Growing Your Own Organic Vegetables Saves Money

Growing Your Own Organic Vegetables Saves Money

Growing your own organic vegetables saves money. I’ve proved it by analyzing the cost and expenses. If you haven’t tallied up the savings, it’s an eye-opener.

After a fun yet exhausting Sunday afternoon canning, my husband and I decided to tally up all the vegetables I had dried, canned and frozen this year – and put into the basement for storage.

All of these vegetables were grown using 100% organic gardening methods. I am estimating everything; please understand that this is not a scientific, mathematically accurate estimate. It’s just an example to show you the amazing power of growing and preserving your own vegetables.

 The 2011 Tally 
Growing your own organic vegetables – the results

• Carrots:  7  half-pint jars pickled and canned;  6 containers of 1 1/2 pints each, frozen
• Peppers: 26-pint jars pickled and canned, 2 contains 1 1/2 pints each, frozen
• Beets:  22 pints canned
• Dill pickles: 4 pints and 4 half pint jars canned
• Green beans: 2 contains 1 1/2 pints each frozen
• Tomatoes: 4 bags of 24 tomatoes each, frozen
• Dried beans: approximately 1 pint, dried
• Potatoes: approximately 20 pounds grown and stored
• Onions: approximately 5 pounds grown and stores

That’s the 2011 tally to date, as of October 1.  Despite the cool nighttime temperatures, I still have peppers in the garden, tomatoes, winter squash (acorn and butternut), plenty of carrots, parsnips, turnips, and eggplant left.

Cost of Buying Comparable Vegetables

We did a little experiment.  We added up the cost of buying in all of those vegetables if we purchased the canned or frozen equivalent at the store. I know that prices vary drastically, and if you have coupons or there’s a good sale going on that can change things. To make things simple, I estimated the value of a pint jar and a half pint jar the same.  Here is what we came up with in terms of the value of what’s in the pantry, freezer and storage cellar today:

Value of Stored Organic Vegetables

• Canned vegetables and pickles: estimated at $1 each = 63 jars = $63
• Frozen vegetables:  10 containters (I estimated the bags of tomatoes as 1 container each) = $10
• Potatoes: Estimated 5 lb bag at store, $3.99 each so 4 “bags” worth x $3.99 each = $15.96
• Onions: Estimated weight, about 1 bag of onions, $3.99 = $3.99
• Dried beans: One bag at the store is about $1.49

Total value of organic food in storage: $94.44

Conclusion: Growing Your Own Organic Vegetables Saves Money

That estimate doesn’t include all the fresh vegetables we have consumed since planting the garden this year and the potential cost savings there.

Now we looked at the expenses. We did NOT include the cost of the canning jars and freezer containers. Why? Because these things can be used year after year until they break, so there is an unknown number of times of use out of them. The only cost is replacement seal lids, which are $2 for a package of 12, and that’s negligible. I also did not include costs of vinegar, sugar, and spices used to pickle and can the food.

Seed Costs

Beets = $1.99
Green beans = $2.29
Cucumber seeds for pickles: $1.49
Dill herb seeds for pickles: $1.49
Heirloom bean seeds for drying: $4.99 (two packages)
Peppers:  four pack of plants, $1.79 bought from a local farmer, plus two seed packages at $1.49 each
Tomatoes: Two seed packages of $1.99 each
Carrots: Two seed packages, $1.49 each
Onion set: $2.99
Potatoes:  half a bag received at no cost from friends; $2.50 for a bag of seed potatoes from a local store

Total cost of seeds and starter plants: $24.50

Round up all these numbers, here’s the bottom line. Again, these numbers omit the investment into the canning jars and the costs of ingredients such as vinegar, sugar, and spices. I’m also rounding up and estimating a lot, but I think it makes my point:

An investment of $25 yielded for me $100 in organic vegetables.

No Special Equipment Needed

No special equipment…after planting the vegetable seeds, the only time I spent is tying and staking tomatoes, thinning vegetable plants, and harvesting potatoes (which was more labor intensive than I’d thought it would be).  All of the vegetables were grown organically, so I am guessing that buying the organic equivalent at the store would be more expensive than the conventional brands.

Know What’s in Your Food

Not only do I know precisely WHAT is in my food, I have grown it all less than 30 feet from my house in a backyard garden.  Instead of fossil fuels burned trucking it from California, Florida, and other parts of the country, by growing my own food I have reduced some of that burden from the environment.

You might not have the space that I do to grow vegetables. But you can really grow quite a lot in small spaces.  My dad grew many vegetables in a tiny area in our yard; when I moved to another house on Long Island, we had dense shade in the yard and only some direct sunshine onto a patio and deck, so I planted tomatoes, peppers and many other veggies in pots on the desk.  You CAN grow vegetables no matter where you are.

Canning Helps Preserve the Harvest

In the fall of 2008, I wrote on this blog about my first efforts at canning. I was so afraid to try it. I was afraid I would do it wrong and poison my family.  Now I feel confident with the hot water bath canner – so confident that I have asked for a pressure canner for Christmas!  With the pressure canner, I can can garden vegetables without pickling them.

We harvested our first fruit from the orchard this year – one pear, and about six peaches.  When we planted the fruit orchard trees in 2008,  we read that it might take up to 5 – 10 years, depending on the trees, before we saw some fruit. Once those trees begin producing abundantly, I will be able to dry and can that fruit too.

As I lay down to sleep last night, it wasn’t the thought of saving money that made me smile. It was the thought of self sufficiently. There is a deep, strong appeal to me of the thought that I am beholden to no one for me food. I can grow it and preserve it on my own.

It’s definitely a lifestyle choice, but if self-sufficient living appeals to you, I urge you to try whatever you can in your little corner of the world. When I lived in the equivalent of a big city, I grew vegetables in pots on the deck.  I started small with my canning projects and now I can can close to 20 pints in one day and feel confident about it.  Each time you try something, you’ll learn.

Yes, you CAN!

Jeanne

Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.