As a farmer and consumer I see both sides of the cost to buy food.

I grow alot of food here, beef, pork, vegetables, and sell it too.

I know how hard I work to raise good vegetables for people to buy at the farmstand. I know the cost of the seed, the cost of the land, the cost of all the bits of supplies and equipment then treatments for diseases. Yes plants get diseases no matter how awesome you are and how exceptional your land is. It happens.

Then there is seed, good seeds are not cheap. Lets talk carrots. I like to raise and sell smaller carrots for summer snacking. Those seeds for early carrots are once again not cheap. This year I had some major seed failures where things barely germinated. If you didn’t know getting carrot seeds to germiante is a little tricky. They need constant moisture and won’t do well if they dry out. All that moisture also has weed seeds germinating and they can grow much faster than carrots. So I try to kill off the weed seeds before hand. Often with tarps or propane flame thrower. It gives the carrots a good start and then weeding is easier afterwards. So I put in 100 feet double row of carrots. I have drip tape there so I can water it almost daily then cover it with a fabric row cover that helps keep the soil moist. It works great. This year….. Not so great. I also planted carrots in a different area a week later. Barely any germiantion. We had rain but nothing too bad. Now I’m ticked because that was some money that did nothing. So I ordered some conventional seed from a big seed place in the state. I got them in a few days. These seeds are much cheaper and I ordered a POUND, so much cheaper a pound and shipping cost less than all the “special seeds'“ that were a fraction of a pound. I planted the seed the same way and within a week they had germinated. Now this carrot is a larger carrot, takes a little longer to grow out but they are growing so it’s a win. They other seeds? I’m disappointed and now I have to cover all that extra cost becuase how else do I pay for growing food?

I haven’t even mentioned the time I weeded the rows, the cost of the drip tape, the cost of the row cover, the time to pull the carrots AND the time to wash off all that dirt, sort out any bad ones and bag it all up. Then I also have refrigeration at the stand to keep things in great condition since everyone wants the stand open 7 days a week.

So if you complain the bag of carrots cost $5, grow them yourself. Or go to the store and buy old ones grown in sand with artificial fertilizers and notice how they don’t taste all that great, my carrots taste GREAT because I work hard to have good soil for them to grow in.

Now lets talk cucumbers. A fungal disease found the cucumbers and they all died last fall. Before that cucumber beetles brougth in another disease and the first planting died. This year the fungal disease is back. My fault that those pricey special disease resistant cucumber seeds have a disease they are not bred for. I didn’t disinfect my hoes or the t-stakes holdling up the trellis and because I”m frugal I reused the treillis. So no more cucumbers again this year. 1 type seems to be okay at the moment but we’ll see if the treatments I applied works and if the compost tea will help them with a boost of nutrition. I may take a break from raising cucumbers and get a hold of this problem. You can buy yours elsewhere and know that some people at some stands are buying cucumbers from a wholesale or grocery store and reselling to you saying they raised them. hmmm. food for thought.