October on the Homestead
October is the month I begin slowing my pace. August and September are a whirlwind of preserving, and by October, I'm pretty burned out. Thankfully, that's when the harvesting begins slowing down, too.
We got our beef in October (purchased from a local rancher, since we don't have any pasture to speak of on our homestead in the woods), and while we freeze most of that meat, I do take the time to preserve both the suet fat and the bones of the animal. (You can read how I render the fat to make a truly healthy cooking oil here. And how I turn the bones into nutrient-rich bone broth here.)
I also preserve some beets, cauliflower, green beans, and so on from the fall garden.
But I also spend a lot more time resting. Reading good books. Baking. Nesting. It feels good!
This heartwarming little book kicked off my cool weather reading.
The fall garden.
Drying apples.
Canning and freeze drying bone broth.
Rendering tallow.October Produce Totals:
To learn more about how and why I am keeping these totals, click here.
A little note: While I make every effort to gather accurate numbers on my produce, in some cases, the numbers shared here are definitely a bit lower than the actual harvest. This is because my family steals fruit from the orchard :) and because I sometimes don't weigh leaves off main crops, even though we do usually eat them. (Example: Broccoli leaves aren't counted, just the heads, even though we eat both.)
Delicata squash 7 lbs. 11 oz.
Potatoes 5 lbs. 3.62 oz.------------> $3.39 conventional; $7.90 organic
Cabbage.Cabbage 8 lbs. 13.75 oz.------------> $6.34 conventional; $12.68 organic Yellow summer squash 2 lbs.
Patty pan squash 11 oz.
Carrots and beets.Carrots 3 lbs. 10 oz.
------------> $2.17 conventional or organic
Turnip 7 oz.
------------> $1.05 conventional; no organic option available
Runder Schwarzer winter radishes.Winter radish 14.48 oz
------------> $4.48 conventional; no organic option available (My local Walmart doesn't sell winter radishes, so I compared to red table radishes)
Garlic 5 lbs 6.30 oz
------------> $25.88 conventional; no organic option available
Cauliflower.Cauliflower 1 lb. 14 oz.
Green beans 7 lbs. 10 oz.------------> $12.64 conventional; $4.56 organic
Beets 4 lbs. 8 oz.------------> $7.59 conventional; $13.24 organic
Buttercup, yellow summer, and patty pan squash.Buttercup squash 6 lbs .21 oz.
------------> $7.95 conventional; no organic option available (My local Walmart doesn't sell buttercup squash, so I used butternut squash as a comparison.)
Apples 20 lbs.
Saved in October:
$132.73 if purchased conventional; $154.37 if I purchased the organic options available.
Saved in 2024 so far:
$2,134.27 if buying conventional and $3022.58 if buying organic.
2024 Gardening Expenses
Walla Walla onion starts: $4
Cherry tomato start: $5.49 (a single plant and a hedge because the new-to-me-variety of cherry tomatoes I started from seed were looking less than robust)
Potting Soil: $47.96 (primarily for potting up peppers in the greenhouse; some will get used for flowers, too, but I won't try to parse that out.)
Organic snail bait $17.96 (I had to use more of this than is typical because we had such a cool, damp spring)
Total gardening expenses so far: $75.41
Total savings minus expenses in 2024: $2058.86 if buying conventional; $2,947.17 if buying organic when available.
Cinderella pumpkin.
