Most "money-saving" vegetable

[Northern Boy]

Greetings ish'ers
I have been pondering this question thought it likely some of you will also have considered it.

Which vegetable, in your opinion, offers the biggest saving when grown at home vs purchased in the shops.

Lets assume you're both growing and buying organically.

My current best guess is tomatoes (yes I know they're technically a fruit).

What do you reckon?

(Apologies if this conversation has been had before, I couldn't see it).

[Green Aura]

Aubergines (~£1apiece) and okra (hard to find here).

[Millymollymandy]

For me it must be onions or spuds as they last for months and are staples i.e. we always have them in stock whether we grow them or not.

I guess when they are new potatoes they are saving me a fortune - but then I wouldn't be buying new potatoes all the time cos of the price!

So it's a bit hard to say really. Toms definitely aren't saving me money because I can't produce enough excess to provide for more than a few tinned toms' worth and they take up precious and expensive potting compost through all the potting on. And again I wouldn't be buying cherry toms very often because of the price so they aren't really saving me.

Good question and I don't think it has been asked before.

[Green Aura]

I don't bother with the potting on palaver - too much effort and compost - straight from 2-3" high into ground. But we're growing in the polytunnel so they get protection - are yours outside?

[Odsox]

The one vegetable that I grow that is most expensive in shops is butternut squash.
But ... the potimarrons that I grow and prefer over butternuts I have yet to see in any shop, so that one must be priceless.

[Millymollymandy]

Walnuts because they store for a year and strawbs and rasps.

Then again as my earlier post I wouldn't be buying anywhere near as many as I eat purely because I grow them; if I didn't they would be a luxury item only occasionally bought.

So I think it still boils down to the basics of spuds and onions. As red onions are very expensive compared to ord white ones then they must be the most money saving.

I'll shut up now and stop pondering or I'll be here all night.

GA - just seen your post - most of my toms are planted in pots but to save money we use 1/3 potting compost, 1/3 home made compost and 1/3 home made leaf mould, but it's still €7 a bag and I go through sacks of the ruddy stuff each summer raising flowering plants and veg before planting out.

[pelmetman]

Asparagus, as not only is it expensive but once established the bed will last for years, I also tend to grow stuff that I know tastes better if picked just before you eat it, such as sweetcorn and purple sprouting

[Jandra]

Mmmmmange-tout peas... lovely! (and expensive to buy)

[homegrown]

Here in New Zealand a lot of vegetables are expensive in the shops, but the main list would be summer

Zucchinis (courgettes) anywhere up to $8.00 a kilo (£18)
Peppers anywhere up to $11.00 (£24)
Tomato $4 - 5.00 a kilo (£10)

and the list goes on and it certainly bugs me about the courgettes as whenever I plant them they grow like possessed weeds, same with my cherry tomato and speaking of which i am going to trial a new variety of tomato called sub-artic plenty produced for colder climates, let you all know how it goes

[citizentwiglet]

Bloody hell, Homegrown - that IS expensive!

This is a great question - and it all depends on what you grow, and what your family like to eat. Great points about things like tomatoes too, when you factor in potting on, compost, proprietary feeds etc, I hadn't really thought of that.

In answer, therefore, I think my best moneysavers are salad leaves (which are now upwards of £1.50 for a 3-4 person bag these days - I know I could just buy a lettuce, but I love a nice variety of leaves in my salads), and my herbs - particularly my Italian and Greek basil plants.

Rainbow chard and kale are also ridiculously priced in the shops, and a lot of the bagged kale is extremely bitter - they are obviously maximising profits by using the older, more bitter leaves to bulk out the bags and add weight.

Over the next few months we'll be planting shallots - we did consider onions, but we have just the one raised bed so space it at a premium, and onions are much cheaper to buy than shallots, which will be a real luxury for us.

Homegrown, would be really interested to hear more about your Sub-Artic trial....hope it all goes well.

[homegrown]

I'll let you CT

and I won't even tell you how dear fruit is or nuts

[citizentwiglet]

I don't think I want to know, do I?

Northern Boy - whereabouts in Carmarthenshire are you? I'm from Llanelli, originally.

[Millymollymandy]

Here in New Zealand a lot of vegetables are expensive in the shops, but the main list would be summer

Zucchinis (courgettes) anywhere up to $8.00 a kilo (£18)
Peppers anywhere up to $11.00 (£24)
Tomato $4 - 5.00 a kilo (£10)

and the list goes on and it certainly bugs me about the courgettes as whenever I plant them they grow like possessed weeds, same with my cherry tomato and speaking of which i am going to trial a new variety of tomato called sub-artic plenty produced for colder climates, let you all know how it goes

Richard I think you did your calculations the wrong way round!
1 NZD = 0.458553 GBP
1 GBP = 2.18077 NZD

so more like 'normal' prices really.

[Odsox]

same with my cherry tomato and speaking of which i am going to trial a new variety of tomato called sub-artic plenty produced for colder climates, let you all know how it goes

I'd be very interested in what your Sub Arctic Plenty turns out like Homegrown as I grew some last year and they made quite nice beefsteak sized fruit, but I got very confused sometime later as I read that they are supposed to be cherry sized.
So either I got some wrongly named seed or there is more than one Sub Arctic Plenty around.

[Cloud]

I think lettuce must come high on the list of most cost effectiveness - probably depends where you live, but in our local super markets it's hard to find anything other than very expensive bagged lettuce that last little more than a day once you get it home.

We currently have a tray of rocket and another of mixed salad and we just pull off as many leaves as we want when we want. As long as as there are enough plants and we don't take too may leaves off each (and we don't forget to give them a little water) they just keep giving. For a the cost of a packet (£1.80) we have a more than enough for the two off us (and I think we only sowed a quarter of the packet of each).

We also grow potatoes, onions and toms, but I'm not convinced they save us money. They just taste so much better.