Is Organic Worth It?
- Thread starter boggybranch
- Start date
lesa
Garden Master
Great article! I vote "yes" too! Buy it when I can- grow it always!
Whitewater
Attractive To Bees
I am also on the organic bandwagon. However, I need to grow (and then can or otherwise preserve) most of my own organic veggies, fruit and herbs, because I can't afford to buy 100% organic groceries. Let's face it, it's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy a $3 tomato and grow it organically, and then eat the multiple fruits, than to have to buy organic tomatoes in a store. Or even a farmer's market!
Price is the main reason Hubby and I are currently in the process of getting a permit to have chickens in our city. A dozen organic eggs here costs $6.70. We typically eat about 4 doz. eggs a month, which means we'd be spending $26.80 each month on eggs alone.
However, around here a 50 lb bag of organic chicken feed is $16, and will last 3 hens about 6 weeks, given that they will eat other stuff too, like dandelion greens and worms and so on.
3 hens will probably provide, on average, 15 eggs a week. In a month, that's 60, or 5 dozen eggs. In 6 weeks, that's 90 or 7.5 dozen eggs.
For $16.
That's the primary reason I'm also growing my own strawberries and raspberries (and apples), as well as the reason I have my own veggie garden. For just under $50 I'll have fresh tomatoes and peppers all summer, and I'll be able to make and preserve salsa and tomato sauce for use later on in the year. I have to make my dollar stretch as far as it can, and growing my own is the best way I've found to do that when it comes to organic produce.
Organic stuff is expensive, there's no doubt about it. But if you have any way to grow it yourself (in pots/containers, a community garden, your front lawn . . . ), I'd recommend doing so, you'll save a lot of money!
Whitewater
Price is the main reason Hubby and I are currently in the process of getting a permit to have chickens in our city. A dozen organic eggs here costs $6.70. We typically eat about 4 doz. eggs a month, which means we'd be spending $26.80 each month on eggs alone.
However, around here a 50 lb bag of organic chicken feed is $16, and will last 3 hens about 6 weeks, given that they will eat other stuff too, like dandelion greens and worms and so on.
3 hens will probably provide, on average, 15 eggs a week. In a month, that's 60, or 5 dozen eggs. In 6 weeks, that's 90 or 7.5 dozen eggs.
For $16.
That's the primary reason I'm also growing my own strawberries and raspberries (and apples), as well as the reason I have my own veggie garden. For just under $50 I'll have fresh tomatoes and peppers all summer, and I'll be able to make and preserve salsa and tomato sauce for use later on in the year. I have to make my dollar stretch as far as it can, and growing my own is the best way I've found to do that when it comes to organic produce.
Organic stuff is expensive, there's no doubt about it. But if you have any way to grow it yourself (in pots/containers, a community garden, your front lawn . . . ), I'd recommend doing so, you'll save a lot of money!
Whitewater
ninnymary
Garden Master
Organic is the way to go!
Whitewater...to make you feel better, organic feed is $38 in my area for a 50lb bag of layer feed. Too expensive for me, so I drive about 1 hr. 15 min. to buy it for $19.95. Almost half the price. It's a nice drive through the countryside and we get to see my BIL so its worth the drive to stock up with 4 bags.
Mary
Whitewater...to make you feel better, organic feed is $38 in my area for a 50lb bag of layer feed. Too expensive for me, so I drive about 1 hr. 15 min. to buy it for $19.95. Almost half the price. It's a nice drive through the countryside and we get to see my BIL so its worth the drive to stock up with 4 bags.
Mary
Chickie'sMomaInNH
Garden Master
ours is $22 for a 50lb bag here. i haven't truly decided on the organic thing for the chicken feed. but i still prefer to grow my own plants in my own yard as much as possible! 
and i prefer to not use anything for fertilizer now that i have my own chickens and our own property! no un-natural fertilizer has touched this property since we've owned it for the past 3 years now.
and i prefer to not use anything for fertilizer now that i have my own chickens and our own property! no un-natural fertilizer has touched this property since we've owned it for the past 3 years now.
seedcorn
Garden Master
Best to grow your own always. I use hand pulling over pesticides in my garden. Now my lawn, 2-4D all the way.
I have no confidence in the term "organic" at all. In fact, in Indiana, it means nothing.
I have no confidence in the term "organic" at all. In fact, in Indiana, it means nothing.
vfem
Garden Addicted
It once meant something, once coined by an industry where standards were put in place... and not strict enough standards for some parts of the industry... the word no longer had meaning. Just like companies who use 'Natural', it means nothing!seedcorn said:
Boggy, didn't you have a link up once that was all the industry labels of these words and what they meant according to the organic standards passed by the USDA? I think most of if it just gibberish now. I do believe hobby farmers, small time food producers and home gardeners are the only one's to stick to the previous meaning of the word. You know, the 1960's frame of mind organic!
:coolsunI sure do try everyday... I compost... I use natural oils and companion planting... hand weed... pick bugs with my little fingers... all in the name of being able to eat something out in my yard without having to stop and wash it full of worries. :weight
- Thread starter
- #8
boggybranch
Deeply Rooted
Lordy, v......I can't remember, but I'm quite sure that I would have posted something like that if I had stumbled across it during some of my cyberspace "walkabouts".vfem said:Boggy, didn't you have a link up once that was all the industry labels of these words and what they meant according to the organic standards passed by the USDA? I think most of if it just gibberish now. I do believe hobby farmers, small time food producers and home gardeners are the only one's to stick to the previous meaning of the word. You know, the 1960's frame of mind organic!
Age....a terrible thing THAT wastes (memory). LOL
desertgirl
Garden Ornament
Cost of one tomato plant that keeps yielding-$3.00.
Cost of feeding chickens that give lots of eggs,while providing free compost and bug control:$16-$22.00.
Cost of not poisoning the only home we've got: Priceless.:rainbow-sun
Cost of feeding chickens that give lots of eggs,while providing free compost and bug control:$16-$22.00.
Cost of not poisoning the only home we've got: Priceless.:rainbow-sun
Rosalind
Deeply Rooted
+1 to Whitewater. Even if you do go the pesticide route, it's still much cheaper to grow your own than to buy from the store.
DH mentioned to me that he knows grocery store prices must be going through the roof, because now on the late-night teevee commercials, he sees ads for high-yielding blueberry bushes instead of household gadgetry. We don't really go to the grocery store for anything other than t.p., so I looked up the sale price circular for the local grocery store.
$6.70/lb for blueberries, 2 corn-on-the-cobs for $5, $2.80/lb. for tomatoes, cukes $2.50 each! $7/lb. for turkey lunch meat. This was at Stop&Shop, the market that is supposedly reasonable in this area--not Whole Foods or anything. None of it organic/pastured/antibiotic & cage-free.
I realize that the reason stuff is expensive is that it's not in season and being trucked in from California or somewhere, but crikeys... They only offered ONE vegetable that's in season and local: asparagus, $2/lb. No greens, I am given to understand there is some sort of Great Lettuce Recall going on--is that why no greens? Or do they just not sell well enough for grocery stores to stock them? But also no rhubarb, no young onions, no early cabbage or sprouts. Snow peas should be coming on, and I believe they already have them not far south of here, why no snow peas from PA or NJ at least? No winter mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, lion's manes are ready if you inoculated logs last fall/winter), nor any storage veggies--we've still got a few odd spaghetti squash and root veggies hiding in the back of the root cellar. I'm still frantically using up dried and canned fruit, why aren't canned peaches on sale? Last year was a great year for peaches and this year's crop has already set little green fuzzballs, they should be trying to unload the 2009 remnants.
I really cannot get over how much turkey costs. It costs me about $2.25-2.50/lb to raise heritage breed turkeys on pasture. I thought that was pretty lousy considering that Butterballs go for less than a buck a pound, but reckoned that was the price of quality. I processed about half my turkeys, kept the other half as a breeding flock, and made four of the resulting Freezer Campers into lunch meat, sausage and soup; saved the other two for holiday roasts. Now it looks like I saved $32...
DH mentioned to me that he knows grocery store prices must be going through the roof, because now on the late-night teevee commercials, he sees ads for high-yielding blueberry bushes instead of household gadgetry. We don't really go to the grocery store for anything other than t.p., so I looked up the sale price circular for the local grocery store.
$6.70/lb for blueberries, 2 corn-on-the-cobs for $5, $2.80/lb. for tomatoes, cukes $2.50 each! $7/lb. for turkey lunch meat. This was at Stop&Shop, the market that is supposedly reasonable in this area--not Whole Foods or anything. None of it organic/pastured/antibiotic & cage-free. I realize that the reason stuff is expensive is that it's not in season and being trucked in from California or somewhere, but crikeys... They only offered ONE vegetable that's in season and local: asparagus, $2/lb. No greens, I am given to understand there is some sort of Great Lettuce Recall going on--is that why no greens? Or do they just not sell well enough for grocery stores to stock them? But also no rhubarb, no young onions, no early cabbage or sprouts. Snow peas should be coming on, and I believe they already have them not far south of here, why no snow peas from PA or NJ at least? No winter mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, lion's manes are ready if you inoculated logs last fall/winter), nor any storage veggies--we've still got a few odd spaghetti squash and root veggies hiding in the back of the root cellar. I'm still frantically using up dried and canned fruit, why aren't canned peaches on sale? Last year was a great year for peaches and this year's crop has already set little green fuzzballs, they should be trying to unload the 2009 remnants.
I really cannot get over how much turkey costs. It costs me about $2.25-2.50/lb to raise heritage breed turkeys on pasture. I thought that was pretty lousy considering that Butterballs go for less than a buck a pound, but reckoned that was the price of quality. I processed about half my turkeys, kept the other half as a breeding flock, and made four of the resulting Freezer Campers into lunch meat, sausage and soup; saved the other two for holiday roasts. Now it looks like I saved $32...
