First Week of AppalSeeds: $212,606 Worth of Groceries!

This week three public libraries took part in the AppalSeeds program: Paris-Bourbon County, Cynthiana-Harrison County, and Berea-Madison County.

In three programs (one week) 168 potential gardeners participated. They took home 920 packets of tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds, and transplanted 252 Stupice tomatoes to take home.

Our Regional Library Consultant, Anne Van Willigen, asked me how many pounds of tomatoes the program produced in a year - and I'd never thought of it that way. So last night after the post-program seed count, I did the math.

If every one of the 168 participants from this week alone grew even 6 seeds from each packet to maturity (there are 15-40 seeds per packet), they would grow a total of 5,520 plants. 63% of the varieties chosen were tomatoes. A safe average produce for tomatoes would be 25 pounds per plant.

63% of 5,520 = 3,477 tomato plants producing 25 pounds of fruit, or
86,925 total pounds of tomatoes.

At a market cost of $2.00 per pound, this represents $173,850 in produce.37% of the seeds taken home by participants were peppers and eggplants, producing 2,042 plants. At 9 pounds of fruit per plant, these plants would produce another 18,378 pounds of fruit.

At $2.00 per pound, the potential market cost savings would be $36,756.

Final outcome? 168 participants now have the seeds, knowledge and ability to grow more than $210,606 worth of produce, for a total of $1,253.60 per person.

In addition to the savings at the market?

1. Nutritional benefits from home-grown food

2. Global environmental savings in shipping costs and use of petroleum products

3. Emotional and physical benefits from gardening

4. New community ties and friendships built by sharing gardening skills and information

5. Deepening plant genetic diversity by sharing seeds on the local level, thus preventing the loss of old or rare varieties

5. New skills and awareness of potential earnings from selling produce and plants

6. Historical value of saving heirloom varieties

7. Environmental benefits from recycling plastic, paper and wood food-grade waste products to produce plants and produce.