get boatloads of tomatoes every year. Lately just enough to eat, not much to give away.
However, despite our small yard, we have all kinds of fruit trees. I have 3 fig trees, 3 apricots, some Pluots, 1 nectarine, etc.. All total I have about 22 fruit trees. It’s good enough for an urban yard. I’ve just harvested a delicious Asian pear from my garden, unbelievable taste, so sweet and juicy. I can’t even get them taste this good at the farmers market.