We are a 4 person family. We live on a remote farm. The hike in fuel prices and grocery prices means not only aren’t we able to get to a grocery store regularly (once a fortnight usually, will now be maybe monthly), but food prices will make it hard to stock up
Our issues
– food must be able to be frozen/kept over long periods
– 1 of our children is allergic to all dairy products and soy (NB this is CMPA, NOT lactose intolerance… there is a big difference), he only drinks oat milk or water, use olive oil butter and can only tolerate certain bread brands)
– same child is an extremely picky eater, due to experiences when his allergy was discovered
We already have mandarins, lemon, cumquat, tangerine, lime, mango and mulberry trees. I am trying to establish passionfruit vines. But I struggle to control the fruit fly.
We are planting tomato, pumpkin, zucchini, beans and capsicum seedlings.
Last year we tried carrots and potatoes but were not successful.
We have chickens for eggs.
What can you suggest we grow that would help us be more sufficient/use our produce to best use?
What vegetables/fruit can you grow that has the most impact on your budget?
byu/Outrageous_Rabbit842 inFrugal
Posted by Outrageous_Rabbit842
11 Comments
Cucumber, peppers, cantaloupe, green beans, various herbs and spices
Can you raise meat chickens? Do you have space for a beef cow?
Herbs. They are so expensive to buy! I also plant things like spring onion, you can just lop them off and they will regrow. As for best, it depends where you live and your climate. Somethings, like sweet potato, grow very well where I am as it’s warm. Zucchini’s also grow well. I also like spinach as I can use the young leaves in salad and then cook the larger leaves. At the end of the day you need to grow a) what grows in your climate and b) what your family will eat.
Try potatoes again if you’re big consumers of them. I love how one seed can turn into so many.
I love pickling; radishes, cucumber and beets are top picks. Carrots are nice, but they take a ton of water and perhaps that’s why you weren’t successful.
Cabbage is easy to grow, healthy and can be turned into kimchi for long term storage and health benefits. But it’s a cool weather plant and if you’re growing citrus, it might be too warm.
I think you might have better luck asking in a regional sub, so you can get location specific advice.
Blueberries, blackberries. Asparagus( mature crowns ,not seeds if you want to harvest next fall) sweet potato, easier than potatoes and you can eat the greens as well.
This is not for growing yourself, but regarding the oatmilk: If you have rolled oats, you can easily make oatmilk at home with a blender. And of course it doubles as a perfect frugal breakfast, can be ordered in large quantities for cheap, and can be stored for a long time.
Cannabis
We are in a rural village and I understand completely as it is 25 miles each way for a supermarket.
We are also reducing routine shopping to monthly. Trips for medical reasons take use into town for bonus opportunities or instead of scheduled runs. There is an expensive tiny grocery store here, but the prices are reasonable when computing the value of two gallons of gas and an hour drive. We can buy milk, bananas, and sometimes other produce from the small selections.
For gardening, our strips around the buildings are mostly flowers. We grow a few heirloom tomatoes and bell peppers in containers as salad enhancements but that is it. We do have some variety lettuces and spinach in rail containers on the back deck for tasty salads, but they are not really saving much money.
Perhaps other varieties of winter squash, like butternut, kabocha or possibly spaghetti* squash? They grow large, produce a lot of food and can be stored for a long time.
*but apparently spaghetti squash hybridizes easily so sometimes the fruit you get is not exactly what you expected. But it’s still good to eat.
Beans and zucchini for me. Green beans blanch and freeze really easily and I get a lot of bang for my buck, plus am able to save seeds. I’ve only had to buy green bean seeds twice in 12 years and the second time was just because I forgot to save seeds one year.
I make zucchini bread in the fall, 5 at a time to minimize the amount of times I’m using the oven. I cut them prior to wrapping and freezing and use them all year long. I bring zucchini bread for any potluck event and sometimes just pull one out of the freezer when we haven’t been to the grocery store in a while because it makes an easy breakfast.
Onions get an honorary mention because I just plant the roots whenever I have onions from the store and they regrow themselves so they’re basically free and I use them in stock, soup, salads, stir fry, etc. They’re the first thing to pop up in spring and I have them growing all the time as long as the snow isn’t covering them.
With this list, you are probably in a relatively warm climate. I would check whether you can add strawberries in the off-season (very early spring / winter).
In colder climates, berries are the fruit that makes the most sense financially. Gooseberries, rapsberries, blackberries, etc cost a small fortune yet are easy to plant and maintain in a small garden. But in your location it is probably too warm for them.
If I was in a warmer climate, my top pick for more fruit would be fig / fig trees. I love figs but in my neck of the woods they are shit quality and cost an arm and a leg.
Have you looked into kiwi fruit? Cherry trees?
For veggies, how about aubergines? Would okra grow where you are located? Snap peas? Peanuts?
Have you considered herbs such as basil, rosemary and thyme? While not super-expensive when dried, the quality when they are fresh from the garden is absolutely worth the extra effort.
If potatoes fail due to climate, sweet potatoes might be better suited.