Shattering the myths of 'high maintenance'

Evening all.

I've just enjoyed some shop bought strawberries. They had to come from the shop, because they wouldn't be ready yet if grown naturally in the UK. However it occurred to me that as far as fruit goes, it doesn't really get much better than strawberries, and they are so easy to grow in the UK. I got to wondering then why they are so expensive, and the only conclusion I could think of is either the harvesting cost (I don't think there is an automated solution yet), or more likely, the fact that sellers know that most people probably just assume they are hard to grow.

So that got me to an idea. Why don't we pick out some super low maintenance food crops, and boast about how easy they are to grow. That way, maybe with the might of GC, we might get a few more people growing a bit more of their own stuff, which I think would be a win-win all round.

 

I think its also that Strawberries don't last long once they're picked, so theres the potential for a lot of loss on the shelves. I bought some off a market trader who said because the sun had gone in, no one was buying them so he was desparately trying to shift them before he lost the lot.

Blackcurrants are pretty easy, not difficult to prune, bit of mulch in the spring, and then a bumper crop in a good season.

 

I think Ziggy summed it up , soft fruit , difficult to harvest and transport . Plus a short shelf life . All this equals a high cost . I can't say I have found one veg that is easy/highly productive to grow. I still think the Tesco/Asda system of veg procurement is the most cost effective

 

Easy to grow but they take flipping ages to prepare if topping & tailing thousands of them (unless making jelly or juice extracting for home made cordial/wine). I hated being given the job of preparing them for jam or pies as a child.

 

It's always puzzled me why rocket is so expensive in the shops when it's practically a weed in terms of resilience and invasiveness if you let it self seed.

 

Ah well, it's designer, innit. Gotta pay more for that.

Another magic word is "baby". Put that in front of any veg name and you can triple the price. Simples.

 

Being on the commercial side of this, We grow all of our produce through the summer and our greenhouses are already producing now, but the greenhouses have to be stripped sterilised and replanted every season (over 60 acres does take some time). But through the winter to meet demand we have to import from varying countries, all of which takes time, accounting as well for the waste potential, its very easy to see why costs are so high even though probably 99% of the time the products come through UK packhouses.

 

So granted there are good reasons why fruit is so expensive. To be honest, I never really doubted that. I once did some sums to see if I could make a viable business out of growing fruit on my land, and decided the margins weren't attractive enough especially when considering the risks.

None of that changes the fact that the benefits of more people having a go at growing some of their own, far out weigh the downsides. I even suspect that commercial growers could benefit in some ways. If people get used to having fresh fruit, then when their own supplies run out, they are going to head out and buy some more, whereas if they are not used to having it, they just wont buy it.

There's loads of environmental, financial and health related reasons for having a go at growing some of their own food, not to mention you get to try stuff that might not be common in the supermarkets.

Anyway, another couple of crops that spring to mind, peas and potatoes. Peas are easy peasy. And spuds are even easier, although they do take up a bit of space. There is a good argument that it is not really financially sound to grow your own spuds given the price of them in the shops, but when the farm is now selling them at £10 per sack, ie the price has doubled in 12 months, and the word is they will hit £18 per sack this year if we have another bad year, then its definitely worth growing some.

 

Abnormal price this year as many people will have lost their whole crop to Blight last year, and for the rest they probably got rubbish yields because of the rubbish Summer ...

 

I, who likes his spuds and on a low income, has felt the rising cost of spuds in my wallet, hence I'm dispensing with earlies, 2nd earlies and devoting almost half of my allotment to growing maincrop potatoes, the majority of the rest of the plot will go towards Brassicas who have seen a similar price hike, I'll grow a few beans, onions and other stuff up there, the rest I'll cram into my garden veg patch.

 

I love strawberries but found the strawberries I grew last year tasted awful.

Then again I like my Strawberries really soft and a bit "off". Perhaps they're too fresh for me.