Growing A Garden, How Much Money Is Saved???

I set myself to keeping records of garden harvest this year.  I mainly wanted to get an idea of possible cost savings, what plants give us the highest 'payback' and what we should focus on or not so much focus on in the future.
Fellow gardening friends should be encouraged too.  There are more benefits than just tastier food (as I am sure you know this).

So how much money did this rectangle of dirt grow?

Here is the breakdown, prices are from my local Stop & Shop grocery store (which I consider to be the local average price range).  Note that we grew everything organically which in the store is an even more expensive product than I have listed below, I used the regular produce price-

Red and Blue Potatoes:
Total weight grew- 23.5 lbs
Total savings @ $4.99/ 5lb bag = $23.45

Chips made from blue potatoes-

Garlic:
Total weight grew- 1lb 7oz (about 19 bulbs)
Total savings @ $6.34/lb = $9.51

Green Beans
Total weight grew- 9.6 lbs
Total savings @ $2.49/lb = $23.95

Soybeans (Edamame)
Total weight grew- 1.5lbs
Total savings @ $5.99/ 10 oz bag = $11.98

Sweet Corn
 Total weight grew- 30.6lbs (or 73 ears)
Total savings @ $2/dozen = $12.17

Corn beard-

Leaf lettuce
Total grew - roughly equivalent to 3 bunches (its still growing alittle)
Total savings @ $1.99/bunch = $5.97

Eggplant (Ugh, I'm still having nightmares about all the eggplants, a blog post about using it here)
Total weight grew - 32 lbs (or 82 fruits, but I threw and gave a bunch away)
Total savings @ $1.99/lb = $63.68
Note to self, grow less of these next year.

But the ratatouille was amazing.... and freezes well to make great soup fillers for the winter.

Beets
Total grew- 3 lbs (still some growing in the garden)
Total savings @ $3.49/1.5 bunch = $10.47

Heirloom Tomatoes
Total weight grew- 30 lbs (or 35ish tomatoes)
Total savings @ $2.99/lb = $90.76
~Note, this is an unfair price.  I used regular tomatoes price here instead of an heirloom tomato price.  There were no heirloom tomatoes for sell in the store at the time of my price gathering but I know the price for heirlooms would be more.  Pretty much I am saying, the total saving should be more.

Amish Paste Tomatoes (similar to Roma or Plum)
Total weight grew- 27 lbs
Total savings @ $1.99/lb = $54.31

Pickling Cucumbers
Total weight grew- 15.25lbs
Total savings = ?? store cucs were priced per fruit not pound, I did not keep count of the fruit but there were alot.  I canned 8 quarts worth of pickles and we ate fresh cucs almost regularly for lunch.

TOTAL savings all together = $305.26

To be fair I will factor in the seed and seedling expenses,  which comes to $43.13
So that would bring it down to $262.13.  I don't preserve alot of my seeds from previous plants nor do I hassle with growing some things from seeds for transplanting (like tomatoes).  I buy seedlings instead from a local nursery.  Those that do this will see even more savings than us.
I would like to add that I did not count some things (such as blueberries and sugar snap peas, that just provided maybe one meal or snack), nor did I include our cherry tomatoes, there were too many to count (and I am not growing them at all next year).  I also want to note that I messed up our highly anticipated heirloom sweet potato crop.  We were expecting a HUGE harvest, but I made a growing mistake for our region... it will be corrected next year.
For those overly analytical people, I did not log hours spent working in the garden (to know what our time is worth).  The reasons for gardening goes well beyond cost savings for us.

I thought the above information would be nice to share for encouragement to other people trying to grow their own food... whether large, medium or small operation.

For now though, all garden thoughts can rest.... then we will hit it up again next-

Making Homemade Pickles, Is It Worth It?

Sound the match bell.  Homemade pickles vs. store bought pickles are going to battle.... sort of.
Though this is an unfair matchup in regards to flavor I still wanted to give it a looksie.

VS

So like the other homemade vs. store bought battles, the criteria only looks at cost.  Does it save money?  Is it a good way to preserve some homegrown vegetables throughout the winter?

One disadvantage might be that my particular recipe uses more ingredients than some other homemade pickling recipes.  We personally love this one though so this is the one I use.  Recipe was given to me by Mr. Wood in upstate, NY.

Here is the breakdown of cost to make Mr. Wood's Garlicky Dill Pickle recipe (yes, I troubled myself with this math for curiosity sake):

Homegrown Pickling Cucumbers (estimate per cost of cuc from packet of seeds that cost $1.59)- $0.003 

Cider Vinegar- $0.177

Sugar- $0.23
Sea Salt- $0.23
Pickling Spice- $0.03
Fresh Dill- $0.56 (or easily grow your own) 
Garlic- $0.25 (or easily grow your own)
Seeded Rye Bread (yes this gets put in there)- $0.08

TOTAL- $1.56 / homemade quart of Garlicky Dills

compared to

TOTAL- $2.00 / pint (or $4.00 / quart) of standard store bought dill pickles

So $2.44 savings per jar of pickles!

From a quick search, here are the ingredients in one of the most common store brand dill pickles-

• Cucumbers, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Benzoate, Polysorbate 80, Natural Flavors, and Yellow #5.

Time should also be a consideration.  NOT counting cooling time of the brine, it takes me less than 30 minutes to make multiple batch of pickles.  They are easy, it basically just stuffing the jar with ingredients and pouring the brine over top.  Granted I don't technically can/seal the pickles, but with all the natural preservatives (such as salt and vinegar) I don't worry with refrigerating them constantly or worry about bacterial getting in my gasket lid mason jars.

So are homemade pickles worth it?  You can decide for yourself.  As for us, YES.   Pickles make for an easy snack we ALL enjoy and quick finger food for entertaining guests.

Beside, in our house cucumbers are more safe inside jars.... otherwise baby girl will find them and bite their heads off-

So consider me doing you a favor cucumbers-

A lovely story about pickles here- Tale of the Traveling Pickles

Keeping Chickens - Is It Worth It?

This post is solely based on OUR chicken farming 'experience' and if it has been worth it for OUR family.  There are too many factors otherwise to make a blanket statement that chickens are worth it for everyone's situation.  Just sayin'. :)

For inquiring minds, we only have a whopping number of 3 chickens at the moment.  Two Ameraucanas and one RI Red/Delware cross.  Not sure if thats even enough to classify as a flock?

The Cost of Keeping Chickens
We purchased our hens from local farmers as pullets (a young hen, less than a year old).  All three for $36 total.  We choose pullets over baby chicks because we didn't want to buy incubation/warming equipment, and wanted birds that would start laying that same season.  This also decreased the chances of accidently receiving a Rooster.
Chickens don't need much thankfully.  They need water, feed (less to none if allowed to free range) and shelter.  Our upfront cost for all chicken equipment was around $300.  Jonathan built a chicken coop from all new materials and we purchased a decent gravity feeder and waterer.  MTV Chicken Crib post here.

Our feed costs are low since they are typically free range/pastured most of the year.  We supplement with a natural feed (roughly $14 per 50lb bag) on days we don't let them out and through the winter.  Yearly feed costs are about $50 or less.

Cage Free, Organic, Vegetarian Fed, Free Range, Pastured?
I just want to briefly touch on the above egg carton labels.  From my reading there are no regulations on these labels.  So cage free could just mean not in a cage but still confined in a barn to feed.  Free range could mean close to the same thing, maybe some 'outdoor' time.  Organic means no hormones, meds, non natural chemicals, etc. including in their diet.  Vegetarian fed means just what it says..... but chickens are not vegetarians.... they're omnivores.  Pastured is the only label that means chickens are allowed to roam and forage in the outdoors.

Health Benefits  (I had to do math, which I dislike!)
The Incredible Edible Egg
Thankfully lots of research has been done to back this up.  As I mentioned in my pastured pork post, animals are what they eat.... so are hen's eggs.  The study listed at Mother Earth News says-
 "Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain: 

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
• 4 to 6 times more Vitamin D (their bodies convert the received sunlight to vitamin D, like humans do, which 'enriches' the egg)

Study from Mother Earth News article here.

So I did math for a side by side comparison showing the possible nutritional difference.  Mainly because I was a little skeptical if the above findings made a major impact.  Here's the breakdown that gave me a headache figuring it all out (stinking unit of measures).  I will let you decide if the difference matters to you.

Another note: This chart is based on my reading and research, I am NOT a doctor nor a certified smarty pants.  I did the best I could with what I found to provide only helpful insight.  Feel free to inform me of any mistakes, seriously.

Do Hens Earn Their Keep? (i.e. Pay For Themselves)
Our RI Red mix lays 1 egg a day almost every day of the year.  To be on the conservative side I will say she lays 330 eggs a year (since she misses some in the dead of winter and while molting).  The other two lay for three seasons, taking a break during winter and molting season.  So we'll estimate their laying at 233 eggs each per year.  That gives us a total of 796 eggs per year, or 66 dozen.  Think thats more than you can eat?  You would be surprised. (from a quick google search the average American eats 250 eggs per year, thats just one person to re-iterate my point, there are 4 egg liking people in our house).
The price of commercial eggs here is currently $2/dozen.  66 dozen (what we get in a year) at that price would be $132 yearly savings.
The price of local cage free or organic eggs (not pastured) here is currently $3.25/dozen.  66 dozen at that price would be $214.50 yearly savings.
Pastured egg are hard to find for purchase (they are not at my standard stops anyway).  A farm near me sell them for $6.50/dozen.  66 dozen at that price would be $429 yearly savings.

Hens will lay eggs for a solid three years then begin to teeter off, becoming less productive.  Using the cheapest egg price that would be $396 worth of eggs over three years.  So yes, they do pay for themselves.  Remember we only have three chickens, the more layers you have, the faster they would pay for themselves (again, in regards to our situation).  Lots of people sell their excess eggs which turns a profit even quicker.


Taste-
I can again vouch (as I did with the pastured pork) that pastured eggs taste is superior to store eggs.  Commercial egg's taste are noticeably bland in comparison.  Below is a picture comparison of the two, store bought on left, fresh on right-

Photo compliments of Flumgummerie Farm Blog

So I don't feel it is fully fair (in regards to worth) comparing commercial egg's price to pastured egg's price.  It's a higher quality product all around.

One last argument-
Since we have eggs constantly accessible, I have found that I cook with them more.  I make more meals with them (breakfast, lunch AND dinner), and take egg dishes to more potlucks.  Eggs do NOT just have to be breakfast meals, though we love breakfast for dinner, but paired with other ingredients can make amazingly and seemingly fancy dinners.  For example, to name a few-

• Top toast, asparagus, ham, swiss cheese and cream sauce with an over easy egg (Rachel Ray's more involved recipe here)
• Mix ricotta cheese and chives in with scrambled egg (ridiculous)
• Top lentils in a mustard vinaigrette with an over easy egg (could make lentil haters none haters, Jonathan LOVES this one)
• Top a steak with a fried egg (steak and eggs!)
• Add a hard boiled egg to a salad (Cob and Chef salads have it)

Anyone else have an egg dinner recipe to share, or any other egg dish they love?

Its nice having them on hand for kids lunches and those egg heavy desserts you might not usually make otherwise.

To end, I wanted to clear up a widespread misconception-  Commercial eggs are NOT fertilized, (can you imagine the poor Rooster in those large operations if this were the case) so you are NOT eating a baby chick.  Therefore....  you do NOT need a Rooster for your hens to lay eggs.

The end-

Chicken Tip:  The fluffy poof part under their tail is called a Vent.  A large Vent can be a sign of a good layer.  The one on the right is our most consistent layer.

Pasture Raised Pork, Is It Worth It?

To farm or not to farm?  Our family thinks farming/homesteading goes beyond trying to save money and possibly having healthier foods, it provides endless family activities and unmatchable learning experiences.

For me, growing up on a farm taught me what physical hard labor was and how to stick with completing something even when you didn't want to.  Note that I did NOT grow up on a full time job type farm where it was my family's sole income, it was a hobby-like farm, 200 acres of hobby.  It also taught me to respect nature and animals and know it's not your effort that gives success but God's grace.  We cannot make it rain, sun to shine, a seed germinate, livestock to stay safe and healthy... God makes that happen.

This preface is to point out that there is more to our homesteading decisions than the information below.  We DO consider the benefits of our investments, but their are some benefits that out weigh financial.  Also, we can only grow what our assets allow.

So with out further ado, is raising your own pork or purchasing pasture raised pork (vs. store purchased) worth it?


What is Pasture Raised Pork
Unfortunately this can be a misleading term since grass fed is all the rave these days.  Pasture raised pork means the pigs are not confined such as in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) but are allowed to roam free and most likely forage and dig in the dirt.
It DOES NOT MEAN that pigs are solely grass fed.  Pigs are omnivores therefore needing more than grass.  Pasture raised pigs are able to forage minerals and nutrients from the ground unlike CAFO pigs but they still need some protein supplement.

Health Benefits?
I put a question mark on this subtitle for a reason.  Arguing the health benefits for pastured pork is not as easy as arguing for grass fed beef.  Animals, in a sense, are what they eat.  Its not surprising that cows grazing solely on grass have lots of good nutrients in their meat.  Even their fat has good nutrients for you (such as Omega-3s).  Pigs, as said above, cannot graze solely on grass.  From my experience they actually prefer the stuff under the grass such as roots and bugs and such.  Foraging pigs can take in more nutrients than confined pigs which will increase the nutrient quality of their meat but according to research it's not as substantial as grass fed beef.  This is mainly due to the need for protein supplementation.  Whether this supplementing is done with natural plant sources (some farms use acorns, soy beans, etc.) or grain; these sources still contain the type of fat (Omega-6) that research has deemed we need to consume less of (though we DO need some Omega-6 in our diet).  This ratio of higher Omega 6 to Omega 3 is why some say pastured pork is not worth it.
The bottom line for me is that our pigs go to the slaughter house healthy and happy, I know their diet contained more nutrients than confined pigs, they were never medicated and our slaughter house takes great care of their facility and the work they do (it's a family run, USDA certified place).

Is It Worth It To Buy?
I can only speak to the prices in our area (I live in southern New England).  I know prices can range widely depending on where you live.  I gathered the below prices from our 'standard' grocery store (our local butcher, who provides much better cuts, and high end grocery stores both have higher prices than these).  Also, note these are our last year's prices which we expect to be less this year after learning some helpful hints.

Almost across the board their prices are less per cut which should be expected.  Mass production farming can offer food at low prices, and I appreciate low cost food since food is a necessity for everyone.  Just like any product though, you get what you pay for.  I can honestly say (and I am not a saleswoman or a liar) that the difference in flavor and quality is noticeable.  Better quality meat (good marbling) and better quality processing (how its cut) makes for a better tasting product.  That's the best I can summarize it.
 

Christmas Rib Roast

And every once in a while, when the media tries to freak me out about bacteria in meat, fillers, hormones (though I believe hormones are not allowed in pork production), etc. I just don't have to think about it.  I know exactly step by step how our meat got to our freezer.
Quickly, I would like to point out that I am NOT against large scale farms.  I know this is a hot issue for some and I don't feel it's necessary to get into that here.  Just don't base your opinions off a few biased documentaries, it's not fair.

So, Is It Worth It To Raise Your Own Pork?
Money wise, it's close to equivalent for us.  We are probably not saving money.  I am saving time by not having to go to the grocery store as often though (this is huge to me).  All in all  it's a fairly easy YES.  Pigs are easy to care for and are pretty friendly.

I want to be clear that this post was not intended to persuade any of my local friends to by meat from us (we actually do not want to over whelm ourselves with too large of a pig production).  This post was solely to answer some questions we have been asked.

We plan to get at least 4 pigs this year (double from the 2 last year) and already have pre-sold a whole pig worth of meat.
We're looking forward to seeing those little piggies darting around the field in the coming months. :)