If push comes to shove...?

Sally_A

I'd go french beans every time, my excess were frozen without blanching just topped and tailed before shoving into a 2 litre ice cream tub. Will go for more this year - favourites are Cosse Violette, Cobra, and Mrs Fortune.

Did similar with mangetout.

Runners if sliced and blanched before freezing tend to be good up until the new year, if stored too long the fleshy bits just seem to go all soggy. It could be me being a rubbish blancher.

sharloid

cootambear wrote: »

a child is now seen as another parasite to feed.

Broaden that to mankind and well yes, spot on.

RAS

valk_scot wrote: »

Hubby asked me how much I could cut off the weekly food bill on average per week if I got the allotment up to absolutely top production.

I read somewhere that they suggest £1000 worth of produce is possible.

The big issue is what you grow; I doubt row upon row of tatties grown by some of my neighbours (75-85% of the plot) would be worth much.

On the other hand, if you grow high value stuff, eat seasonally, preserve gluts and use them later in the year, that could be possible.

It does however mean some initial investment it plants, seeds and soil health, which takes time to get right.

dreaming

valk_scot wrote: »

Hubby asked me how much I could cut off the weekly food bill on average per week if I got the allotment up to absolutely top production.

I posted on another thread a few weeks ago about an article I saw in Grow Your Own magazine about growing stuff on balconies etc. and the guy reckoned he saved about £720.00 last year (from memory he calculated how much it would have cost him to buy the produce). I have since found his blog on http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/
He hasn't posted much this year but past posts were very informative. I do have a small garden but thought I could adapt some of his ideas - especially about using plastic drinks bottles to make self-watering containers.

Rummer

We have saved a fortune in the past on soft fruit alone! Now we are aiming to have fresh fruit and veg steadily through out the summer and to have some to freeze/preserve over the winter.

newwen112

I have wondered this. I have always thought if the conspiricists are to believed, in August this year we start world war three.

Kirri

valk_scot wrote: »

Hubby asked me how much I could cut off the weekly food bill on average per week if I got the allotment up to absolutely top production. After mulling this over I admitted I didn't really know, apart from that it would be more in summer than winter! Also would I base it on the cost of produce I didn't buy elsewhere or the value of the produce I brought home? ( No these are not the same thing...I adapt the meal plans to what I've got in the summer rather than have a full supermarket of choice.) And what about the things I get in barter? I swap surplus produce for eggs from the neighbour's chickens, home baking (the old lady down the road is a demon of a scone maker) and the odd bit of childcare. How to cost all that in?

Better start keeping a notebook, I suppose. It's all "outs" atm though...new gardening gloves, three new fruit trees, nets, canes etc!

I can save about £100 in summer if not more, that's what I would have probably bought in the supermarket a month but of course, the amount raised from the allotment is more than that as I end up throwing lots away plus other family members/friends can have any surplus, so it is possible to 'make' more than that if you want but it depends how much you normally spend. I keep a log of everything I buy in the supermarket per month to see the difference.

Also the maximum growing season ie the time when I can get everything I want off it is very short, a couple of months in the main summer I class it as when I even have cucumbers and then it's a case of going without the other months or, for pets, buying it in.

I don't generally buy any veg for myself from the supermarket now but it means I go without if it's not in season or frozen, it depends how harsh you want to be on yourself! I have enough stored to get me through the winter though at the moment it's mainly potatoes, squash, onion, garlic, frozen beans, carrots, onions, frozen tomato sauces etc. I'm happy to live on what I have, even if I eat the same most days, other people may not be?

Davesnave

newwen112 wrote: »

I have wondered this. I have always thought if the conspiricists are to believed, in August this year we start world war three.

I don't think many of us here are particularly into conspiricist theories. It's more likely that the majority see the current problems, and those to come, as a result of co ck-ups caused by short-term thinking and the insatiable desire for economic growth.

We have a banking system based on the creation of debt, and the need to service that ever-increasing debt burden is what drives most econimic & political thinking. Now & again, perhaps, some people look out the window to see where we're going, but most of the attention is fixed on the speedometer.

Conspiracy theorists? It's like the Jehovah's Witnesses saying that they have the true message fom God. Frankly, if God was clever enough to create the universe, he wouldn't choose them to do His PR.

ceridwen

Farway wrote: »

The traditional allotment [10 rods?] is supposed to be enough ground to feed a family of four for a year, but of course this can only be seasonal, and does not include bananas / oranges etc

Thought it was a family of six that allotments were meant to feed??? - as in = they had bigger families then.

Umm...what size is a rod? So what size would a traditional allotment be in modern measurements (pleads personal preference for having it in feet and inches:) please)

ceridwen

dreaming wrote: »

I posted on another thread a few weeks ago about an article I saw in Grow Your Own magazine about growing stuff on balconies etc. and the guy reckoned he saved about £720.00 last year (from memory he calculated how much it would have cost him to buy the produce). I have since found his blog on http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/
He hasn't posted much this year but past posts were very informative. I do have a small garden but thought I could adapt some of his ideas - especially about using plastic drinks bottles to make self-watering containers.

I saw that - and duly bookmarked it.

I tend to think he saved £720 with that set-up. I myself would save £720 with that set-up.

I'm not so sure whether people generally would save anything like that much. He saves/I would save that large an amount because some of the stuff he grows is of an expensive type of food anyway (eg microgreens if I remember aright) on the one hand and he will be comparing with buying the produce organically (rather than it being chemically-grown produce).

So - to him its well worthwhile. To me - it would be well worthwhile. I'm not sure how much it would save in comparison with shop-bought, chemically-grown produce and no expensive luxuries like microgreens???

Certainly - a website well worth looking at though:)