Everyone likes spreadsheets and numbers, here is 2019 in numbers… These figures are from the year’s worth of Weekly Harvests.

Top 10 in Value

The small, slightly spiky, ridge cucumbers just kept coming and when they did each one seemed worth a lot of money. Likewise the colour of a carrot had a huge impression on price. A normal orange colour no one is interested in and the price reflects this, but imagine if it were purple and then suddenly it is priceless.

ridge cucumber	£75.06
coloured carrot	£39.10
tomato	£36.19
strawberry	£21.84
rhubarb	£20.80
potato	£17.10
broad bean	£15.47
chard	£12.91
leeks	£10.27
raspberry	£10.20

Bottom 10 in Value

It might not be because the harvest was bad, sometimes the price is just very low. Why bother growing such things could be the question, but it’s not really about saving money, sometimes it is about eating better. Don’t be fooled either, some harvests came to be in the early months of 2020 and that is not reflected here, we need to wait until this time next year to see.

Saying that, our savoy and red cabbage was pitiful, dolls house size. Swede was attacked by something which put an end to those for the year.

savoy cabbage	£0.20
red cabbage	£0.23
red onion	£0.28
swede	£0.41
apple	£0.50
brocoli	£0.64
sprouts	£0.78
peas	£0.99
kale	£1.29
celeriac	£1.38

Top 10 in Weight (kg)

Cucumbers are heavy as well as expensive, potatoes are heavy but cheap, likewise onions. Strawberries are not particularly heavy, we had a massive crop and could not eat them quick enough, a lot was made into jam.

ridge cucumber	54.00
potato	15.81
onions	6.46
broad bean	6.26
strawberry	5.08
rhubarb	4.39
leeks	4.27
tomato	4.07
carrot	3.18
beetroot	3.00

Bottom 10 in Weight (kg)

You understand why the savoy and red cabbage were at the bottom of the value table, for such heavy things you get an idea of their small size from the very low weight. I put this down to bad planting being overshadowed by other plants as I had forgotten which plant was which as I planted them out. Lettuce just about makes it on this table which seems a bit unfair as it only just missed out being in the top 10 of value.

savoy cabbage	0.08
red cabbage	0.13
kale	0.18
red onion	0.21
apple	0.25
yellow tomatoes	0.27
brocoli	0.37
sprouts	0.39
peas	0.48
lettuce	0.55

Expenses

Fees will, and should, always be the biggest expense of the year, remember this is for just half a plot and it is a half a plot that is very much on the thin and narrow side. I love the plot and think we choose the right one for location, but I’ve never seen one so thin!

Hardware should be minimal but we bought a lot of things like netting and fleece which should be a one off purchase. Unlike compost/manure, seeds and seed potatoes. I’m impressed with the cost of compost as we covered the whole plot thickly in rotted manure, a lot which we collected free from a local horse owner. That supply has now gone, and our mushroom compost supplier has put up prices a lot, I expect this year will be more expensive for probably less.

fees	-£55.00
compost	-£24.48
hardware	-£21.34
seeds	-£12.76
seed potatoes	-£6.00

Sneaky view of 2020…

We must wait until next year, but a quick view so far shows the top in value and weight:

1. leeks
2. parsnip
3. sprouts

The biggest expense already is compost/manure at £10, that’s nearly 50% of last year and we’re only on the third month.