There is no precise answer to that. I presume you want to know if you planted a reasonable amount for your family. If they are mainly for fresh use I think that amount will give you enough for several meals and a few to give away. It's about the amount of any one variety of bean I would grow for my own use. If I were canning or freezing I would grow much more. Date to maturity is a very rough, unreliable estimate of time from planting to first harvest. Jim This post was edited by jimster on Fri, May 17, 13 at 17:10

helenill: May I play devil's advocate here for a moment? Keep in mind that I am totally on YOUR side, but maybe I can help you develop a strategy. You earlier posted this: "But I am still thinking that we need an accounting. I'm drafting an e-mail asking in a very polite way because we need to be able to show what we have in our house if we ever want to sell." Is that the rationale you're going to present to him for why you want an accounting now? Because it's not true and he will know it. The market and a willing buyer will establish the selling price of your home. How many houses are bought without the buyer knowing the price the owner paid for it? A LOT, especially if time has passed and especially if no realtor researches it for the buyer. You do not need an accounting to sell your house; that is NOT a believable rationale. Further, you have all the proof from your cancelled check records of what you paid for the house. Few buyers would ask to see how much you were charged for the nails, the paint, etc. Your GC knows that too. Again, it's a BAD rationale because you already have a summary record sufficient to prove to a future buyer how much you have in the house. Answer the question to yourself: why do YOU want an accounting? (Yes you may be "entitled" to one; yes, most GCs will provide one; that's not why you want one.) Now, separate that answer out and look at it critically. Is it a good rationale in your GCs eyes for giving you one? What you want to find is the rationale that he might be able to accept. And you might not be able to find a good one. You might end up saying just because we'd like to look at a breakdown of what everything cost. It would just be interesting to us to do that. (Do bear in mind that he might be feeling cautious about somehow indicting himself if he's done anything he shouldn't have.) Now, the other part of your strategy is timing. It is everything. Given that you two had words on Friday, an email he gets on this touchy subject of an accounting right now will NOT be well received. He will read into it vindictiveness or anger on your part. So, today/tomorrow is NOT a good time. What is? The point at which you owe him a lot of money. So much money that he won't want to walk away from it. That's the point at which you delay payment and tell him that, just like a bank, you want to get an accounting to date so you can "see where you are" before making any more payments. Be careful with this because absent any provision in your contract, you don't have a legal leg to stand on. And he knows that. But he might, out of some good will or whatever, be willing to cooperate. Myself, before I had any communication with him about this, or paid him anything more, I would talk with an attorney. I don't know what the laws are in your jurisdiction or how case law has been interpreted. Maybe there's a legal argument to be made that he has some obligation even outside of such a provision in your contract. I don't know and you don't know. But even aside from the law, simply as a personal business strategy, this is the point at which I always hire an attorney and tell her what I'm trying to accomplish and discuss strategies that might work, as well as find out exactly where I stand legally. Just to keep myself out of trouble. I've had attys sit down with me and compose an email for me to send and help me make it sound "civilian" rather than "attorney-like." In this case, an attorney can be a valuable consultant as a strategist, even aside from any strictly legal aspects. Holding the money, making a reasonable request (asking him to do you a favor, actually, if it's not provided for in your contract), being polite, controlling your anger, watching your timing. Hiring an attorney. That's about all the materials you have to work with in developing a strategy. But you need one. An email now from an angry customer is not likely to produce the results you want. If you're just angry, and that's your real answer to my earlier question, I'd just try to let it go.

Hello everyone, I am in my solo professional growing experience after working for other small market gardeners and livestock farmers for a few years. I have managed a small urban property (zone 9b) for a non-profit for the past 6 months. I built the site from the ground up - from a blighted trash-filled lot to a garden. The idea is to offer low-cost produce to people who live in food deserts. We also do garden and wellness classes. A homeless shelter owns the property and we are giving them 30% of the yield for rent. The lot is shady (nice in the summer but a problem now). There are several citrus trees and a flock of 9 chickens who are not laying at the moment. We are using donated sandy loam with a poor structure that I am slowly amending with vermicompost and horse manure. We have access to a kitchen but no infrastructure on site for processing and packing. The water is barely potable and there is no electricity right now. We got our first seed donations at the beginning of October. After all of the fall crops were in, my employer made a huge decision about distribution without consulting me. They want to do 5 shares of a generously portioned "CSA" box selling for $15 to be distributed by a 3rd party. This 3rd party wants to pick up produce on Thursday for Friday and Saturday delivery (so we will be giving people 3-day-old wilted greens). They usually deal with wholesale produce big-box distributors (red flag). How can I guarantee a "Cisco quality" box worth $15 on one-hundredth of an acre every week? I am a new grower so maybe I can't tell the difference between something that is challenging and something unreasonable. Am I being overly negative? I am willing to give it a shot and have said nothing against the idea so far. Its all been jolly farmer smiles over here. If I were to craft a logical, fact-based, non-defensive, non-desperate email explaining why this is not a fantastic idea for the organization right now what should I say? If I seem a little panicky its because I am. Anyone been in similar situations? Also with the shade and poor soil how can I estimate yield and days to maturity based on listed crop standards? Is this just something I have to keep track of and plan better next year? Thanks in advance everyone.

First, cabinet costs increase every year by about 3%. So the person who had a really nice kitchen installed 12 years ago will be surprised to learn that to replace that kitchen with exactly the same product will likely cost $17,000 today. But I would bet that kitchen doesn't have a single blind corner turn-out or some other nice features that many homes need today. How high are your ceilings? Big cost driver. Homes with 8 foot ceilings are cheaper to do than 9 foot or 10 foot ceilings. Those are major cost drivers. Paint versus stain adds about 10% to cost--add a glaze and you just added another 15% to the paint. Do you have any unique architectural features you want. Those can add up quickly. How many bathrooms do you have. And laundry rooms and bookcases--they all add up. I see nothing wrong with IKEA if you want or need cheap and thin. Oh, and made in China. Most IKEA cabinets are made there. Possibly they use child labor or prison labor, who knows. But best bet is to assume it is 6% to 12% of new home construction, all dependent on the above factors and more. More complex jobs will have a higher percent and less complex jobs will be a lower percent. Track builders regularly do their cabinets at 4% of total job cost, but they are usually very cheaply done, not of plywood, not 3/4" thick and usually underscale for the spaces. Happens often. Those home buyers are my customers 5 to 10 years out as their cabinets discolor and become a bit worn. So dear lady, for your $12000 cabinet job, I would like to put them next to a high quality job and watch your face. There is a difference. But there is nothing wrong with a modest approach from a good cabinetry group--they can make it look like a million dollars and give you a real warranty, unlike the guys doing these things in their garage. You get what you pay for in a very competitive industry and there is no rule of thumb, just a wide range.