Sticker shock!

It's not just that more and more kinds of produce at the store are getting stickers, and it's annoying to bite into an apple and eat one. Or maybe to peel one off and then have nowhere to put it - suddenly a very portable snack has a paper thingy to dispose of. No, these are not the sticker-shock I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the price of things. Have you noticed? Produce is sky-high. Take a head of garlic, for example. One costs $1. Add that to the price of the rest of the ingredients in your meal - most people don't make a meal out of a head of garlic - and you've paid a hefty price for a healthy meal.

But growing garlic is easy. Plant 10 pounds, get back 50. Stick them in the ground in the fall, harvest them starting in June. Grow some hard-necks that are full of flavor all winter and eat them all summer. Grow some more in the spring and eat them in the fall. Grow some soft-necks and store them all winter and eat them till June rolls around again.

You pay for the sets and put in half an hour sticking them in a pot or in the ground. You get paid back all year.

This is just one example of saving with a garden. The photo is of our garlics that have been growing now since late October. We weren't even home for most of their lives. The deer gave them wide berth. We'll start eating them in the next two months.

I can't wait. Not only will they be free at that point, but there's more variety there than you can find in the market. YUM!

Photos coming!