A Cornucopia From The Yard

We stopped buying vegetables months ago, with the exception of onions and potatoes, although we're about to stop buying those as well. We do still buy some organic fruit from the farmers market once a week but I figure on average, we are saving around $40.00/week on the produce which we used to buy but now grow ourselves. That's an savings of $160-$180 per month for our family of four. With the skyrocketing price of everything these days especially with regard to food and produce, I imagine that the dollar amount we'll be saving will increase over time. Which brings me to my next point. We cannot possibly eat the amount we currently grow and are looking to further expand our garden beds by another 150 sq. ft. or so. With the existing 350 sq. ft. of beds that we're currently cultivating, we can supply enough produce for at least 8-9 people year round. Once four new beds go in where the lawn used to be, I'd estimate that we'll produce enough for 10-12 people per year. A while ago the kids came up with the idea to set up a weekend produce stand in our neighborhood. I absolutely love this idea for many reasons. First off it will allow us to sell all of the excess organic produce to our neighbors for pennies on the dollar, well below what they could buy it for at any market. It will give the kids a chance to learn firsthand about how commerce can work and I will feel good about giving them a allowance from a portion of the proceeds. My neighbors constantly comment on how nice it would be to have home grown produce on demand like we do, so I think this concept will be a hit.