(Page 7 of 8)
A Well-Drilling (Customer's) Primer September/October 1984 Most well drillers won't deliberately gi...
With its 2010 calendar filled with garden recipes and vibrant photos, the Seed Savers Exchange deli...
If you want to grow nutritious and tasty fresh vegetables during the cold months, sprouts are the a...
If you grow and cook them correctly, you may discover a surprising attraction to these nutty and de...
We are presently committed to sprouting 35 dozen eight-ounce bags of lentil and 47 dozen four-ounce bags of alfalfa shoots a week. That's 210 pounds of the first and 140 pounds of the second. Which means (since the lentils slightly more than double in weight as they grow and the alfalfa sprouts increase their weight by a factor of seven) that we start each week's crop with about 95 pounds of lentils and 20 of alfalfa seed. And, when you multiply those figures in turn by four, you find that we're currently purchasing 380 pounds of lentils (at 76d a pound) and 80 (at $1.59 a pound) of alfalfa per month. Which means we're spending $288.80 every month for lentil seeds and $127.20 for the alfalfa we use.
Add on $39.36 for labels, $23.62 for plastic bags, $72.12 (boxes), $24.00 (gasoline used in deliveries), $12.00 (electricity), $50.00 (prorated rent for the basement in which our sprouts are grown), $5.00 (liability insurance), and $15.00 (miscellaneous supplies) ... and you find that our monthly business expenses total up to $657.10.
On the other hand, the 140 dozen packets of lentil sprouts we sell each month (at a wholesale price of 48d each) gross us $806.40 ... and the 188 dozen packages of alfalfa sprouts (which wholesale for 39d apiece) bring in another $879.84. Add the two figures together and you get $1,686.24 ...hours cleaning up, and two hours on book work. Total: 40 hours a week, or 160 hours a month.
Divide that number into our monthly net of $1,029.14, and (before taxes are deducted) you'll discover that we're earning more than $6.00 an hour, at home, in our own business, which we run pretty much as we darn well please. We don't think that's too bad for a couple of sprouters!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Three good books on the subject of sprouting and sprout use are The Sprouter's Cookbook by Marjorie Page Blanchard and published by Garden Way in paperback for $3.95 . . . The Complete Sprouting Cookbook by Karen Cross Whyte, published in paperback by Troubador Press for $3.95 . . . and The Beansprout Book by Gay Courter, published by Simon & Schuster in paperback for $1.95. All should be available from any good bookstore and may be ordered from Mother's Bookshelf, P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28739. Please add 95¢ to all mail orders for shipping and handling.
Mother Earth News is the guide to living — as one reader stated — “with little money and abundant happiness.” Every issue is an invaluable guide to leading a more sustainable life, covering ideas from fighting rising energy costs and protecting the environment to avoiding unnecessary spending on processed food. You’ll find tips for slashing heating bills; growing fresh, natural produce at home; and more. Mother Earth News helps you cut costs without sacrificing modern luxuries.
At Mother Earth News, we are dedicated to conserving our planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. That’s why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our Earth-Friendly automatic renewal savings plan. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $4.95 and get 6 issues of Mother Earth News for only $10.00 (USA only).
You may also use the Bill Me option and pay $14.95 for 6 issues.
