I don’t know about you, but it has been my experience that nearly everything is harder than it looks and projects seem to always end up taking longer and costing more than expected. Call it one of Dave’s General Facts of LIfe.
We think a shed will cost $400 to build, because that’s what the lumber costs, but by the time you add in all the door hardware, the extra-large box of screws and the chop saw we NEEDED, the total cost is more like $1000 and don’t even THINK of all the labor hours. So would it have been cheaper to have had that guy on Craigslist build it for you? Yes, but think of all the experience you gained, and the sore back and the new chop saw!
Well, I decided to do an economic analysis of the make vs buy dilemma of whether you should grow your own organic vegetables or buy a CSA share. Now this is strictly based upon economics mind you. Most folks think it would be cheaper to grow their own vegetables rather than to buy from a local farm through a CSA Coop. We’ll take a close look at the numbers and compare the economics of growing your own organic vegetables vs buying a CSA share.
Rationale:
I used my own previous experience with a really big suburban garden as a baseline for productivity and costs for each of the items involved and compared all of the costs to produce both the quantity and variety of vegetables that are included in Where the Redfearn Grows Natural Farms CSA share (full share size). BTW, all the pictures in this post are from our previous garden in Blue Springs, MO.
Since we are comparing the proverbial apples to apples, you will need to grow 130 different varieties of produce including heirloom and specialty hybrid varieties. Your garden will have to be 100% organic without the use of those pesticides. You’ll be buying organic seed whenever possible and supplementing your soil with copious amounts of organic matter to improve soil fertility. Your garden will be twenty-five feet by twenty feet for a total of 500 sq ft. To get the yields necessary to compare to a CSA share at Where the Redfearn Grows Natural Farms, you’ll need to water every week. You’ll spend significant time in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting. You will have to time your plantings and replant right after harvesting in order to insure a full 24 weeks of harvests.
Which is cheaper? Grow your own organic vegetables or buy a CSA share?
It turns out, that if you compare these two options, growing your own will cost you almost three times what a full share would cost!
Skeptical? Remember that shed you thought would cost $400? As you can see from the calculations below, the little things add up! Seed may be cheap if you only buy a few packets, but if you buy 130 packets of premium organic seed to supply the kind of variety found in a CSA share, the expenses start to pile up!
So am I saying you should buy a CSA share rather than grow your own organic vegetables? If you were doing it strictly on economic grounds–Yes! But we are more than dollars and cents, and there are intangible and tangible benefits from gardening. Personally, I love gardening! When we lived in Blue Springs, I had most all of the yard torn up to grow all sorts of organic fruits and vegetables. That garden was a lot of fun and a lot of work and pretty expensive to grow; but that garden led me to hunger for an opportunity to feed more people on a larger scale.
Supplying all your families vegetable needs and providing a wide array of variety is a noble goal that I would encourage you to take on, but it isn’t easy, it won’t be cheap and it will take quite a bit of your time.
In contrast, if you become a member of Where the Redfearn Grows Natural Farms CSA, you’ll get an incredibly good price for premium quality, organic produce. You can be involved as little or as much as you want through our work shift program where you’ll have the opportunity to help out with the growing and get your hands dirty (but not nearly as dirty as if you did it all yourself). So, being a CSA member can be somewhat like growing your own in that you can be part of the whole process, but you don’t have to be 100% responsible for it. CSA members share the burden and work together under the direction of expert farmers to produce a bountiful harvest that can be shared with the whole family and neighbors too.
So, you will have to answer for yourself the question of whether you should grow your own organic vegetables or buy a CSA share.
What I can tell you is, at $27 a week for a full share (and $17 for a partial) of locally grown, organic vegetables through Where the Redfearn Grows Natural Farms CSA Program, you really can’t beat it, even if you did it yourself!
Read more about Where the Redfearn Grows Natural Farms CSA Program Here!
