The price of a gallon of gas? A loaf of bread? Perhaps it’s the price of a gallon of milk?
You’d be wrong. If you guessed “the price of a head of lettuce?” you’d be awful close.
The price of a head of Romaine Lettuce up the road in Louisa is $1.89. To get one of the starter variety at Lowes, a small Romaine Lettuce that is about six weeks old and ready to plant? $2.89.
Now a bag of plain old seeds is about $1.09. I have about twelve of them growing right now (small, but growing) inside in starter trays. In those starter trays isn’t just one, but perhaps a hundred small seeds that took about three days to germinate and will take another two weeks to get really going.
For 100 small heads of lettuce at a dollar, that’s literally $289 of plants (less the cost of small pots and dirt).
Now I understand there is some sort of “food crisis” going on… first it was the price of gas getting it to market. Today it just is a crisis because MSNBC and Fox News tell me so. Whatever…
Last year, I bought a handful of those lettuces at a far cheaper price — perhaps half — just to try them out. For about two months, my little family of six ate salad at just about every meal. It was fantastic, not to mention a cheap way of brining food to the table. Romaine Lettuce was a excellent co-worker in this regard. It appreciates the pruning… so you take the leaves you need, and it thanks you by growing more until it decides to bolt (i.e. start working on making seeds for next year).
Lettuce wasn’t the only thing we grew. Spinach, head lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, peas, grapes, blackberries, watermelons, carrots, and tobacco. In the growing season, it was safe to say that at least item on the plate came from the garden. If it was a meat, then chances are we pulled some sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic, chives, or some other herb from our garden to season it.
Was it a $1.89 head of lettuce? A $1.59 can of peas? Maybe it was $8.99 of spaghetti sauce? Or maybe it was the $1.00 a pop mini-cigars I relaxed with after the kids were in bed? All of it came with a handful of seeds I planted in my garden out back.
Moreover, how much did I save for about $20 in seeds?
I’ve seen a smattering of articles and posts talking about the revival of the Victory Garden in tough economic times. As I was staring at this $2.89 head of lettuce at Lowes, a series of thoughts came to me at once:
- That is way too much to pay for a head of lettuce.
- It’s cheaper at the store!
- But you know something — Lowes has every right to overcharge for that head of lettuce if people are willing to pay for it
- Wait a second. A head of lettuce is much cheaper at Food Lion!
- …but people simply don’t know any better, that they could grow from seed cheaper than what they could buy at a store, much less Lowes where they think they are doing something thrifty.
Hence why a Victory Garden — or any garden — is so important, especially when it comes to putting food on the table. It’s cheap, and you don’t get robbed by those who know they have 90% of America trapped by their own ignorance.
It doesn’t take much. A simple 4′ by 4′ plot can provide all sorts of great things, and it’s easy to maintain. The book “Square Foot Gardening” is an excellent start, and in Virginia you can still get started in mid-April and not be too late!