What Vegetables Will Save My Family Money
Why do you have a vegetable garden? For some of us, it's the joy in
growing our own food. For others, it's a great way to exercise or to
enjoy the outdoors. While all these are wonderful reasons to grow
vegetables, for many of us, it's a way to grow wholesome nourishing
foods for our family while saving money too.
When the goal of a
vegetable garden is to save money, it makes sense to plant veggies that
are the best value in terms of yield and cost per pound. Here is how I
determine what vegetables will save my family the most money.
What do they cost in the store?
Unless you've got a couple of spare acres for planting, most of us
have limited space for growing vegetables. What I decide to plant is
often tied in to current prices at in the grocery store or the farmer's
market. Produce like green beans, peas, tomatoes, leeks, spinach,
peppers, green onions, broccoli, and herbs rarely drop below $2 a pound
which is why they are staples in my garden.
Relationship of yield to space requirements
What should also factor into the decision is the amount of produce
that can be grown in a small amount of space. Cucumber, turnips,
zucchini, carrots, beets, and yellow crookneck might be cheap in the
store, but have amazing yields for the small amount of space they take
up.
Trade in value
Most of us have probably traded
vegetables with the neighbors as a way to get rid of surplus food
items. I have rhubarb plants which have trade-in value with my neighbors
who give me everything from flats of bedding plants to firewood in
exchange for several pounds of freshly harvested rhubarb. Expensive
veggies that you don't like but can be sold for $4 a pound or higher
have value as a commodity that can be bartered with the neighbors.
Vegetable that are easy to preserve
The last factor I use in determining value is if the vegetable can be
frozen or home-canned. I love leaf lettuce for example, but in terms of a
leafy green vegetable that we can eat year round, spinach is the better
choice because it can be frozen or home-canned. Veggies such as green
beans, peas, tomatoes, asparagus and peppers are all easy to freeze and
will save a family money long after gardening season is over.
