A FEW SUGGESTIONS IF YOU WANT TO TRY YOUR HAND AT A GARDEN
We haven't figured out which one we're doing yet
THE SMOOTHIE STRIP: Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries; or in the warmer places, bananas, mangoes and papayas
THE COLE SLAW COSECHA: Cabbages, carrots, corn, watermelon
THE PIE MAN PLOT: apple trees, peach trees, cherry trees.
THE MEDITERRANEAN ACRE: tomatoes, peppers, fave, basil, garlic, onions.
CITRUS SANDS: orange trees, lemon trees, mandarins, grapefruit.
THE VALANGA VIGNA: Grapevines. Duh.

ECONOMY: FOOD COSTS:

Thoreau claims he spent eight dollars and change on food from the first of July through the first of March or thereabouts.
He was living in Concord, Massachusetts in the first part of the 19th century. What would that come to in 2018? Could you manage that kind of frugality?

To be brutally frank, that would mean living on just over $200 for 8 months, or, $25 a month on food. Can you do it?
Leon's Landslide finds this is next to impossible--the only things you can eat for $1 USD a day are beans, plain oatmeal, cornbread and tap water. Correct us if we are wrong.
but Thoreau probably often ate at other people's houses, where he could get the meat, milk butter sugar etc that he could not get on his own.
Thoreau planted two acres or so of land that no one was using, he did not own it. Though he went hunting and fishing, his daily nourishment was very simple and cheap.
He planted beans, corn, peas, turnips and potatoes, and hired a plow but did the rest of the maintenance himself because he was not working at anything else at that time.

OUR OWN RESULTS: PIE MAN PLOT ESTIMATED EXPENSES:
The pie man plot is turning out to be a big investment: a single sweet cherry tree alone can run you upwards of $25! And you need two trees to pollinate-- However, according to the WORLD OF HOPE fruit tree blog, we could get more than a pound of cherries a day for half a year, after the trees get 7 years of growth. That's $7 of cherries a day, times 180 days--$1260 dollars a year on a $50 investment,

WORK HOURS: Now we need to figure out how many hours of work you add to this.

TOOLS

There are a few tools every gardener should have; this list is not Thoreau's but from our own experience.
Shovels and rakes of various sizes, a hand axe, a hand saw, some clippers, some loppers, a small chain saw if you feel comfortable using it.

OUR EXPENSE DIARY FOR THIS SUMMER: end of week two,
TIME: TWO HOURS A DAY, AVERAGE OR 12 HOURS A WEEK. MONEY $25 for seed shipment, $14 for 20 leaf bags @70 cents apiece.
FOOD AND OTHER GROCERIES, approx. $75 per person per week, or about $10 a day.
We havent' planted anything yet, last frost was May 9.