Grocery Budget Update; June

red & yellow new potatoes cooked together

June's grocery total was $141.31 This again was mostly dairy, meat and some pickled olives. The garden is beginning to really come on now, with potatoes, tomatoes, squash, corn, greens, and herbs. I even managed to get peaches & plums in June and harvested summer apples in July.

Of course the water bill for May was $175. However I think part of that was a slow leak that went undetected most of the month. Part of it also can be blamed on having to use sprinklers to keep things watered because my work schedule was is so crazy I don't always have enough time at home to hand water like I usually do. And of course I must also blame the weather. I went from March 18 to June 16 without rain and then I only got .2" Got another .5" on July 4th, but we have been having a lot higher humidity as our monsoon tries to get going so things are not drying out so badly as they were. You can see lots of garden photos over at The Edible Garden.

Even if the water bill continues to be high, it will all come out ok in the end. The water use now is not only growing what I'm eating now, but part of what I will eat this winter in the form of squash and potatoes.

I haven't had time to total up the harvest poundage for June, but will try to get to that soon. I also need to sit down and check out the numbers for the chickens feed and eggs delivered. In the mean time the flock has been expanding, in addition to the original 4 hens and a rooster, I bought 4 pullet chicks in March. Recently I was gifted 4 poults about 6 weeks old. A poult is a young bird that is big enough you can't call it a chick any more. It will be a bit before I see if they are girls or boys. In addition one hen is sitting on some eggs, due to hatch around July 20. I also received 4 young ducklings and am going to go pick up about 8 more this weekend. So it might be awhile before the poultry enterprise hits the black.

Welsummer poults

However, by the time the young pullets begin laying in September, that should really move the egg money ahead and of course I will harvest excess roosters and drakes for meat.

In the meantime I make a few dollars each week selling excess produce at the farmer's market and of course eat my fill of what ever veggies are ready.