First full meal off the homestead

[sea2summit]

That's right!

Butter from my dairy cow, steak off my first steer, eggs from my chickens, bread made from wheat berries we bought.

I've done some basic calculations regarding the cost for this meal to include mortgage, fencing, aggravation, time spent, tractors and other equipment, shelters, feed, and incidentals and this plate seems to cost me about $875.81. Sure tastes good though

 

[VroomVroom]

I’d be like a cow and I’d regurgitate and chew it again. Just due to cost. Goes look good though. They will get cheaper from here on

 

[TractorTYMe]

It's like tractor ownership, spendy but it keeps us busy and tastes good.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Hey! There's the steak lost all morning!

 

[bunyip]

bit like my trout fishing, about $600 a pound

 

[Jstpssng]

Yet people pay more than that to fly out and visit a waterfall. There's a certain amount of satisfaction in reaping what you've sown, which no monetary value can define. Tonight I'm having potatoes and other vegetables which were growing an hour ago, with white perch which were swimming 12 hours ago, that a friend gave me because I keep him supplied with eggs. I don't eat much bacon anymore, but tonight I will fry some up and cook the filets in the fat. The bacon is from last year's pig. The only thing that I bought is the butter... real dairy butter from a nearby creamery which makes Land o Lakes taste like margarine.

 

[Oaktree]

I have an old friend who for the life of himself can't understand why I have a garden and chickens (for eggs only, otherwise they're the wife's pets). He claims he can't tell the difference between mine and the week old stuff from the supermarket. He doesn't even buy "real" potatoes, only canned.
To me there's nothing like totally fresh vegetables (or frozen/canned ones in the winter with no preservatives from my own garden).

 

[Jstpssng]

I have an old friend who for the life of himself can't understand why I have a garden and chickens (for eggs only, otherwise they're the wife's pets). He claims he can't tell the difference between mine and the week old stuff from the supermarket. He doesn't even buy "real" potatoes, only canned.
To me there's nothing like totally fresh vegetables (or frozen/canned ones in the winter with no preservatives from my own garden).

I had canned potatoes- once. I haven't put many vegetables up lately, but to me having a full cupboard of canned good in the fall, along with a freezer full of meat and the winter's supply of heat in the woodshed is like having money in the bank... except that I didn't pay income taxes on it. I don't know how anybody can compare a fresh egg to a runny, pale store bought version.

My hens are my dog's pets... as are the turkeys, pigs, and chickens. After my first year's pigs went to slaughter, for a week he kept going to their pen to see if they had come back. When he's gone there won't be an animal on the place.

 

[shooterdon]

I buy my food when it is on sale. I get “farm fresh” from the locals. The added cost of “farm fresh”, does not work for me....but I like to support my neighbors.

I grew up in a family that had large gardens and we raised a bit of livestock. I will never do that again.

It is not for everyone, but glad it works for you.

 

[oosik]

We had all the normal vegetables when we had a garden. After five or six years wrangling with the local indigenous wildlife - gave up the garden and buy from a farmers market.