This is probably the first of several posts I'll make this growing season. I have ideas about what produce that I want in my garden based on the relative ease and cost of buying it from other local growers.
Asparagus, for instance, is easily found right now and sold at a reasonable cost. So, asparagus is not high on my list of things to go in the garden. This is a good thing because asparagus is a perennial and I'm nowhere near to being ready to commit to a spot for asparagus for the next 20 years.
Greens, both salad and cooking, are surprisingly expensive at the farmers markets and not as readily available as I expected. It's been taking trips to two or three different farmers markets to get all the greens we're eating -- salads every day and cooking greens a couple of times a week. Plus, I understand that many of them are easy to grow. I might even be able to get an early start on the season by growing greens in a cold frame.
The jury is still out on rhubarb. It's been scarce and expensive so far, but I'm not sure how much we'll eat it. Since rhubarb is generally made into desserts, we may eat it just two or three times in the spring -- just enough to honor the fact that my grandmother was somewhat famous for her rhubarb crunch. For that, I'm willing to buy a bunch or two from a local farmer rather than grow my own.
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2 comments:
We joined a CSA last year and made a point to see what we could buy from the farmer's market and for what price. That, and a very small garden plot, decided what we would grow.
But now that we've started, we're going a little overboard! LOL. We have a lot of tomatoes, broccoli, cauiflower, tons of cucumbers (pickle size), a few varieties of peppers, and radishes (the kids' experiment)
Salad greens/spinach at my farmer's market is not cheap right now, but it certainly will be later in the summer and by then we'll have had our fill.
I definitely don't plant zucchini or summer squash, because people have so much they beg you to take it off their hands. No space for corn, and it's cheap in season too.
Just a comment on rhubarb. I've recently read up on how to grow it and apparently (like asparagus) it needs to settle in for at least 1-2 years before you can harvest without danger of stunting the plant. I love to eat both, but I'm not positive we'll be in the house three years from now, so I've held off at this point...
I've found that green beans, carrots, radishes and greens are all pretty easy to grow and can be either hard to find in early season or somewhat expensive at the markets. Of course, we're also planting squash (winter & summer), tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers and peppers to keep those things company. :D
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