Staples
World wide the cost of wheat has soared , along with so many other cereals , what was once a terrible milestone , the £ 1 loaf , is now a distant memory . Of the list of foods above you can produce everything except bananas and beef . And if I had room for a bigger polytunnel I am sure I could copy Bob Flowerdew ( apart from the ponytail ) and grow my own bananas .
Now , growing a meal ’ s worth of food a week might save you some money , but not much in the short term . What you save by not buying in the shops is quickly spent buying seeds and compost and if you keep hens , somewhere for them to live and feed , and if you keep a goat for milk – then you might as well , in certain circumstances , simply give money away – it would be cheaper in the long run .
But , that said , in the short term , it depends what you are buying in terms of food .
Only once ( and I am going again as soon as I can ) have I been to Fortnum and Mason . I wandered in one day when having to attend a meeting or other in London . It is just like a fairy land of food ! I was completely mesmerised by the produce and quality of the food . BUT , and it ’ s a big but , the food you grow yourself is better in quality , fresher , more nutritious and tastier ; better for you and in money terms , the most exclusive , expensive food on the planet .
You cannot buy tomatoes that were actually growing on the vine one minute and on your tongue the next , nor fresh eggs that are still warm in your hand before they sit upright in the pan . Your own food is spoiling food , because once you have tasted it , you will never want to go back to the stuff they sell in the shops .
But let us stick to the one meal a week idea , for now .
What space do you need to grow a meal a week ?
Well , it depends on what you want to eat – good answer , that ! But it ’ s true . Let us look at the staples – the vegetables for a Sunday Lunch . A big family can eat five pounds of potatoes at a sitting , and this would mean you should grow 26 potato plants . To do this in conventional terms you need three ten foot by three foot rows . Alternatively you could have 12 containers placed around the garden , the path , the shed roof , anywhere really . I grow potatoes in two foot by two foot boxes , the type you get from the supermarket to keep children ’ s toys inside . Twelve of these would give you an equivalent number of potatoes .
Cabbages can be grown in pots . We eat at least a cabbage a week , and usually we have around 50 or so large pots with cabbages that grow happily to balling size and are just as tasty . If you wanted to grow these in the ground you would need the same area as potatoes mentioned earlier .
These simple examples give you the basic idea that you don ’ t need to grow too much really to get a meal a week . There is more to it than just growing a certain number of this or that . For example , with very little effort you can be self sufficient in all your salads . You can fit them in anywhere ; why not line the walls of your house , the garden walls , the edge of the greenhouse with pots of pots , each with one variety of lettuce or another ? All you need is to sow a few seeds in the pots and thin them out . It doesn ’ t really matter what the compost is like – you can always add nutrients by adding liquid feed .
The same goes for radish , salad onions , and a south-facing wall will usually allow you to grow cucumbers . From May right through to October , there is no need for you to but a salad , and they take little caring and cost next to nothing .