Kitchen Garden Forum

If you can grow a few fruit bushes and trees too you can save a huge amount and they pay for themselves in no time.

Following reading this thread I thought when I last bought apples, and we've been eating our own since the end of August. We eat one or two each every day and still have some in good condition in the shed.

I've been really pleased with the Saturn tree which has nice juicy red fruits with a sweet slightly lemony flavour. I picked them at the end of October and they are still very good.

So I'm not sure how much that would add up to in shop prices, but 8 months of free apples can't be bad. I've also made cider, apple juice and pies and crumbles etc.

Hi Plumpudding,
Should we ever meet you should be very easily identified.
JB.

PLUMPUDDING. Don't suppose you deliver the cider !

Sorry Shallotman only a couple of bottles of cider left. And are you suggesting I'm round like my name suggests Johnboy? Despite the cider and pies, I do still have a waist!!!

Hi Plumpudding,
Well I haven't!
JB.

Hi Piglet 6,
I am a retired nursery owner and one of the hardest thing is to determine the price to charge of what you are producing without over pricing and being uncompetitive or going broke because you have let something go below the cost of production because you omitted something major in your calculation. In my tunnels which are benched out to hold seeding modules and cuttings etc I know everything down to the last square inch of bench and the cost of every mortal thing that I buy and I consider that I have never ever made a calculation where every mortal cost was included.
It is almost impossible to calculate how much the food that you produce has cost you because there are so many variables to take into consideration.
My hobby has be growing my own good wholesome food for my family and myself. I do take account of the yields that I am getting but not the cost.
Make growing your hobby like Tony and myself and free yourself from all the hassle and this way you will enjoy what you are growing and just forget the costings.
JB.

Hi guys, thank you for all your replies and thoughts. They've made interesting reading.

I am not 'growing my own' for financial reasons. I'm doing it because the stuff tastes better, because it's incredibly satisfying going out before breakfast to pick salad bits & pieces to go in my lunch that day. And, because it is fun!

Was just curious to check out the costings over this year. As a hobby, I am willing to write-off an amount of £'s each month towards it.

I think the amount and scale of the vegetables you grow probably also affects the end equation. If you sow and grow in bulk on an allotment, then obvious the price per carrot or potato comes down. The few potatoes I grew in some containers a couple of years ago probably each ended up costing more than a restaurant bought dinner! And I've no idea how much electricity to factor in for freezing my surplus crops.

However, when you add in the pleasure, hobby and satisfaction factor, it becomes a slightly different equation. As my pleasures are fairly simple, growing my own doesn't substitute for more expensive hobbies, but it certainly keeps me out of mischief and improves my sense of well-being (unless I get blight!). I also don't know how you factor in the convenience side of the argument by just being able to pop out into the garden and pick everything fresh. How do you cost the pleasure of picking your first sun-ripened warm tomato?