I was reading a budget recipe book the other day when the author was saying how the cheapest way to buy potatoes was out of a tin. I'd have to disagree and say it's from a 25kg sack straight from the farm. |
| They ride up front with me... |
Lots of the farms around here sell their potatoes on the side of the road and the ones we've had all seem good quality, large potatoes and all between £6-£7 a bag. In my book that makes them pretty good value, in fact it's hardly worth growing them. I'm only going to grow early potatoes this year and wait until I'm more "on top" of the garden before I try and grow too many main crop potatoes.
Does anyone else grow many potatoes or buy them in bulk like I do and instead stick to a few early ones? What other veg are hardly worth growing due to how cheap they are (I'd be tempted to say carrots here but they taste so much better home grown and work out about £2 for seed that will grow almost all you need for 6 months!)?
I only grow a few potatoes, after the first time we planted up a third of our raised beds with 10lb of seed potatoes and then realised over the course of a conversation with my parents, that we actually eat more rice and pasta than we ever do potatoes :-)
ReplyDeleteNow I tend to buy them as and when we need them. Tinned potatoes do work out cheaper for anyone that can't afford the £6 or £7 outlay upfront and for those that would not be able to eat them quickly enough before they went off. But as you say for families this is truly the best way to buy them.
We do eat a lot of potatoes (and I mean a lot) but I think thats another reason why I don't go mad on planting them. I know we could never grow the number we need at the moment so it might be one for the future.
DeleteI grow potatoes, runner beans, broad beans, courgettes, French beans, and scatter a few carrot and radish seeds about. The object of this exercise is to have food that I can go into the garden and pick, it keeps me out of the shops, therefore I spend less, and it tastes nice. Tinned potatoes taste awful, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I had tinned potatoes but I'm sure it wasn't a great experience. Hopefully I'm moving towards a time where I don't have to buy any veg but I'm still a way off yet!
DeleteWe grow pink fir apple potatoes for salads (and they keep well) and have been experimenting with blight-resistant ones too. But there is no way we would put the gardens over to enough potatoes to feed us. We buy 25ks bags too. I tried tinned potatoes the other day and really didn't like them, they are certainly not as versatile as "the real thing". I guess growing parsnips might not be as economical as buying them as they are in the ground long enough to grow two crops. However, fresh parsnips after the first frost take some beating!
ReplyDeleteGill
If you can't wait for the first frost chuck them in the freezer for the night - it does the same job! I've grown pink fir apple as well but this year I've gone for something different (can't remember what they are now though!
DeleteHave got earlies chitting away but not too many, be buying them by the sack as per usual.
ReplyDeleteI'm never sure if chitting makes any difference but I'm sure I'm opening a can of worms by saying that!
DeleteWe've got nowhere around here that sells them by the bag or at least not without using up a few litres of diesel... : (
ReplyDeleteI drive by this place for work so no extra fuel needed!
DeleteWe grow as many as poss of maincrop, but if we run out then we get a sack. It's OK when they are £6 like this year but in 2012 they were £12 a sack because of the wet weather. I keep reading on various blogs that tinned potatoes are tasty and good value, so out of curiosity we tried a tin - Oh Dear. tasteless. Might be the only thing some people in cities without transport can buy - very sad.
ReplyDeleteWhen the garden is better set up I'll start to think about gorwing more but at the moment there's high value crops that could be grown in their space. I just hope they don;t get too dear this year!
DeleteI just moved to the American south where potatoes are shockingly expensive. I've seen them as high as 75¢ EACH! So this year I'm growing them in my garden.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds expensive! Why are they so much? Good luck with growing them I'm sure it can be hard in a hot climate like that!
DeleteIf you go to Aldi you can buy vegetables or fruit for next to nothing. Nothing compares to growing your own though and you know what chemicals thay haven't had. We just grow 6 rows (twenty foot a row) of early potatoes. It's enough for four of us and they are usually ready when it's too warm outside to be eating potatoes.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't got an Aldi near by but even if we did I agree with you and think it's better to grow your own. It's also just nice to have a little bit of control over what you eat and how it's been grown.
DeleteNo tinned potatoes here, I can't imagine eating something like that.
ReplyDeleteThey're not great. But they keep a long time so good for emergency food.
DeleteWe usually grow our own (organic) because we can't get organic anywhere near us. However,for a couple of years we've just bought them from the store (the farm is a 30 min drive in the opposite direction,so uses up more gas in the car)...they don't taste the same though. tinned pots remind me of being at my Grandma's in the 70s!
ReplyDeleteJane x
I gues with it getting so cold at yours it must be difficult to store them over the winter as well?
DeleteWe grow our earlies in barrels so we dont lose the ground space to potatoes, main crop I havent really bothered with as we dont really eat a lot of potatoes so we buy a sack and that does through the winter, the last one we bought at the farm shop was just over £5
ReplyDeleteWe probably have potatoes at least three times a week so they are high on our food list. The sacks do still last a long time though, normally they start to sprout by the time you get to the bottom!
DeleteKev, I can buy white potatoes anywhere. When I DO grow my own, I try the various colored varieties that are too pricey in the stores. This year - purple spuds. Speaking of bags -- how is your MUSHROOM experiment doing?
ReplyDeleteDo the purple ones taste anydiffernt?
DeleteI haven't really looked at the mushrooms in a month or so, I'll have to have a check on them and let you know!
Onions we don't grow and we don't grow carrots I cant get them to do anything.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my favorites to grow! Onions probably aren't worth it as taste wise I doubt you could tell but I just love growing them and how they look! as for carrots the first thinning lightly steamed are amazing!
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