Geeking Out

I've been playing with a lot of numbers recently. I do love winter for all the time it allows me to spend cozied up with a mug of hot coffee and pages & pages of Excel data... (I'm serious)

The most fascinating has been the crop profitability data I've been crunching. I've been trying to figure out which crops are most profitable to grow based on the amount of space they take up in the garden. If I set the target of grossing $25,000/acre, then crops need to average $3.44/bed foot. $30,000/acre requires $4.13/bed foot. The calculations are based on yield/bed foot * price/unit of yield. Here's a few outstanding examples at both extremes:

Swiss Chard: $8.13
Cucumber: $1.54
Arugula: $10.97 (!!!)
Broccoli: $1.88
Eggplant: $10.61
Spinach: $2.27

This is based on just 1 year's worth of data, so the numbers will become more meaningful over time. And, more importantly, none of this takes into consideration the amount of work different crops are to grow and harvest (this is really quite variable), nor the expense of inputs required (row cover, extra compost etc), but I have a pretty good sense of how that layers in without trying to put hard numbers on it.

What does all this mean? Well... not much for my CSA members, who will continue to get essentially the same array of vegetables as they have in the past. It may, however, affect how hard I work to market particular crops, push me to figure out how to improve the yields of some lower profitability crops, make me increase some individual crop prices, or change the balance of what I bring to market on Saturdays.

Next up....seed orders!!