Ten Dollar Lettuce

I've done this before and should know better. We used to live on some acreage outside Mt. Shasta city. We had horses, the predictable lineup of farm animals, and garden areas. During our 33 years of "farming" there I learned why people buy food at stores. We had laying hens for example that produced eggs for something just shy of $5 a dozen. I can't remember the exact dollar figure but it proved to be similar for all the rest of our agricultural production . . . rabbits, pigs, beef, and yes. Lettuce.

We are at it again however, hoping against the odds that reality has somehow changed in the intervening years. Perhaps some things that were actual then weren't really, really true. There may have been some fundamental changes to Einstein's laws that will make garden produce actually affordable now.

We built our garden on the cheap, using scrap lumber and old hardware wherever possible. The only hard expenses were 25 metal stakes at $6.75 each and two rolls of deer netting at $69.95 each. Not counting gas, our time, the water, and various bags of manure & fertilizers I need to reap around $300 worth of radishes, lettuce, and zuchinni to break even.

It is obvious right here that we're never going to make that. But as purist gardeners would counsel at this point, building the garden was the costly part. It will last decades with annual and inexpensive additions of fertilizer, water, and seed.

Not only that of course but the produce will be fresh and infinitely better that what you get in the store. Not to mention the contribution, albeit tiny, that this makes toward improving the environment (less fertilizer to grow the lettuce in Texas, less diesel to haul it here, etc. etc.).

And then there is the emotional payback out little plot gives to us. The weeding. The watering. The thinning. Just knowing it's there is comfort to the soul and the sore back. Maybe my back would ache MORE if I didn't exercise it this way. How's that for a good spin?

Oh, and we get to give away the surplus lettuce et al that is all but certain. Of course we first have to buy more netting to stop the so far invisible creatures who are nibbling away the leaves of our ten dollar heads of lettuce.