Cucumbers are cool!

As someone who loves vegetable, I don’t feel you truly have a complete summer garden unless there are a few cucumber plants tucked in there somewhere. It’s not that I love eating cucumbers so much as I enjoy their explosive growth. One day their tiny like in the picture and the next they’re ready for the salad bowl. The problem is when one is ready, it seems a whole bunch are also. I can remember many a time when I would carry a basket full over to neighbor’s homes only to be turned away because they also had a surplus.

This ability to grow is no surprise if you know that cucumbers are a member of the squash family. Their cultivation goes way back in time. The Roman Emperor Tiberius had a cucumber served on his table daily during summer and even during the winter. This was accomplished by means of raised beds made in frames upon wheels. Cucumber that were grown in them were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror stone. He must have really liked the taste, I guess.

One way that I enjoy this member of the Cucurbitaceae family is to take equal parts of vinegar and water with a little sugar in a sealable plastic container into which go thin slices of cucumber and white onion. This is allowed to sit in the fridge for a week or more and then is eaten. This taste is pretty good and is improved if you sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them. This is also a good method to preserve them as I know of people who will make up gallon batches for use all summer.

The Actual Cost of Produce at the Grocery Store

I though it might be interesting to take a look at the actual cost of certain vegetables I pay for at the grocery store. I was amazed to find that no one seems to be tracking this sort of stuff. At least I couldn’t find very much on the internet.


So, I’ve elected to try and track what I’m paying at a local chain store for select items. The list will include the following; Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers, green beans and Bell peppers. I think this list is representative of some of the stuff I like to grow in the garden each year.


My purpose in doing this is to provide a record of produce costs and to see where I want to concentrate my growing efforts. I’d like to grow veggies that cost a lot and perhaps save a few bucks in the process. I’ll try and append monthly updates to this blog over the course of a few months to get a feel for the average cost of each item in the list.


All costs will be expressed both in the unit in which they were purchased (a bag of potatoes) and in a cost per pound. So, a head of lettuce that might go for $1.39 per head will be also expressed in its true weight. This will allow an ‘Apples to Apples’ comparison as it were. Finally, wherever possible, I plan to buy the produce that is packaged in the cheapest manner. This means buying a 5 pound bag of potatoes rather than each one individually. The only cravat is that I will keep the proportions consistent with what an average family would purchase. In other words, I’ll confine myself to buying a head of lettuce as opposed to a crate of lettuce just to try and save some money. (Anyways that much lettuce would just rot away before I could eat it all).


So, for the beginning of the month of March, 2010, this is what I paid for vegetables at a chain store in southwest Missouri. If, anyone in another part of the country wants to post their costs in the comment section please feel free.