I sell my salad mix for $8.50 per pound. Occasionally I get someone out to the farm who is a little taken aback by the price, but then I show them what a pound looks like. A pound fits loosely into two gallon bags and provides about 8 salads - even for big eaters like Toni and I. This is just over a
dollar per salad, which I find to be quite cheap. Elsewhere on the Local Harvest forum, a former chef said you could get 10 salads out of a head of iceberg lettuce. At a dollar fifty per head, that is
15 cents per salad. So, you can eat even cheaper if you buy iceberg lettuce at the supermarket. However, what is a dollar worth to you? With $3.00/gallon gas and 21 miles per gallon on your automobile, you could drive 7 miles. At $4.00 a pint, you could buy half a cup of beer at the local pub for a dollar. You could buy a pair of white cotton socks at the Ferndale truck plaza for a dollar. Or, you could eat a salad for a dollar that is healthy, tasty, attractive, and contains 12 different kinds of lettuce. Sounds pretty cheap to me.
Yep, food's a bargain, even at the higher prices. But most people are not accustomed to making these kinds of comparison. Or they are just plain spoiled by the cheap prices for the processed, low-nutrient foods sold in supermarkets. I'd much rather grow my own or buy at the farmers' market.