Salmon and fava beans in a mushroom tarragon sauce with a side of spinach*
Every year I redo my side tally bar. And every year it starts out very negative. This year it starts at $-401.02. Ouch. The reality is that I spent most of that money to build the garden. I amortize costs that go over multiple years. Like the wood and hardware to build my beds. The soil that was put in the beds. And the other odds and ends that I use that last, like bamboo and the now useless tomato cages that I ought to sell to someone that could actually use them (but I maintain a weird denial about not eating tomatoes and don't want to believe that I can never eat them again - I'm sure at some point I'll get over it). I even add in the fertilizer costs since I buy big bags and use them over time. Most of these expenses will disappear over time as the minimum amount of time I expect the item to last will have expired.
Bean burger with steamed purple sweet potatoes and green beans*
| Description | Years | Cost | Cost/year | Year Bought | Year Expires |
| Bamboo | 4 | 261.50 | 65.37 | 2011 | 2015 |
| Nofa | 2 | 236.83 | 118.41 | 2013 | 2015 |
| 2x6x8 | 5 | 386.92 | 77.38 | 2011 | 2016 |
| Screws | 5 | 42.52 | 8.50 | 2011 | 2016 |
| Corner brace | 5 | 101.66 | 20.332 | 2011 | 2016 |
| Composter | 10 | 50.00 | 5 | 2010 | 2020 |
| Tomato cages GHS | 20 | 86.06 | 4.303 | 2010 | 2030 |
| Tomato Cages TC | 20 | 274.30 | 13.72 | 2010 | 2030 |
| soil | 30 | 223.13 | 7.44 | 2011 | 2041 |
| concrete bricks | 30 | 24.30 | 0.81 | 2011 | 2041 |
As you can see a huge portion of the cost of the garden was from the wood that makes up the garden and the bamboo poles. NOFA is the Northeast Organic Farmers Association. They do bulk buys every year for things like fertilizer, potting soil, netting, etc. I participate occasionally and buy more than I need. Though I've amortized though this year, I'm guessing I'll be set for at least another year after that.
So if you add all those costs/year up I come up with 321.28. This year I've only spent 79.74. Which is actually more than typical for me and seeds. I ought to control myself more where seeds are concerned, but you just know that isn't going to happen.
Black bean and sweet potato soup with a whole wheat quesadilla*
You might have noticed that I've been better about photographing my meals this week, but I was also better at planning. At the beginning of last week I actually made a menu that goes out three weeks. I like to cook, but I just hate figuring out what I'm going to make for dinner. So now I have something to follow. Though I've written it down I reserve the right to play with my food when I want and change it. Sometimes I get things into my head and I want to do something new.
This week my new thing was the first photo above. I've been trying to get more fish into our diets due to health concerns. But buying fresh fish from the store in winter is a pain. I don't have a car. And this January has been really cold. So I was trying to make a healthy meal from canned salmon. I think it turned out well. It is made with soy milk and don't tell my husband but there are vegetables ground up in the sauce. Oh and he didn't get any fava beans. Not his cup of tea. It was still good for him though.
*All of the vegetables and beans shown above are from my stores - even the tarragon from the salmon dish.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
Daphne, do you know whether your husband reads your blog? If he does, he will find out about your little subterfuges! Concealing vegetables in his food - surely not???
ReplyDeleteYes he does read it, but sometime he skims it. Gardening is not his thing. I'm guessing he will miss it. Though he does know that I hide things in his food as much as I can (eating veggies is important to you health), but he prefers not to know about the details.
DeleteYour green beans look garden fresh, are they stored in you fridge or freezer? If freezer, how do you manage to keep them so fresh looking?
ReplyDeleteIn the freezer. I blanched them in small batches this year. It worked out pretty well. I think the large batches take too long to cool after.
DeleteI am impressed with your 3 week menu. It is difficult for me to do it one week at a time. I don't like last minute planning of meals either, or finding out that I need an ingredient that we don't have on hand. No fresh harvests here at the moment, everything is frozen. But there's lots of goodies in stores to use for meals.
ReplyDeleteLovely dishes. I'm trying to work on a month of meals, but it's much harder than I would have thought!
ReplyDeleteDo you figure in the cost of water in your calculations? Perhaps rain is sufficient most of the year. Water is becoming a significant cost for me I suspect since last rainy season we only had five inches (half normal) and so far this season less than two inches. Our water prices are going up again.
ReplyDeleteNo I don't put water in the calculations each year. We get an average of 4" of rain all year long (our driest month averages 3.5 and our wettest 4.5). So we typically get enough. I do water though. August, our driest month, tends to be larger rains with longer between. But we don't get that hot here. Our average temps in the height of summer is 82F (July) and we have a lot of humidity so things don't always dry out fast. I think about putting that in, but it is just too much work to keep track of that.
DeleteYour soup looks really good, last week I had a tex-mex soup too, with the roasted peppers frozen this summer
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy that I don't keep track of the cost of my garden, I would hate to know how much it really is. Maybe you could use the tomato cages to support something else. I used mine at this time of year to keep my favas from flopping all over the place.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!! I'm in denial about how much I've spent on my garden!! It will jump a lot this year as we add new beds to our new home and garden. But the enjoyment and fresh veggies out weigh the costs!!
ReplyDeleteMy harvest is somewhat bigger than yours, but I'm in opposite seasons so it should be. Where I am, near sydney australia, we don't have snow or frost so it doesn't stop all year either.
ReplyDeleteYour meals are so unusual than mine but they all look delicious except the first picture! Not too sure about that one! LOL The best I can do this post is a raspberry pie made from our raspberries! You do an excellent job of keeping track of costs and amounts harvested!! How long have you lived where you are now? Nancy
ReplyDeleteWe moved here in June of 2010, but we didn't get the garden up until 2011.
DeleteGreat meal inspiration, reminds me that I must have a bag of favas lurking in the freezer!
ReplyDeleteThe menu planning usually works well for me too, for much the same reasons. I just don't seem to plan often enough and then I end up, like I am today, desperately trying to work out what I feel like both cooking and eating.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to amortize the infrastructure expenses of gardening. Makes the outlays much less painful.
ReplyDeleteI admire how you keep track of your expenses and using your garden preserved vegetables, I don't bother doing that because I know it's always in the negative territory, I write it off as my health insurance and therapy expenses.
ReplyDelete