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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Saturday, January 03, 2009 Thoughts on food costs The problem with making things from scratch is that it's really hard to figure out what they cost. Buy cheese at the grocery store and you know how much you spent. Make cheese with milk from a herd share and cultures from the freezer, made from starter cultures and milk you bought somewhere in the dim past, and about all you can pin down is the cost of this week's milk. Even that may not be clearcut if you're buying through a herd or cow share. I'm lucky that my farmer has guaranteed availability throughout the year, but not all herd share farmers do that. Many of them dry up all their cows at one time in the fall, breed them over the winter, and don't have milk again until spring, when the heifers calve. So you may not know for sure how much milk you're going to have over the course of a year, and therefore you have no way to calculate the exact cost per gallon.What about vegetables you grow from seed? Fruit from bushes or trees that you purchase? Do those count as part of your food cost? I'm going to include seed, since that's normally used up within the year, but not perennial plants, bushes or trees, since they become a permanent part of the property. From a bookkeeping point of view, one is an expense and the other is an asset.But then it gets even more complicated. Do you count the cost of the canning jars and lids? The cost of whatever fuel is used to heat the canner? The water you use? Bookkeeping for both farming and manufacturing is far more complex than for any other kind of business, and that's basically what a home gardener and canner is involved in.So here's what it boils down to for me. I'll count the cost of new lids, since they get used only once for canning (I re-use them for storing dry or frozen foods in canning jars). I'll count the cost of new canning jars, since they're subject to breakage and potential replacement, and any freezer containers I might buy. I can't easily include the cost of electricity for canning--there's just no realistic way to calculate it. Even if I use the big propane cooker outside, I don't have a good idea how much gas is used for one canning load. So fuel costs, for the time being, will have to just be ignored, except for possibly the freezer. I could plug it in through the Kill-A-Watt and know for sure how much electricity it's using. I just haven't bothered to do that yet. There comes a point in the accounting business where being accurate to the last penny costs more than just not worrying about some things.So am I being anal retentive? Not necessarily. When I talk about raising and preserving one's own food, I'm often met with, "But you aren't counting the cost of all that electricity for canning and drying and running the freezer, and your labor, and what it costs you to drive all over to buy wheat and stuff and . . . " I'd like to be able to say, "Yes, I am counting it, the best I can, and I still spent far less than if I had bought it in the grocery store, and it's far healthier food." The only thing I can't refute is the comparison in labor cost. I could indeed buy much more food with what I charge for an hour of computer work than what I can get from the garden with that hour. But I wouldn't have the satisfaction of being independent of an already fragile food supply, and that's worth a lot more than the time I have to spend to achieve it.ETA--I'm very much aware of the hidden costs of supermarket food, but those are more difficult to explain to other people (precisely because they are so well hidden). Being able to say, "This costs less, tastes better and isn't contaminated with anything" seems to have more impact than going on about environmental issues, carbon dioxide and factory farming. posted by Liz @ 1:14 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
The problem with making things from scratch is that it's really hard to figure out what they cost. Buy cheese at the grocery store and you know how much you spent. Make cheese with milk from a herd share and cultures from the freezer, made from starter cultures and milk you bought somewhere in the dim past, and about all you can pin down is the cost of this week's milk. Even that may not be clearcut if you're buying through a herd or cow share. I'm lucky that my farmer has guaranteed availability throughout the year, but not all herd share farmers do that. Many of them dry up all their cows at one time in the fall, breed them over the winter, and don't have milk again until spring, when the heifers calve. So you may not know for sure how much milk you're going to have over the course of a year, and therefore you have no way to calculate the exact cost per gallon.What about vegetables you grow from seed? Fruit from bushes or trees that you purchase? Do those count as part of your food cost? I'm going to include seed, since that's normally used up within the year, but not perennial plants, bushes or trees, since they become a permanent part of the property. From a bookkeeping point of view, one is an expense and the other is an asset.But then it gets even more complicated. Do you count the cost of the canning jars and lids? The cost of whatever fuel is used to heat the canner? The water you use? Bookkeeping for both farming and manufacturing is far more complex than for any other kind of business, and that's basically what a home gardener and canner is involved in.So here's what it boils down to for me. I'll count the cost of new lids, since they get used only once for canning (I re-use them for storing dry or frozen foods in canning jars). I'll count the cost of new canning jars, since they're subject to breakage and potential replacement, and any freezer containers I might buy. I can't easily include the cost of electricity for canning--there's just no realistic way to calculate it. Even if I use the big propane cooker outside, I don't have a good idea how much gas is used for one canning load. So fuel costs, for the time being, will have to just be ignored, except for possibly the freezer. I could plug it in through the Kill-A-Watt and know for sure how much electricity it's using. I just haven't bothered to do that yet. There comes a point in the accounting business where being accurate to the last penny costs more than just not worrying about some things.So am I being anal retentive? Not necessarily. When I talk about raising and preserving one's own food, I'm often met with, "But you aren't counting the cost of all that electricity for canning and drying and running the freezer, and your labor, and what it costs you to drive all over to buy wheat and stuff and . . . " I'd like to be able to say, "Yes, I am counting it, the best I can, and I still spent far less than if I had bought it in the grocery store, and it's far healthier food." The only thing I can't refute is the comparison in labor cost. I could indeed buy much more food with what I charge for an hour of computer work than what I can get from the garden with that hour. But I wouldn't have the satisfaction of being independent of an already fragile food supply, and that's worth a lot more than the time I have to spend to achieve it.ETA--I'm very much aware of the hidden costs of supermarket food, but those are more difficult to explain to other people (precisely because they are so well hidden). Being able to say, "This costs less, tastes better and isn't contaminated with anything" seems to have more impact than going on about environmental issues, carbon dioxide and factory farming.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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