It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the cost of good wholesome food is very much on the rise. What's more, with the current economic downturn, fuel shortages in the Southeast and crop failures in the Midwest, Gulf States and elsewhere due to adverse weather, the already high price of food is only likely to continue to increase.

Already, many families are feeling the weight of the situation and are finding it necessary to tighten their food budgets by buying processed foods in bulk, which they believe are inexpensive. Not only do these types of foods leave a lot to be desired from a nutritional standpoint (so much so that they are largely only full of hollow calories and preservatives, opposed to the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to function properly), but in reality, they are not very inexpensive either.

However, it does not have to be this way if you grow at least some of your own food.

Even if you live in a high rise apartment in a large city, it is still possible to grow some of your own food. What's more, you can enjoy truly wholesome fresh food that is blessed with an old fashioned taste for only a tiny fraction of what it costs in the supermarket. And to take matters further, the more space you have, the more food you can grow and the more money that you will save on your food bill. In addition, unlike the foods you buy from the store, when you grow it yourself, you will know exactly what goes into your own food and you can insure that your family is not eating food that is genetically modified or sprayed with toxic pesticides, chemical colorants and wax.

Though the idea of growing your own food may sound a little intimidating to those who have never done so in the past, just keep in mind that it was not so long ago that our ancestors grew most of their own food. With just a little know-how, you too can enjoy the same food security that they enjoyed by growing your own food. What's more, gardening is great outdoor exercise and it's a great life experience to share with your children that they will remember and in turn, pass on to the next generation.

How Much Money Can I Honestly Save by Gardening?

Though it's difficult to accurately calculate how much money one saves by growing their own food, let's consider the following facts:

In October 2008, a look through our own newspaper ads reveals that a major chain store had the following on sale:

Vine Ripened Tomatoes: $1.29 lb.
Canned Tomatoes (14.5 oz. Can): $1.00
Bell Peppers: 79 cents each
Asparagus: $2.99 lb.

Locally, your prices may be even higher.

Let's take a closer look at those “good deals”.

When you buy one of our special vegetable seed sets, you get 100 different packets of seeds for a rock bottom cost of $25.00. That's only 25 cents a packet! Each individual packet of tomatoes contains at least 20 seeds and has the potential to yield 200 lbs. of fresh tomatoes. That's a lot of food that you can utilize fresh, as well as preserve with varying methods such as canning, drying and freezing. If you were to buy that same 200 lbs. of tomatoes from the store, it would cost you nearly $260 and even if you bought them canned, it would cost you over $200!

Much the same way, when it's mature, one packet of asparagus seed can yield 40 lbs. of delicious spears per year. For 25 cents! That's $120 worth of Asparagus if you purchased it from the store! And that's what they call a good deal for asparagus!

Our average packet of bell pepper seeds can yield over 200 bell peppers per season. If you grow them yourself, they would cost you 25 cents, but if you were to buy them in the store, they would cost you $158!

And the examples could just go on and on, with each packet of seed yielding anywhere from $50 to $200 worth of food each! This can equate to saving thousand of dollars per year on your food bill.

But what about those so-called “inexpensive” meals that you buy in a box and just add other ingredients (typically meat) to? On the surface, these boxed meal mixes seem very inexpensive because they are sometimes on sale for about a dollar.

However, after you add the suggested pound of ground beef, the price has just shot up to five or six dollars and chances are, that's not even enough food for a whole meal. Not only is that not very cheap compared to growing your own food with our seed, it's pretty far from being healthy too.

Much the same way, some people believe that fast food value menus are the way to go and on the surface, a hamburger, side of fries and a soft drink for three bucks seems like a pretty good deal. But if you are an average family of two parents and two kids, one meal is going to cost you $12. That may not seem like a lot, but it can really add up to a lot of money over a year!

Needless to say, you really can save a lot of money by growing even a very small percentage of your own food. And again, a diet rich in fresh seasonal vegetables is a sure way to insure that you and your family receive the proper nutrients that your bodies require. In fact, that's really the sort of diet that we are supposed to eat!
 
 

For only $39.99, you can receive 100 packets of our select heirloom vegetable seeds (a savings of over $175), which is enough to supply the average family with a ready supply of healthy fresh vegetables even during the hardest times. Vegetable seeds have a storage life of at least five seasons and this is a great opportunity to establish your own food security for a low price. Even if you have only a small garden area, it is possible to grow a good quantity of your own wholesome food for a cost that is much lower than you can buy it anywhere. Our seeds are non GMO and are 100% open pollinated, meaning that you can breed your own seeds for use year after year. Unlike others offering vegetable seeds at low prices, our seed is hand packaged and is hand selected from the freshest supplies on the market! Find out what's in our vegetable seed sets here. (To order, just click a button and then choose the option at the lower right to use your credit card).

There is actually a lot of variation in our seed sets on a weekly basis based on available supplies. Though the crops don't tend to change, the varieties change every few days.

As a general guideline, each 100 packet sets contain ALL major crops, including: Heirloom Tomatoes (including beefsteaks), Bell Peppers, Chiles, Eggplant, Beans of several types, Sweet Corn, Beets, Chard, Cabbage, Collards, Kale, Mustard Greens, Turnips, Carrots, Radishes,Cucumbers (slicing and pickling), Melons, Watermelons, Lettuce (several types), Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Celery, Leeks, Onions, Okra, Peas, Parsnips, Spinach, Zucchini, Winter Squash, Pumpkins and a few culinary herbs. 

We try to make sure that ALL of the above crops are included and typically several varieties of each are included. Each packet is large enough to supply the average family with an abundance of food.

We also include some less known crops such as Amaranth, Oriental Greens, Chicory, Endive, Lamb's Lettuce, New Zealand Spinach, Miner's Lettuce, Artichokes, Cardoon, Salsify, Luffa, Cucuzzi, Rhubarb, Wild Strawberries, Popcorn, Dent Corn, Southern Peas, ... just to name a few.

Our 50 packet sets contain everything that our 100 sets include, with the exception of the less known crops and the fact that multiple varieties may not be included.

Our 25 packet tomato seed sets contain twenty five varieties of our best old fashioned heirloom tomatoes. Included is a rainbow of colors and tomatoes of all shapes and sizes. They are ideal for salads, slicing, making tomato sauce, tomato juice and for canning too.
 
 

July 2008
Midwest Floods Ruin Crops - "The United States was fortunate to be an observer, not a victim, when natural disasters ravaged global crops in the first part of this year. Spared from the turmoil, U.S. farmers planted near-record crops this spring and expected to enjoy record prices.Now, however, there is devastation here, too." US News, July 8, 2008

Corn, soybeans hit records - "Corn and soybean prices soared Thursday, climbing to new all-time highs after more thunderstorms drenched Midwestern states and left recently replanted crops underwater again ... Estimates range from 2 million to 5 million acres of U.S. farmland being damaged or destroyed — a huge loss that would depress crop yields and almost certainly send world food prices higher.", AP, June 26, 2008

Weather Impacting Groceries? - "Supermarket prices are up 3.5%, and staples like milk and bread may not be coming down." WILX.com, July 8, 2008

World leaders to discuss food shortages - "The leaders of the Group of Eight nations, meeting in Japan this week, will sit down with the leaders of other major economies including Australia to discuss climate change and world food shortages." , Radio Australia, July 9, 2008

Food Shortages 'the real threat' - "Future food shortages are a far bigger threat to the world than global warming, a Golden Bay dairy farming seminar has been told. 
Irish farmer and businessman Mike Murphy told the 70 farmers at the DairyNZ seminar yesterday: "Global warming gets all the publicity but the real imminent threat to the human race is starvation on a massive scale.", RedOrbit.com, July 8, 2008

Report says families must eat leftovers to ease world food shortages - "Families must eat leftovers to ease world food shortages and help the starving, a shock report will warn today. The average UK household bins £420 of food every year and this must be cut to ease pressure on dwindling supplies, it says. The report comes as Gordon Brown arrives in Japan today for a G8 meeting of world leaders.", Mirror.co.uk, July 7, 2008

Annual Food Price Inflation Hits 7% As Retailers Pass on Rising Costs - "Food cost 7 per cent more in British supermarkets in June than it did in the same month last year, a survey showed yesterday. The annual rate of food price inflation jumped from 6 per cent in May to 7 per cent last month, as shops passed on the continuing rises in the cost of global commodities, the British Retail Consortium said.", Independent.co.uk, July 10, 2008

High Prices Nudge Europe Nearer to GM Food - "Like many in Europe, Switzerland's Coop supermarkets do not specify whether goods are genetically modified -- none are. But a wave of food inflation may help wash away resistance to "Frankenstein foods" , Forbes, July 7, 2008

Older Articles
Forget Oil, the new global crisis is food - "A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen." Financial Post, Jan. 7, 2008

Food shortages loom as wheat crop shrinks and prices rise - "The world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years. " Times Online, Feb. 24, 2008

Midwest Floods Devastate Corn CRops, Could Raise Price - "Floods that have inundated the Midwest could reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher at a time when Americans are already stretching their grocery budgets and people in poor countries have rioted over rising food costs." Fox News, June 14, 2008

Midwest Floods Damage Essential Food Crops - "In a world where food and clean water are becoming rare commodities, the floods across Iowa and the Midwest could have global repercussions.  Corn, soybean, and wheat crops have been destroyed.", Now Public, June 16, 2008