The Numbers Are In

~The road into Fall~

AND THE TALLIES ARE IN!!! Well, kind of anyway. The main garden is pretty much done for the year. The chickens are in there now, noshing on any leftovers (not-yet-ripes, not worth picking, and rottens) they find, tilling things up for us and fertilizing for next Spring while they go. We just ordered garlic for Fall planting, have onions growing still, and have potatoes still waiting to be harvested out of that garden. So ... the tallies are in .. kind of.

Before I tell you how it came out, I'll let you know something new we did this year. Not only did we really make an effort to weigh things, we tried to take note (I say try, as we weren't always successfull) of how much comparable items would've cost us had we bought them at the store or Co-op. This got to be a little tricky sometimes. We are growing heirloom, organic foods. Finding prices for heirloom, organic foods isn't always possible. So we did our best.

Here are the Tallies:
*Tomatoes - 187lbs 12.1oz - prices really varied here, so we picked a mid-way price of $2.82 a pound pound = $529.46
*Bell Peppers - 7lbs 11.4oz - these are priced by quantity, not weight, we had 34, and again prices varied, so we went mid-way @ $2ea. = $68
*"Hungarian Sweet" Banana Peppers - 8lbs 6.4oz - @ $3.29 a pound, non-organic = $27.31
*"Anaheim" Peppers - 11lbs 8oz - @ $2.99 a pound, non-organic = $34.39
*"Charleston Grey" Watermelons - 21lbs 5.6oz (this was only 3 melons, and one was pretty darn small!) - @ $3.99 each (this price is from the Co-Op) = $11.97
*Cherries - 3lbs 8oz - @ $5.99 a pound, non-organic = $22.76
*Beans - 13lbs 8oz - these are a blend of the following: Mitla, Boston Favorite, Charlevioux, Hidatsa, and Roma II - again, a mid-way price of $2.50 a pound = $33.75
*Zucchini - 8lbs 5oz - @ $1.79 a pound, organic from Kroger = $14.86
*Oregano - 3lbs 4oz - ok, this is cool .. a 1/2oz jar of organic oregano from Kroger is $3.99 - at that rate, it's $127.68 a POUND = $434.11 .. AND, we could've harvested TRIPLE that amount, EASILY!!!!!

These are the things we remembered to check price on. So .. you wanna know how much total it would've cost to buy all of this stuff???

$1632.75 ... WOW!!!!!!!

Ooh, but let's not forget costs to grow this all. Ok, well we didn't pay for seeds this year because we saved seeds in previous years and took advantage of the Earth Day Seed Swap. We paid $30 for a bale of hay. We paid roughly $49 for some new canning jars. We did buy some plants. So, let's round the total spent up to $80. Ok, well subtract that from the above total. That brings us down to $1552.75. I'm still sitting here typing with my jaw on the floor.

Something else. From what we've canned so far we've already "saved" well over $100 if not a lot higher than that. So far I've already canned Spaghetti Sauce, Tomato Sauce/Soup, Ketchup, BBQ Relish, and the Strawberry Jam from early Spring (even if we did buy those strawberries from a U-Pick Farm). Not too shabby.

And, anyone who gripes about the similarity of this post to the one from the end of August .. well 1)get over it, and 2)props to you for actually noticing. Thank you, I'm flattered!! Don't worry, I won't be doing this every month. ;)

Also - before you think I forgot. Egg Tally for September was 68. Definitely down. We also had to deal with another "break-in" from the dogs, which left LadyBird badly wounded. This happened yesterday. She spent last night in the coop by herself, and this evening we put her back in the tractor. The wound was looking ok, and it was kinda hard to see. It's a good thing she is Queen on the Totem Pole, as she did get pecked by Patti. LadyBird seemed pretty pissed off about that and pecked her right back. She also pecked at either Easter or Bunny when they nosed near her. By dark they were all huddling into the nest box together. We wanted to put her back in with them since temperatures were supposed to drop down into the low 40's tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that "the Queen" will hold onto her title and be ok. Stupid dog.