Robert Ray wrote:Time is commodity I wish I had more of. Profit or surplus is what I want from a garden I want more than the one clove of garlic I planted. I get ten cloves I have a 90% increase of my initial investment. I can change that into dollars that will let me conveniently store the surplus without spoilage.

Your math is wrong. If you planted 1 and got back 2 you'd have a 100% increase. If you plant 1 and get 10 you have a 1000% ROI (AKA a 10 bagger). For reasons I'm not clear on it's not a 900% increase. Unless I'm wrong.

ROI is return on investment but is it surplus? If you plant 1 clove and get a yield of 10 cloves, how much is surplus? 9? Less?

How much garlic is necessary to maintain the system which produced it? That's the permaculture question.

Always a problem when typing on a tablet for me, big fingers and all. The proper edit has been made. If it is a greater yield than what you invested it is a surplus, of money, of wheat, of cloves of garlic. How does one assess value to labor and the laborers ROI? An exchange/sale is made. The unit of exchange is dissimilar, unless you're a banker and he loans money at an agreeable (or not) rate.
I don't trade widjets for widgets why would I?
At some point I would determine what would be the ideal yield of garlic for my plot and its ability to produce my needs and hopefully a surplus. It will never be a static production, bugs, weather and other unforeseen anomalies. I want an abundance that provides a variety of things and takes into account anomalies and garlic is just one part of the permaculture picture.

My father , a lifelong self employed businessman , taught me to think about profit with a different formula than the garlic clove anology . Take into consideration that he has been very successful with this formula . For each $100 dollars invested , I need to make that $100 back , the next $100 is reinvestment dollars , the third $100 is profit . Any enterprise is naturally more complicated but that is a simple place to start .

Wayne, I was hoping you'd chime in as the OP, an all.

So is the 2nd $100 the surplus?

The third $100 is the surplus . The first $100 regained and the second $100 reinvested is a cycle that I see as maintaining the system indefinitely .

With that type of margin I would think that it could easily be self sustaining. I can make that margin on items I manufacture but not that I purchase as a jobber and sell at retail. If any portion of that second 100.00 dollars is reflected as an increase in inventory I have to claim it as profit and the tax man taketh his portion. So I guess CJ the IRS considers surplus inventory profit.