How many squash do I have to grow to pay for that? How many squash do I have to grow to pay for this? I live my life in terms of "HOW MANY SQUASH". I count squash, they are easy to pick and fill a bin quickly. If I loose track of the count it's easy to dump them out and start over. You needn't be a math whiz to count squash. How many squash will it take to pay for my gas to market this week, and how many to purchase the new greenhouse I am hankering for? I'm sure every farmer figures their spending by the commodities they grow.
"How many tons of hay to make the swather payment?", wonders farmer Green.
"How many calves to sell to buy the hay from farmer Green to feed my cows through the winter", ponders farmer Brown.
"How much extra grain do I grow to hire the combines to harvest the wheat," farmer Golden asks his wife. (now that is a smart man)
"How many dozen eggs do I have to sell to buy the wheat from farmer Golden to feed my chicks until they are laying, and through the winter while production is down," frets farmer Hen-rettia.
On and on it goes, round and round. It is the same for everyone reguardless of what you count.
 |
loading squash on my 53 Ford Delivery Truck
|
Here is an example of how many squash I need to grow and sell in
ONE week:
GAS TO MARKET--------------------------------------- 144- 175 with gas prices as they are
bale of HAY I feed out daily so I will have
beautiful compost in two years-------------------------- 252
POWER TO PUMP THE WATER
to feed the thirsty squash vines-------------------------- 48
SEEDS/SHOVELS/EQUIPMENT
divided by 22 weeks of CSA deliveries---------------- 181
Grand total for just one week ---------------------
525 SQUASH-ER-ROOS
now that's a boat load!
So a few years back I was behind on my tilling. I use a walk-behind, rear-tined tiller and wasn't getting my 2 acre SQUASH patch tilled fast enough so I called someone with a tractor and tiller. He said he could do 2 to 3 acres in an hour for $75.00. O.K. sounds good to me-----let's see, $75.00 equals about 225 squash. Yes, I can do that. Well by the time he tilled through my hard-pan clay soil several hours had gone by. $200.00 = 500-600 squash!!!!!!
Needless to say I won't do that again. I'll just plood along behind my tiller eating dust and if I don't get my squash patch tilled I'll settle for a smaller area and just plant PEAS. "How many peas to buy a bale of hay and how many to get me to market?"
MY HEAD HURTS!!!!
 |
| Squash come in all shapes and sizes |
Guess how many squash I had to grow for this.
