Topic: My ecological devotion ends here -

[tim]

Thought it would be great to grow ones own Cress. Silly? YES!!

Without thinking, ordered Organic seed. £1.49 a pack. Which just does 2 supermarket cress boxes, with a bit over. That's about 60p per box. Bought in they're 15p!!

But peas & leaf salad are a different matter. 4 trays of peas out of a 500gm packet.

[OllieC]

We do loads of our own cress & mustard etc - I reckon we get maybe 20 or 30 lots from a packet. Looks like you got a bum deal... Also, growing it myself I can be sure it's completely pesticide free.

Best value for money is with Alfalfa as these cost a fortune pre-sprouted from organic hippy shops. :)

[tim]

So how much of whose Cress do you get for how much?

This is the pack & what it does - twice - + a little bit more!

[Curryandchips]

That certainly seems like a bit of a ripoff to me. Ah well, live and learn eh?

[MollyBloom]

Organic seed is always dearer than the non-organic, so that would account for part of the higher cost, but in any case I think branded sprouting seed seems over-priced across the board. Our local health food shop (independent, not Horrid & Barren!) sells all kinds of sprouting seeds loose by weight. I find that alfalfa is the cheapest and best performer of all - tastes completely different from cress, of course, but you get the same vitamins and I adore the iron flavour!

[OllieC]

Hmmm, just checked the cress packet we're on at the moment. It's not organic but it was 98p from B&Q and had 12,200 seeds! Now that is a lorra lorra seeds.

[philcooper]

Hmmm, just checked the cress packet we're on at the moment. It's not organic but it was 98p from B&Q and had 12,200 seeds! Now that is a lorra lorra seeds.

But as Tim says, you don't get many little trays from even 12,200 seeds

Phil

[kitty]

well...dear cress...cheap leaf salad..some ya win-some ya lose!
kitty

[Gadfium]

Tim,

Came across some larger plain cress seed packets in the Moles catalogue, & just in case you are still on the lookout for some, here are the details:

Non-organic plain cress- 500g @ £2.75, 1kg @ £5.10

Organic plain cress - 500g (£6.50), 1kg (£10.15), 2.5kg (£22.35), up to 10kg (£76.00)! Now that's a lot of cress.

They also have.... Curly cress non-organic - 250g (£1.80), 500g (£3.00), 1kg (£5.50)

[tim]

Thanks for that - but I think that my Cress growing days are over. It is never available at the right time or in the right quantity to meet family needs. So the veggie Daughter complains!!

She'll spend £1 for convenience!!

[Georgie]

Have you tried Greek Cress?  Tastes the same but much prettier and if you leave a few plants unpicked it flowers and then self-seeds very readily.   ;D

G x