This made me angry!!

Have a read of this nonsense:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-chickens-Going-supermarket-save-FORTUNE.html

I would dearly like to have a face to face meeting with this so called journalist. More like a character forming and educational chat!

Made me a tad angry that a supposed newspaper would publish such an article without proper research. I can easily dispute many of the figures mentioned, from recent personal experience. Others can be easily contested by simple and quick research.

How many novice gardeners will be put off by this sort of idiocy?

Chopper.

 

I think you have to take everything said by the Daily Mail with a pinch of salt. I could never get too "irate" about anything printed in there and it's our daily paper.

I guess they've researched their costs, but we all know that if you're "in the business" you might be able to reduce this. They've approached it as if someone was starting from scratch and what they might expect to pay out in their first year.

It's a question of degree. They are talking about novices at "the good life." The results for many won't be anywhere near as good as those of experienced at it. They'll likely make mistakes in the first year that will cost them money.
Many will be harvesting their "crop" at a time when it is cheapest in the shops.

A lot of people who "grow their own" tend to play down the actual costs to them in time and money and are "over optimistic" about the size and quality of their crops (present company excepted of course!)
I've mentioned before a golfing pal who brings in apples for us "and we run and hide."

Maybe I'm biased, but I haven't the room or time to grow produce.
"For everything else, there's Waitrose."

 

Calm down Chopper, its the Daily mail.

They trot that sort of stuff out when theres no news about. Next week it'll be "Well we cant see no global warming" or something like that.

If its such an expensive thing to do then how come people have been doing it since we stopped being hunter gatherers.

 

Its a shame that Africans can't get the Daily Mail delivered to their mud huts. If they did they would realise that they could all give up their way of life, get everything from the supermarket, and be much better off. :D

 

I have seen much worse printed in newspapers, there's a reason I don't believe anything I ever see in one! If they told me the sky was blue I'd assume it was a lie.

 

I think its pretty spot on Chopper. I don't subscribe to the sentiment that they are implying, but I think the facts (taken bare) are close enough.

Chickens: We have two. We have enough eggs when they are laying (lets say 6 - 9 months of the year) for about 80% of our needs. In the Winter we have none. The local Pheasants and other large animals nick their food, so we are feeding them too (I see no need to feed Pheasants, the local farmers rear them for shooting, bit different to other wildlife that might need our help).

They are hilarious when they waddle around the garden, and the eggs taste absolutely fantastic, and have lovely colour. Townies who come to stay cannot believe that the word "eggs" applies both to what we serve them and what they get in the Supermarket.

I think we would be better off with Indian Running Ducks. As/more entertaining than hens, far more productive egg laying.

Cost of our eggs relative to Supermarket? "Expensive"

Bees: I've very seriously looked at keeping bees. I'd love to. The startup-cost is significant, and there is absolutely no way that I have enough time. Great hobby, but not a means of getting cheap honey.

Potatoes: Yeah, well this was a cop out. Of all the vegetables Spuds must have the lowest pay-back per unit area. Spuds are cheap in the shops, and if you are growing them to store through the winter yours won't taste any better than supermarket ones (which will have been stored in climate-controlled storage). You might grow a variety with better flavour than you can buy, and you will know what chemicals went on them - that's about it.

Early spuds are nice, and expensive in shops;

The didn't choose Sweet Corn as the crop to home-grow eh? straight from Garden into the saucepan, it has a flavour that the supermarkets cannot give you - as soon as it is picked the Sugar starts turning to Starch - so a two-day travel from Field to Supermarket has already ruined the flavour.

Again, townie weekend visitors don't believe it is the same stuff they get in Tins!

Goats and Pigs: We don't do them. The hassle of abattoirs makes it impossible. I am not aware of any local butchers who are allowed to slaughter any more. Time was when the local butcher would do it, hang it to your requirement, and it tasted fantastic. now you need EEC approval and a batch of less than 100 tonnes of meat is probably uneconomic. (Mind you, friends locally do have two or three Cows or Sheep, so it must be possible still)

Jam: Huge labour of love - but I think that is true of any form of preserving vegetables. We have a solution to that though: Grow them and give them to retired In-laws etc to process for us

Yeah, you guessed it, the visiting townies don't think its the same as comes in jars of "Robertson" - or even "Fortnum and Masons" either for that matter!

Cider: Dunno about that. I've brewed my own beer (did it a lot, rather than a one-off-failed-experiment). I would say my beer was "ok" (and "cheap"). I would prefer something from the Supermarket though.

Bread: We use a bread making machine (so, according to the D.Mail, not proper Good Life bread!). Townies love it! We never buy bread, ours tastes fantastic. and I think it has a completely different effect on the digestive system. People in my family have had trouble with Bread products over the years - some even diagnosed as Celiac - but they have always been able to eat bread in France, and we found that our machine-home-baked bread was fine too. I reckon its a combination of the "improvers" that are in bread, and the modern process of milling with metal rollers and then beating the hell out of it rather than the old fashioned stone-ground approach. So I will say No Thanks to the "Wonderloaf" we used to have in my school days ...

I imagine I'm not saving anything buying flour and using electricity to bake my own bread ...

 

One area not mentioned is for those like us who live a long way from ANY shop never mind a Supermarket. The cost of fuel to go shopping adds to the cost of the food And don't say have it delivered, they don't deliver here.

As for the Dail Mail, I am waiting for the headline. "Immigrant family making millions from our shoreline"

Work that one out!

 

It's the Daily Mail Chopper, so don't excite yourself about anything they have to say.
They have been very selective in their examples and taken a worst case analysis.

I grow my own vegetables and find it very financially worthwhile. And at the end of the day it's not all about cost.
Carry on enjoying your growing and forget the Daily Mail.

 

When my husband and I decided to go for a rented farm and set up in business on our own, (he previously being a farm manager) we knew we would need financial assistance to set up our business.
It very soon became clear, that we didn't stand a chance of convincing a bank that our figures were accurate and we knew what we were talking about!!

A bit like the Daily Mail, the bank presumably used text book figures and allowed for the purchase of brand new equipment, livestock purchased being in tip top condition and most importantly...factored in our labour at the going rate!!

My husband was brought up on a tiny mixed farm, where his family had been used to second hand equipment from auction sales, buying a thin older cow with good genetic potential, to breed from and making tin sheet pig arks and homemade hen houses. He and his brother and sisters used to take their goats along the lane to graze before school and everybody mucked in and did what needed to be done without adding up hours spent!

What I'm trying to say, is that we DID manage to pay off the loan we eventually secured against my mum's house!! and we have farmed happily, bringing up four children over the last 25 years.

Mr Daily Mail man is forgetting the one most important factor regarding the ppl that choose to live 'the good life' on whatever scale...and are successful at it.
The ones who genuinely end up producing good quality produce, less expensively than the supermarkets, are the ones who use common sense.
Most of our hens are ex battery, 50p each. They live free range eating lots of grubs and insects but most return to hen houses made from free wood collected from various sources.
We are lucky enough to be able to glean corn after local combines have finished in a field and we usually have plenty of greens surpluss to requirements too. A solar panel can generate enough electric for extending daylight and egg production to some extent too.
When we have lots of eggs...we eat scrambled eggs and home made lemon curd and I bake for the freezer. Another week....we might eat quite a bit of pumpkin soup!! You get the picture?

 

I only read the Daily Mail online...in order to discover what the 'enemy' is being told to think. More people should do likewise. Did you know the same newspaper was right behind the British Fascists and what they stood for in the 1930's?

 

Even home grown tomatoes are not exactly cheap, when you consider what goes into growing them.
In the old days you just put a few seed in and planted them out.

Now if you like to follow the trend, there are all manner of things that you can buy to get bigger plants and create a larger crop.

Most of the home grow "thing" revolves around how much enjoyment you get out of producing them, its not a commercial issue.

I'm pretty sure the article is correct on many counts.

Cant work out what the problem is with the Daily Mail, its a News Paper, and they all have their slant that they put on things, left or right.
But I think its probably "Right" on this one.

 

Exactly Julie & no I didn't know that Aaron but it doesn't suprise me.

There is a nagging worry in the back of my mind that the tax man will not believe I can survive on such a small income this past year.

[align=left]With the 2 veg gardens i've got piles of food, a cupboard full of preserves, chutneys sauces etc. 2 freezers full of veg.

I've studied wild edibles since 1984 & while not all wild food is choice, I could certainly find enough to make a meal in all but the dead of winter. I also keep a foraging/fishing diary to remind myself whats ready at what time.

The heating & hot water are free apart from the electric to pump it round & a big bottle of gas for cooking lasts over a year.[/align]

 

I liked this comment from one of the readers

"In other words, they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing!"

About says it all!

 

You're so right, Daisees.

 

The Daily Wail article is probably correct for the specific items theyâ??ve carefully selected and the â??gardenersâ?? and gardens exemplified.

The Wailâ??s taken a â??standing startâ?? view of the costs but for very many gardeners the costs are spread of several years.

Most of my packets of seeds last two or three years. I make most, though not all of my own fertiliser and produce most of my own seed and potting compost.

I take great satisfaction looking at the prices of fresh (?) veg in the supermarkets when we have them in sufficient quantities in the garden, grown pesticide free and available to eat within minutes of picking and without the carbon costs of transport.

One important aspect of growing your own that the Wail failed to address is the economic benefit to the NHS derived from the physical and psychological benefits of gardening. Gardeners tend to be healthier than non-gardeners and cost the NHS less.

The fresh air, exercise and relaxation I get from growing veg just adds value as far as I'm concerned.

To paraphrase Daisees â?? The article said nothing about value, it was all about price.