Do you think growing your own or forraging will become more popular now energy prices have risen so much?

[kirstyalslap]

It seems like the natural next step to me but want others thoughts on it? Forraging is completely free and things like nettles, dandelions, cleavers (sticky weed) and obviously blackberries, apples, plums, damsons, elderflower, elder Berry are all edible and easily identifiable.
Not to mention salad leaves can be grown all year round on a windowsill or kitchen side.
What does everyone think?

Only posting as several people (not connected) have spoken about being interested in it.

yabu - you personally are not interested in either
Yanbu - you personally are interested

@SpiderVersed

Your wild garlic pesto cost nothing but the cheap pasta, OP?

So the olive oil, pine nuts and Parmesan were either free or conveniently lying around in the magic fruit park too?

Foraging is great, I really enjoy it, but it’s a way to get some extras, not feed your family for free.

I’ve been growing fruit and vegetables for years. Perennial crops do save money, and cut and come again salads are excellent value but the majority of vegetables are far cheaper to buy than to grow.

Yes, agree it's cheaper to buy spuds, carrots and peas than try & grow them.

Home-grown comes into its own with tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, courgettes in a greenhouse. It saves us about £5 a week, June-October. Grown in old feedstuff tubs from next door. Not stylish but it works

Salad leaves from April to October

Rhubarb, raspberry canes and apple trees give free fruit for very little effort. Blackberries too. Learn to bottle them and you've got fruit desserts for the winter.

But it takes effort. You have to learn how. Persevere. Water every evening in summer. The ones who succeed generally enjoy it anyway.

@SpiderVersed

Your wild garlic pesto cost nothing but the cheap pasta, OP?

So the olive oil, pine nuts and Parmesan were either free or conveniently lying around in the magic fruit park too?

Foraging is great, I really enjoy it, but it’s a way to get some extras, not feed your family for free.

I’ve been growing fruit and vegetables for years. Perennial crops do save money, and cut and come again salads are excellent value but the majority of vegetables are far cheaper to buy than to grow.

I think she should have made her own pasta too, just lazy not to. And made her own flour and butter for that pasta, it's dead easy after all.

Always have done but as an added luxury. Definitely thinking more strategically in the allotment now about how to reduce my veg buying and making a bit more effort into getting a good harvest.

Nope, a lot of people are time poor as well as financially poor- buying fruit and veg that's in season is the best way to reduce costs.

I spent a fortune "growing my own" last year..... I got 2 courgettes 5 teeny potatoes and all the tomatoes went black or were eaten by slugs... Will stick to flowers this year, and pay 40p for a pack of Tom's and courgettes in Tesco :)

@harbourlane

Interesting username OP. Next you'll be telling us that if people forage for fruit rather than buy basics jam they'll soon have enough saved up to buy a house

😂

I grow my own fruit and veg, it's a decent hobby but it's not a cheap activity, takes commitment and planning. What companion plants will go with what to deter pets. What plants will be the sacrificial lambs, planted to be eaten just to protect the harvest. Going out with a head torch for the night of the living slugs and snails. Seasons not behaving so potato crops suck.

I do it for fun and yes it saves me a little bit of money when it's time to harvest but the outlay probably strips that.

You'd be better off using your allotment to grow weed selling it and using the money to buy food it's the only viable way!

Growing your own doesn't save any money and "foraging" takes time - which many of us are short of, so I don't see the price of gas an electricity influencing this much.

Even the word 'foraging' puts me off. Puts me in mind of being on your hands and knees in the undergrowth.
But maybe that's where all the oranges grow in the magic fruit park?

When we were super skint I tried growing potatoes in an old bin as we didn't have much garden space they were the 12 most expensive potatoes I've ever eaten!

I've been veg gardening for 5 years. The time invested isn't really worth it, I would be better finding casual minimum wage work.

This is 100% true. Foraging and growing your own veg is a lovely hobby for people who are financially secure, but if you are actually poor it makes no sense at all. You can buy a kg of carrots for 40p, and if you take a few hours delivering pizzas or cleaning offices you will make enough money to buy more veg than you could grow in a season.

Generally foraging for fruit and vegetables is a waste of time and energy - you usually burn more calories than you earn. Plus the country is so overcrowded in many areas all the reliable spots are already taken.

I think we'll see an increase in illegal hunting and sheep rustling. Meat is already more expensive that fruit and veg and is only likely to go up. Someone with a van can drive to the moors in the night and help themselves to a sheep or two. It's quite simple to clean up the carcass and get it into a cookable/saleable condition and there is a much better return on the person's time investment.

We'll also see an increase in "urban foraging" aka shoplifting.

I’d be surprised if working people have the time or knowledge.
Foraging can be pretty dangerous if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

I've never tried growing veg but DH usually has peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and other green veg growing each year. I love a bit of foraging - especially blackberries, elderberries and damsons. We live near a wood where there's tonnes of blackberries each year so I get a few bag fulls to keep in the freezer.

No, I'm not desperate enough to eat dandelions

Is there a reason why you all are using seeds and not veg to grow your own? I grow my own tomatoes and peppers, garlic and onions (indoors) from the veg I’d rather not eat and so far it seems to be working fairly well in that I’m getting a consistant crop every month including winter

Growing your own veg and foraging is very seasonal. There are many months, at least in the UK winter, when very little is available unless you like dandelion leaves. Also, even doing all that won't help much with rising energy costs.
Yes you can turn over your garden to a veg patch, but by the time you've bought a spade and a fork, you might as well buy veg from the supermarket.

Ozanj

Is there a reason why you all are using seeds and not veg to grow your own? I grow my own tomatoes and peppers, garlic and onions (indoors) from the veg I’d rather not eat and so far it seems to be working fairly well in that I’m getting a consistant crop every month including winter“

Because we’re not all as clever as you

I think it’s hard to grow your own for much less £ than it costs in shops. Once you’ve bought the compost and seeds and netting / slug control stuff. I grew loads of strawberries last year and lost most of them to pests. My only ‘eorth it’ crop was potatos.

Foraging - meh. Too much pollution/ dog wee. I’ll gather blackberries and chestnuts from high branches but nothing a dog could wee on.

Salad inside is cool though.

@Sparklingbrook

Even the word 'foraging' puts me off. Puts me in mind of being on your hands and knees in the undergrowth. But maybe that's where all the oranges grow in the magic fruit park?

Its a question of whether the time spent foraging / gardening is worth it?

You could spend 3 hours foraging on a weekend and get very little or 3 hours on a Saturday night delivering take aways and get enough money for your weekly shop.

The only thing I forage for are blackberries whilst dog walking. I do make jam out of it, but only because my bread maker has a jam making setting. I don’t think I’ll save enough money to pay for any heating. Plus I have the coat of the bread maker to consider.

I’d like to see more community gardens. The council funds the starting costs and local people help out when they can. We really should be trying to grow more of our own food and eat more seasonally.

I grow lots of fruit. It's very low effort for good savings. I but one or two trees/fruit bushes a year as they take time to mature. I've tried to work it so I have crops ripening throughout the season.

For example, I have 6 blueberry bushes, all bought from offers when you just pay 4.99 postage or similar. Each bush probably produces several thousand berries a year over a few months. They get compost from my hens and one bag of acidic composts year between them.

I have apple, pear, plum and cherry trees which produce huge amounts of fruit.

We also have blackberry and raspberry bushes. Our garden isn't huge, we live in a city new build. Trees can be trained along fences, it's amazing what you can do with a little space.

I wouldn't get anywhere near the same harvests if I was growing vegetables, the need so much work and can go wrong so quickly.

I don't think my savings from fruit growing will save me a fortune, but my household probably eats the supermarket equivalent of £20 per week at least. I couldn't really afford to buy that much through a whole year.