Accessing a model from a controller in Ember

I have a pretty basic setup where I'm trying to format a date in my Controller. The problem is I can't access it in the formattedStart function below, whereas I CAN access it in the summaryRowAction handler. This is baffling me, because console.logging this in both places gives the same result. But for some reason inside of formattedStart, this.get('model.startDate') is undefined.

App.SummaryRowController = Ember.ObjectController.extend({
    formattedStart: function(){
        console.log(this.get('model.startDate');)
        return this.get('model.startDate');
    }.property(),

    actions: {
        summaryRowAction: function(){
            console.log(this.get('model.startDate'));
        }
    }
});

Here is my model and my template (in Jade) for reference:

App.PricingSummary = DS.Model.extend({
    startDate: DS.attr(),
    endDate: DS.attr(),
    days: DS.hasMany('day', {async: true}),
    property: DS.belongsTo('property', {async: true})
});

script(type="text/x-handlebars", data-template-name="summaryRow")
    .summaries__summary("{{action 'summaryRowAction'}}")
        .summaries__summary--item{{formattedStart}} — {{endDate}}