Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Borlotti on October 17, 2014, 18:30:04
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Went to the allotment today and picked 3 courgettes, curly kale, some everlasting spinach and did a bit of weeding. Feel like a murderer as chopped up one courgette plant with the spade and heard a weird scream, apparently a frog (toad) like it was was hiding/living there, and I said I am so sorry. I really didn't mean to hurt it, and hope it recovers and is not too injured. Not sure what to do about it, but it did disappear later under the blackcurrant bushes, hope it didn't suffer. Then went to the shops and vegs were reduced so went at the right time, and this I what I got, only wanted a loaf of bread, but got carried away. So spent £1.79 of all these vegs. so am beginning to wonder if I am wasting my time. Luckily I enjoy the allotment. My onions at the allotment are always pathetic. Well I did get some mint from the allotment, which is something I would never buy.
OH always asks what out of date food we are having tonight, but it is in date if you eat it the same day or freeze it. Did save the £2 I spent as the spinach and curly kale is a £1 each and not as fresh as mine.
I do love a good bargain.
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Well, I offer to share my allotment produce with my son and his wife (and my daughter and family) but the fact is that when they go to supermarket reduced shelves they can get more than they can possibly eat for pennies, and kindly bring me every imaginable veg as a present.
So what can you do? Argue that your toil and effort has produced something fresher and healthier?
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Think of all the carbon footprint that went into those! Yours is almost nil! And all that nasty plastic... That's a nice eco-friendly thought for you.
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I don't believe we get the same nutritional value from shop veg...farmers just don't treat their soil same as us 'home growers'.
But saying that....I do shop few veggie bits and bobs from shops too..I can't always be bothered to wonder to lottie to fetch something (even my plot is next to house)...do all the scrubbing and preparation. Sometimes it is just easy to crab something from shelf and get on with it... :angel11:
But they never taste the same than the ones that I've grown myself :glasses9:
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Actually the asparagus, kiwi fruit, mange tout, brocolli were brilliant, so was pleased with my bargains. :sunny: :sunny:
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Well they kind-of complement each other, so you can have both! I never seem to see "reduced" veg of the same type that we grow on our Plot.
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A big hidden money saving pro of growing your own is that it is free exercise which we'd maybe pay for at a gym or something while being inside and not getting the benefit of fresh air and sunshine.
I'd have certainly taken advantage of reduced veggies where I use to live if there had been a shop selling them. There are lots of things I couldn't grow which are in shops though there were also lots of veg I could grow which my one local shop didn't sell. Namely my local shop didn't sell mange-tout, mini sweetcorn, coriander, basil or red lettuces.
As to freshness, you can't get fresher and more vitamin packed than what you have grown yourself and take home that day.
Again where I am living only has one shop and I doubt that I'll see reduced veg there. My other half does like our home-grown for the idea that we know what's gone on it to grow it and for the taste.
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Yes, allotment veg. probably have more earth on them - but at least they haven’t been sprayed with nasty chemicals, or rinsed in something awful to clean them, or packed in plastic, or freighted for hundreds of miles. So I love them - and eat them! Happy Eating!
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For us two it's all about taste, we just don't seem to get it from shop bought veg.
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We grow our own for Taste and Free-From agricultural grade pesticides and fungicides ... and the stuff they coat onto fruit to stop it deteriorating. We like to know the provenance of what we eat. It seems to me that every year agricultural Pesticides and Fungicides are withdrawn because of some toxicity that has been found - whereas a handful of years earlier they were being certified as having passed all the necessary tests ...
If Mrs K buys things like Asparagus at this time of year she has to suffer my wrath and indignation at the Food Miles. She buys things like that from time to time, but I don't think they taste a patch on when they are in season (whether home grown or bought in, the extra travel time deteriorates the taste, or the fact that it has to be picked early / before it is ripe).