Lettuce: a garden inquiry.

[half_double]

Okie-dokie folkies. Here's the deal. I'm writing an article for Do It Green! Minnesota. What the editor has presented to me is a side-by-side-by-side comparison on the monetary and environmental costs of 3 heads of lettuce: 1 conventionally grown in CA and shipped to MN for sale in the local megamart; 1 organically grown and available locally,

Comments

[blue_sky_48220]

Oy. It would be hard to calculate the cost of a single head of lettuce, I would imagine. And, I have found that most back-yard growers tend to grow leaf lettuce, as opposed to head lettuce. (I know I do.)

But, for me, the entire cost of a season's worth of leaf lettuce (probably about the equivilant of two-three big heads of lettuce, or maybe 3-4 smaller heads) would be the cost of about 3-4 gallons of water, plus the seeds I used to grow them. I don't know what the seeds cost, but I doubt they were more than a couple of bucks, tops, and I didn't plant anywhere near all of them. (The variety I used was called "Flashy Trout Belly," or something like that.) I make my own fertilizer from worm compost (and now, chicken poop), so that was not a real cost, since those things are waste products for me. I don't use pesticides, and I only water when absolutely necessary. As for fuel... seeds weight almost nothing, so I would assume that the postage is about the same as for a regular letter.

I don't know if that's helpful or not, but there it is.

[blue_sky_48220]

Yeah, one more thing: I didn't grow a whole lot of lettuce. Lettuce is readily available at the farmer's market, and it's dirt cheap. I used the space in my garden for other crops that tend to cost a little more, or vegetables that come in more exotic varieties, like peppers and eggplants. I probably could have grown a whole lot more, though, with little extra expense.