sallyg said:
If you value your labor at even minimum wage, garden work isn't cheap food. Then theres the processing , washing, cutting etc.. You have to do the work for other Intrinsic value.
Tomatoes, fresh, are a good value compared to store cost and quality.
I have to slightly disagree. First, I did the math on some of my more expensive veggies last year. Water (which is actually really expensive here, so something to consider!), potting soil to start, soil amendment in the garden, and the seed topped out at $.60 per plant. This compared to $3-8 per at the store. These are my cauliflower, broccoli, and romanesco, which also tend to be expensive at the store around my parts.
Yes, once you consider my labor in starting the seeds, planting the seedlings, and then watering and weeding the plants, that's maybe not a great deal, but growing these things is my hobby, and I hardly consider it work. I don't get overtime from my paid work, so spending my free time puttering around the garden is a healthy and enjoyable way to spend my free time. If I could make money in my free time, then maybe the comparison to paid work would make sense, but I just don't find that a reasonable comparison in my circumstances.
If I get even 10 artichokes out of my try at them this summer, I will have saved a mint, since they run $4 per here! As you note, tomatoes are a great value. Sweet peppers, too (another very expensive thing here...a red bell runs anywhere from $1-4 EACH). I think I also get great value from my black raspberries, which require little maintenance but are hard to pick (thorns), and cost $3-5/pint at the store (I get two to three pints *a day* at peak production).
But at the end of the day, I'm having fun growing all this stuff, and it's really nice that when I want a tomato slice on a burger in July, all the "planning" I have to do is...walking 30 feet out my back door.
