Production of Food in the Garden
This last year, I have been part of a program to register the production of food produced in a Swedish family garden. The program is led by the Swedish Garden Society and about 20 families participate. Consequently, we record the time we spend tending the kitchen garden as well as the amount of food we produce. Correspondingly, we must estimate how much it would cost to buy the same products. Given that, I must add it has been a fun, yet time consuming challenge. However, knowing the results is a huge reward for us too.
Keeping a Garden Diary
I started keeping my garden diary on 30th April 2024, so the challenge is not over yet. In other words, I must record my work for another 1 ½ month. Since I wrote the garden diary on paper, consequently, I’ve had to transcribe it to an Excel sheet. The result was beyond my imagination. So, I thought I’d share the information here.
How much work does gardening food take?
Since 30. April 2024, I have spent about 180 hours gardening related to tidying, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting fruit and vegetables. However, I must admit that not every little trip to fetch herbs or a few vegetables for dinner have been recorded. Nor have I recorded time spent in my flower garden. The time spent must therefore be seen in the context that I sometimes do different things and consequently have to estimate how much time was spent doing what.
In any event, gardening is one of my prime hobbies, and I really don’t count the hours I spend outside. Yet, from the May 1st to October 14th, I spent 176 hours working in the food garden. Broken down to a more suitable scale, that is about 8,5 hours a week, or an hour and 13 minutes per day. In reality, I sometimes spent 8 hours in a day while other days I didn’t work in the garden at all. In essence, the amount of work that goes into gardening food is not at all impossible to achieve for most people.
With this in mind, we have berry shrubs and fruit trees that are beginning to mature. The amount of food they produce may vary from year to year, but bear in mind that they take some time before they reach their prime.
How much food did we get?
In summary, we produced 5610 kg food. Should we have bought the same amount in our ordinary grocery shop, we would have had to pay 336.000 SEK, which is about 30.600 Euro. Fruit and berries made was about 1540 kg while the rest was vegetables from seed. As you can see, we really can produce a lot of what we eat without much effort.
A few figures
Product | Weight | Money saved | What we used it for |
Tomatoes | 94.614 g | 39.600 SEK | Fresh, canned sauces; tomato, taco, hot chili, pasta etc. |
Chilies (different sorts) | 8.813 g | 15.400 SEK | Fresh, frozen and dried |
Fava beans |
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Maize (Corn) | 17.189 g | 9.500 SEK | Frozen: Corn-on-the-cob, kernels Canned: kernels |
Onions | 45.700 g | 5.900 SEK | Stored fresh |
Dried beans | 3.362 g | 2.000 SEK | Dried |
Carrots | 23.165 g | 3.450 SEK | Fresh and frozen |
Potatoes | 28.900 g | 5.450 SEK | Stored fresh |
Storing food
On the positive side, we produced a lot of food last year. On the negative side, it takes a lot of effort to keep the food over time too. We eat as much as we can fresh, but we can by no means eat 100 kilograms of tomatoes in a season. Consequently, it has been my quest to discover preserving methods. I do canning, fermenting, drying, and deep freezing. If possible, I try to avoid the freezer since it uses electric power, but I sometimes freeze before I defrost and make something later.
Most of the fruit end up as fruit juices. Onions, potatoes, and pumpkins are stored fresh. I also pickle, but I find that we don’t eat much of that. Last year, I started making end products like taco sauce, pasta sauce, soups, etc.
Summary
In any event, last year was special. I did grow more than previous years since I had just retired from working life. Furthermore, because we didn’t start until the end of April, I haven’t recorded all the working hours of a year yet. Thus, with the addition of the next 1,5 month I will have the full result of a year in the garden.
Youll find more information on how to preserve and use vegetables and fruit under our food label. Take a look at how to use rhubarb or how we use our apples. You will also find good recipes for baking with vegetables.
