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Heh. I hadn't ever quantified it before, but some quick math says our gardens save us more than $700 per summer.
By way of context, we live in rural Vermont. Our county of about 30,000 people has exactly one stoplight, but strong agricultural traditions and diversified farms everywhere you turn. This combination has significant pros and cons for food.
Cons: It's about 40 minutes to supermarkets and intriguing restaurants. There is no local takeout, there is no delivery, period. You have to cook whether you feel like it or not.
Pros: We are surrounded by farms and fresh food. We grow lots ourselves and buy most directly from farmers. During the summer, we eat many meals where all the meats and vegetables come either from our yard or from the diversified farm two houses down. A substantial majority of our food comes from within 10 miles of our house. Almost all of it comes from within 50 miles.
We currently have about 900 square feet of vegetable gardens (three 25x12 beds). We grow asparagus, apples, kale, basil, snap peas, pole beans, carrots, garlic, cilantro, parsley, dill, tomatoes, tomatillos, halloween pumpkins, and lots of flowers and perennials. An additional herb garden has chives, oregano, more parsley, and several kinds of mint. Someday we hope to add fourth and fifth beds for mesclun, onions, blueberries and raspberries, along with a few more apple trees.
We do this mostly because its delicious. A carrot fresh out of the ground tastes completely different even than a carrot picked yesterday. Kale picked fresh is sweet and bears no resemblance to the bitter green stuff you find in stores. Eggs that were laid and collected this morning are a totally different color (vibrant orange, not yellow). That growing our own food saves so much money is a side benefit.
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