Welcome
back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. Now this episode was supposed to be posted
last Friday but thanks to holiday workday scheduling and the work it took to
tally the harvest numbers for 2019, there has been a delay of literally one
entire week. Don’t worry the scheduled first actual post for 2020 is still
happening next Friday. But enough of the delays, lets delve into the subject
matter.
For
those new to what happens in the last post of each year at Lost In the Farmer’s
Market, I keep a running total of everything I harvest regardless of what it’s
used for. The only exception to this rule is Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) because that is grown to improve soil quality
and produce fertilizer and measuring that output in the past has been elusive. All
agricultural products whether consumed on site or taken to the farmer’s market
are tabulated and put together for your informational benefit. The objective of
keeping this data is to prove that organic methods over time do have an
increasing cumulative beneficial effect thus proving that yes, growing organic
is cost effective and viable. Keeping these records isn’t new, but in the last
two years the means by which it is calculated has changed as I upgraded to a
digital scale in late 2017 which dramatically increased the accuracy of my
measurements. The first year that I tried to take any sort of weight
measurements for harvest totals was 2014 and in that year the total was 112
pounds. In six years of work I’ve
doubled that amount with some productivity to spare. There are a few standard
practices in use for my operation that need to be mentioned.
1.
The
majority of produce is grown from seed or cuttings.
2.
All
harvested produce is sold/used within a few days of harvest.
3.
To
keep costs down, seed saving measures are being used.
4.
All
purchased seed is from a verified organic source.
5.
Unusual
plants that can’t readily be grown from seed will be sourced from a organic
grower if possible.
With
the terms and conditions of my operation in mind let’s take a look at what the
end results of the year were.
Total
amounts by type:
Assorted
Herbs – 47.45 pounds
Assorted
Figs – 16.36 pounds
Vegetables,
other - 15.96 pounds
Peppers
– 10.98 pounds (Sent to Fowler’s)
Cotton,
seed & fiber – 5.67 ounces (4.06oz seed/ 1.61oz fiber)
Vegetables,
Soup Kit – 145.66 pounds
Grand total:
236.764 pounds
You
read that correctly, of all plant materials harvested in 2019, I produced
approximately 236.76 pounds, most of which occurs in the first and last three
months of the year. This is could be called a skewed result because the bulk of
my produce is cold-season crops, though the summer fruit harvest has been
offsetting that. Had I been more aggressive about harvesting blueberries this
year it might have been even more different. Below you can see the harvest
amounts in pounds listed by what month the produce was harvested.
Total
amounts by Month:
January
– 29.03 pounds
February
– 31.11 pounds
March
– 39.90 pounds
April
– 17.34 pounds [crop reset]
May
– 2.923 pounds
June
– 7.083 pounds
July
– 15.18 pounds
August
– 4.12 pounds
September
– 5.60 pounds [crop reset]
October
– 25.60 pounds
November
– 29.44 pounds
December
– 29.45 pounds
As
you can see, there are ups and downs, usually relating to if or if not soup
kits and their associated materials are being sold at that time of year. Soup
kits aren’t the only thing to spike harvest numbers, the fig harvest which goes
from June to early August also adds to the harvest numbers as does the
Persimmon harvest which is spread across October and November. I should note
while the fig harvest was excellent; the Persimmon harvest was damaged and most
were picked in a green state in the hope they would ripen off the tree thanks to
storm damage. Another challenging number in contrast to the dominance of
carrots, potatoes, turnips, celery and parsnips are the harvest numbers for
Collards, Kale, and Mustard. I admit that in the last few years prior I had not
put as much effort into growing these cold-season staples as I had in the past.
The establishment of a new roughly 8’x8’ growing area has had a noticeable uptick
in the non-soup kit vegetable numbers and will have a continued effect in the
first half of 2020. Even with the aforementioned said; the highest monthly
harvest total was in March at the end of soup kit season when all the left over
vegetables were harvested for on-site consumption. One abnormality in the tally
is the consideration of the cotton harvest. The collection of mature cotton
bolls occurred from June through December even after a killing frost. I didn’t bother to record when I harvested
like everything else, just that I did and some relative pertinent data
associated. Since it’s not a food item this isn’t a big deal but it may be
interesting to some of you readers out there. Cotton is counted in the final overall
total so it’s had impact on the main numbers.
To
put all this in economic perspective I will use one of my most well-known items
as an example. The soup kit I sell on average weighs roughly two pounds, which
is comparable in weight to those sold at supermarkets. Each kit sells for
$6.00, which is also about the same price as one sold at the supermarket. That
same kit is GMO-free, and absolutely organic also which adds value. Now consider
that the farmers who supply supermarkets often get a subsidy from the government
compensating for the fact their product will be sold at half or less than its
asking price normally then compare to how my vegetables are sold at a similar
if not better price increment than non-organic supermarket ones. According to
the numbers, the kits with parsnips are the most popular, having sold
twenty-nine packs, in comparison to the turnip-kits which sold nineteen kits.
Overall the kits netted a total of $288.00 in sales for the Botanical Test
Garden’s operations. It is important to note that of that income about half
goes back to the operations fund to recoup normalized costs for maintaining
that level of output. As I prefer to
think of it, Test garden operations are not a job it’s a hobby that just so
happens to pay for itself. If you all are interesting in specific harvest
information on individual crops feel free to ask and I can provide the numbers.
Posting all the individual harvest numbers would take up an incredible amount
of space on this blog and might make it pretty boring but I do have the
numbers. Here is one last set of statistics to consider for the growing
operations of 2019.
Crop
Diversity, by type:
Peppers,
Super-Hot – 11 types.
Vegetable,
Leaf greens – 12 types.
Vegetable,
Root – 12 types.
Vegetable,
Other – 2 type.
Vegetable,
Tomato – 5 types.
Herbs,
Assorted – 24 types.
Fruit,
Fig – 7 types.
Fruit,
Other – 7 types.
Cotton,
All – 2 types.
If
the above is any indicator, by existing I apparently am sticking it to the
agricultural standard of monoculture. But this is just the beginning folks,
2020 is going to see new trials of plants of all sorts and types, the gardening
mayhem will not stop.
With
all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to
advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably
don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover
the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research &
Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up
the backbone of this blog. Also, as of
the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the
acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With
that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and
fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell
Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on
Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look
for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
Plants
& Stuff Available Now:
All
the Stuff:
Soup Kits:
$6.00
Seasoning
Packets: $2.00
Ginger,
4oz Packet: $2.00
Wormwood
Packets: $2.00
Lavender
Packets: $2.00
Pepper
Packets: $2.00
Garlic,
Whole Bulb: $1.00
Coming
Soon:
TBA
These
days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly
Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions
then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door
policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on
in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions
through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what
Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.
https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/
This brings to a close
the the last LITFM post of 2019, stay tuned the next episode which should be
posted on the 10th of January. There will be more garden updates and
other cool stuff.
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