Striking Gold in the Garden
This has been a great year for potatoes. The picture shows the yield for one Yukon Gold potato plant harvested on August 27, 2010 . The monster-sized one weighed over a kilogram!
Have you ever wondered if it makes economic sense to grow your own food? Today I decided to crunch the numbers for this batch of potatoes and check it out.
Costs: Total outlay $1.70
- one seed potato $0.20
- rental of two square feet of space in a community garden to grow the potato in (water, compost, and tools were included) $1.50
Yield: 4.02 pounds of potatoes at $1.49 per pound (reasonable estimated price for organic Yukon Gold potatoes in the stores) gives me $5.99 as the market value of my harvest.
Return: In just a little over three months, I’ve achieved a whopping 253% return on investment. Wow! If only the stock market was so generous.
Conclusion: My analysis confirms that it is economically worthwhile to grow your own potatoes. If I save one of these potatoes to use as seed next year, my returns could jump to 300%. Yay!
