Another Busy Weekend

I've been hitting it hard in the yard again. I finished my dog's pen and I got most of the work done on my garden. When I'm finished I'll have 5 or 6 4x4 square foot garden planters in the back yard. I plan on concentrating more on obscure cash crops. Heirloom tomatoes sell for around $5-$10 a pound around here. Exotic peppers are pretty close. It's amazing how much people will pay for stuff that they can just grow in their back yard. I'm also going to plant some hops vines (the "how to homebrew with your preps" post is coming once I finish my all grain setup). I'll be eating a lot of what I produce but I want to use it for supplemental income as well. "Normal" produce is so cheap that I just can't justify doing all that work to get stuff that I can buy for a couple of bucks. Even with most food prices going through the roof fresh fruits and vegetables are still really cheap.

Comments

Ryan said…
Planting more expensive stuff makes sense to save the $$$. Growing an 8x8 plot of taters would be much worse economics then the exensive stuff.
May 12, 2008 at 7:09 AM
scoutinlife said…
Good point some produce is cheaper to buy than raise. I will be putting out some red and yellow bell pepper plants this weekend if the rain ever stops.
May 12, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Anonymous said…
former home brewer here. never thought to grow my own hops. anyway, the critical ingredient to beer taste is the yeast, and there are a huge number of varieties of that. experienced home brewers will skimp on hops and use good yeast, especially when brewing exotics like belgian ales or hefe weizens. if you get a base stock, you can culture your own yeast and sell to other brewers
May 13, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Anonymous said…
what general are are you in?

do you actually sell your heirloom tomatoes? thats nice cash - how do you go about it?

what sort of exotic peppers are in demand?
May 13, 2008 at 10:17 AM
The Urban Survivalist said…
The yeast can be reused several times. The hops can't. Just keep culturing more yeast from the leftover cake and it'll last you a while. You might not end up with the exact same flavors but you'll still get beer. I'm not very meticulous when it comes to brewing. I take extra care with sanitation but besides that I could care less what kind of hops or grain goes into it. Give me a generic pale ale and I'm happy.

I have relationships with a lot of local restaurants and I also know a couple of buyers at a local specialty supplier. Baby vegetables sell well. Odd colored tomatoes and peppers sell well. Odd varieties of things like carrots and radishes sell well. Even something simple like horseradish brings in a pretty good price. I don't plan on making a living off of a little plot in the corner of my backyard. If it puts a few gallons of gas in my tank or helps fund that motorcycle that I'm looking forward to, though, then it'll be well worth the effort.
May 13, 2008 at 9:46 PM
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