Here’s the Dirt

Tags

compost, garden, garden prep, soil, spring, sustainability

A friend of mine asked me to help her plan a new vegetable garden in Texas, something I clearly have an interest in. Said friend asked questions like, what do I need, what do I buy, what tools do I get, what do I plant? All good questions.

Here is the thing. I feel like I have some kind of garden credentials. I have a garden, I’ve been successful, I carry a Master Gardener badge. All this adds up, but so often I think…do I really know what I am talking about? What, really, have I done other than try something and fail a lot? Maybe failure is the key to unlocking expertise?

This past week I have been doing some spring clean-up work around the property, and headed into the berry patch to tackle the unmanageable thornless blackberries. A prime example of what not to do: buy a bunch of plants without knowing anything about them. Boom. Blackberries. Without constant patrol (and control) we would have blackberry vines growing through our walls. I do have a lot of guilt sending transplants to my aunt and uncle in Minnesota years ago. I hope there is minimal resentment, or the plants died.

I also used glyphosate once a few years back on a mulch path when I was so overwhelmed with weed frustration. I hope this is a safe place to admit this. It has haunted me ever since.

My point here is, I do not know all the answers and I mess up a lot. I guess that makes me human, so they say?

There are a handful of decisions that I know were solid choices, and I’ve been thinking about one in particular: compost. High quality, local compost has been a life saver in so many ways. One of the questions my friend asked was “what soil do I use?” seemingly after she bought a single bag of potting soil for a raised bed.

To fill my beds initially, I purchased a 50-50 mix of top soil and compost. This is important, the compost should be good quality. Each year, I order 1-2 yards more to top each growing area to replenish organics in the soil (which does deplete each year). That’s it! That’s all! Rarely have I had to use any additional fertilizer on the garden (only the year I did not top dress the beds). Well-rotted compost is a perfectly balanced fertilizer, chemical free, and cost effective. It is very important to purchase HOT composted materials. While I am a big advocate of home composting/lazy composting, cold composting will not kill any pathogens or jumping worm eggs (yes those are a real scary thing…go to the internets!), so you do need some caution with use.

Fresh compost delivery with a rain blanket.

This one, friends, you can take to the bank.

In other news, four years ago I was duped into buying those fancy mushroom spawn-filled logs that you just toss in the back woods and 3 months later you have a veritable mushroom farm. Guess what? Blue Oyster mushroom popped up this spring out of NOWHERE. What a fun surprise! (Note: I’m going to assume from a safe distance these are blue oysters. I’m no mushroom expert.)

Surprise mushrooms!

 

What are you doing this early spring to ready the garden?

A Year of Backyard Food: A Study

Tags

cost savings, direct sow, fall, fruit, garden, heirloom, homemade, raised bed, spring, start indoors, sustainability, vegetables, winter

INTRODUCTION

Its that day once more, that day the ends the annual cycle of time, also known as my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday sis! It’s a pretty popular event; people all around the world celebrate by drinking profusely, declaring how the next year will be the one, and making out at midnight. I prefer to celebrate by eating dinner around 6pm and falling asleep promptly at 9pm once again disappointing CFO. He’s a party animal.

I’m not one for making these so-called resolutions, because I feel that it is a system of preplanned failure. If you ever bought a gym membership in January, you are not my people. But I respect your choices. I prefer to think upon the last year and note what worked, and what didn’t, and make some informed decisions of how I might make better decisions going forward. For example, last year I evaluated how much I have zero interest in cleaning my house, and how I have lots of interest in paying people to do it instead. That’s a “resolution” I am happy to keep going in 2017.

When it comes to the garden, I think about what worked, and didn’t work a lot in January. Mainly because its time to order seeds and get planning. One of my goals from last year was to keep track of what I grew and what I harvested. I was sure that growing food in the backyard is a financially stable way to eat better, but I have no evidence to support the statement. I wanted to do a season-long very unscientific study to prove my point, mainly to CFO, but also to the 22 people that might read this post. I am happy to say that not only did I complete my project, but also I am here, on December 31 to report the results.

HYPOTHESIS

Growing vegetables in one’s own backyard provides a cost savings over purchasing the same food in a grocery store. I know this might seem obvious, but food in this country is shockingly cheap. I felt as if my work was cut out for me.

METHODOLOGY

In order to report the findings as accurately as possible, I had to consider the costs to grow said food, as well as the market value of the food I harvested. I factored in all of the things I use to grow food: cedar for beds, compost, seeds, transplants, fertilizer, mulch, water, and also the grow light system I purchased to start my own. The only thing I did not include was labor. I mean, let’s face it. If I weren’t willing to donate my time this whole adventure would be pointless. I also think that the time I spent in the garden probably equals the amount of time I would otherwise navigate the produce aisle at my local store, which is about as easy to shop as a new IKEA during the grand opening.

For the harvest itself, I had to find a way to quantify the value of what I had, and the only way I could think was to compare it to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service produce commodity averages. This is an average of the countries produce costs at retail, and is published weekly. It worked pretty well for the common items, but for those odd duck veggies I grow (parsley root anyone?), I had to get more creative. I found an online co-op that published produced prices daily, and used that for a reference. Also, because I practice the general “organic” growing system, meaning I do not use anything on my crops that requires a gas mask, I opted to compare the produce to the organic rates. I know, I know…kind of unfair because I don’t normally buy organic produce, but I grow it and this is my study.

DATA ANALYSIS

The grand total of my garden expenses was…. $1284. Yikes. Last year had some expensive costs to be fair: CFO finished building the remaining garden beds and I invested in a growing system for the basement. Ideally, those two purchases will not be on-going costs. Using cedar, the beds should last 10 years, and since I received 3 shipments of broken growing lights, the supplier sent me about 12 bulbs at no cost in order to maintain his positive EBay rating. I should be good for a while. Based on annual expenses like seeds, compost, mulch, etc. I realistically spend about $250 a year, which seems much more reasonable. Maybe this wasn’t the best year for my study. Meh.

In 2016, I grew a total of 87 varieties of 54 different fruits and vegetables. I began the harvest the week of April 17 with asparagus, and ended the harvest the week of Thanksgiving with sage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. That’s 8 months of food! That’s a win in my book. I had some winners and some losers. I was giving away tomatoes, squash, basil and berries, but the melons and eggplants eluded me due to my unpreparedness with the late cabbage and unwieldy tomatillos. My peppers were a flop again for the third year. But I won’t be giving up on them just yet. Overall, I think this year was my most successful garden year. I figured out the watering system and my rotation and spacing scheme worked out very well. I didn’t have any problems with transplants because I grew them self. In order to properly assess the produce harvest, I used a kitchen scale, and weighed 470 lbs of vegetables for a grand total cost of….

Drum roll please…

$1250!!!!!

And yes. I know that is $34 in the red.

RESULTS

So okay, I technically didn’t make money on the garden, but if you consider I “spent” $34 for 470 lbs of vegetables, many of which are still stored in my freezer or canned and in the pantry in various forms, I think I did pretty darn good. And what a fun project. At its height, the garden was astounding, and received comments and questions from the neighbors (possibly some grumbling and complaints that I tuned out) and also kept me outside for a good chunk of the summer. I got to make farm dinners for family and friends that visited, we grilled vegetables I didn’t know could be grilled, and reduced our grocery expenses to the point where I could justify buying lobster for dinner. I even liked keeping track of all the produce; my charts and files have provided me solid information to make better planning for next year. I think I will keep this going if I can.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that 2016 was a good year in garden for me. I have already started plotting the changes and new vegetables and varieties to try, and making my informed decisions to better myself.

Next year will be…the Year of the Salad (because I have 10,000 lettuce seeds to start).

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and have grand adventures in gardening!

Locavore, or Just Loca?

Tags

cost savings, diet, health, homemade, local foods, nutrition, sustainability

I often find myself in conversations talking about eating local, because I like the idea of my money supporting my economy. Sometimes I get those looks, you know the kind I am talking about. The kind of look that makes you feel like you just finished taping an episode of Portlandia…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8SjkDq2ZwI

Now don’t get me wrong, part of me does really care about Collin and how successful he feels his short life was, but let’s be honest, that is my own guilty feelings of conventional chicken farming projected onto my food. If Collin knew that 8 months from his birth he would be beheaded, plucked and boiled into Sunday dinner, I suspect his outlook on life would be grim regardless of how many cabbage worms he found in his 4 acre playground.

No, my version of being a “locavore” is less bleeding heart, and more fiscally responsible. Americans, it turns out, spend less on food than anywhere in the world. In the WORLD! According to a study from 2009, we spend on average 6% of our household expenditures on food. I suppose by comparison, CFO and I are out of bounds by spending about 15% of our expenditures on food. How dreadfully European of us. That, or we are ridiculously cheap in all other household expenditures. The odd part is, I am constantly battling our monthly food budget to see how I can lower it and cut waste. I think I do very well, for example, this week I spent $67.00 on groceries for two people and a rabbit child. That’s pretty damn good, even for American standards I think. So if we already spend less on food than anywhere in the world, why do I care about eating local? I will give you my top 5 reasons.

Local bounty crate at major chain grocery store. The farmer’s pictures are an added bonus.

Reason #1: Culinary Adventure

I love to cook. Love. To. Cook. I don’t know what I am doing in the kitchen half of the time, and have no actual training apart from experiencing home cooking as a child, but the appearance of food makes me giddy to an extent that CFO questions my normalcy. I shouldn’t even be allowed at farmer’s markets anymore because I get so overwhelmed by all the bright colors and produce choices that I get heart palpitations, need to breathe into a paper bag, and down a glass of orange juice so I can stay upright. And, my farmer’s market only has 12 vendors. My point is, when I try to stick to what is available locally, I get to try vegetables and fruits I may never have otherwise. Had I never purchased 2 lbs of tomatillos, I would never have experienced fresh salsa verde in the summer. And trust me, summer salsa verde, that’s the dream.

Reason #2: Smart Home Economics

I am lucky enough to live near food Paradise, an employee owned grocery chain that carries every possibly kind of food ever wanted needed or invented. Paradise also happens to have the best produce prices year round. Produce is a commodity item, which means the price fluctuates with the market, and why you see prices of green beans fall in the summer when there is high production and soar in the winter when they are shipped from Mexico, and then fall again when they get moldy sitting in those water spray bins. Many grocery chains are beginning to carry locally sourced produce in the summer to appease a demanding public, but if you are lucky to have your own Paradise, you may be able to find year-round local produce at rock bottom prices. For example, in February, celery root, parsnips, turnips, parsley root, and rutabagas are being stocked by the bin full and they make delightfully filling meals. And, at less than $1.00/lb for these, it’s a pretty cheap way to eat in the desolate months. Compare that to $3.99/lb for out-of-season asparagus. For me and CFO, not a tough call.

Reason #3: Local Economy Feeding

The Wikipedia definition of a locavore is one who only consumes food harvested within 100 miles from their home. That is fairly limiting, and I am not one to collect wild dandelion greens from the elementary school playground. But, I do make a point to purchase products that are grown and/or manufactured within Wisconsin and the mid-west when I am able and can afford to, because the money I pay goes back into my own local economy. More money to the producers, means more production, which means more jobs to fulfill the demand, and more people earning money to spend money. Yes, friends, this is how we can resuscitate a broken economy.

Reason #4: Diet Diversity

The sad reality is, commodity produce that we see at grocery stores are cultivars that have been specifically bred to withstand long transportation rides and bad conditions, and they are often harvested before they are ready, and artificially ripened during shipping. Think about all those green bananas from Argentina. The negative of this, is what we end up eating is a bland, nutritionally flat diet. You know who you are, if this sounds familiar: you eat a half chicken breast with 10 asparagus spears and a quarter cup of brown rice on Mondays. On Tuesdays you change it up with green beans and quinoa. The rest of the week is a similar remix. Sounds healthy, the problem is that it’s extremely limited on nutritional content. Yes, chicken breasts are good and yes, so are asparagus and green beans, but they do not have everything we need to sustain us. This is why so many doctors recommend multivitamins, because they know we don’t eat properly. By eating with the seasons, you are made to vary your diet because asparagus is not meant to grow in snow banks. By purchasing foods locally, you get the best seasonal produce available and the most nutritionally complete because it was harvested at its peak.

Reason #5: Self-Sufficiency

I want my food to be local and I don’t want to rely on horse pills to stay healthy. This, and home economics, is one of the big reasons why I grow vegetables and fruits. I also want to be able to feed myself, CFO and any future bambinos wholesome, good foods and not just corn, 175 ways. Many of the foods we now purchase from stores were once made exclusively at home by our mothers, or grandmothers, or great grandmothers, and we have lost some of those skills. I think if we care to, we can relearn them. I am not a housewife, I work full time, and travel every other week, and I have no time to do any of this because, you know, I have a very grueling Netflix watching schedule when I finally get home. It’s a struggle not to eat frozen pizza or take out some days. But I try to keep in perspective that I do these things for me and CFO. I know that I can make chicken stock, bread, fresh cheese and yogurt, ice cream and almond butter, and I can do it with less ingredients and less cost than anything I can purchase, even from my Paradise. This gives me more control in a world where we increasingly have less control. And that makes me feel good at the end of the day. No matter how many dishes are left to wash.

I encourage you all to go buy a locally grown rutabaga, and report back.

I only eat locally grown wheatgrass in my smoothies.