FREE Food for life - is it possible?

[Meadowlark]

Preserving via canning certainly isn't zero cost especially if you externally purchase the produce.

Jars, lids, other special equipment are not free and in fact are getting very expensive...but I heartedly endorse it and regularly embrace it.

IMO, preserving isn't about being cost free or even saving money but for enabling the continuous year around consumption of nutrient dense food.

 

[skinyea]

Growing and preserving your own veggies certainly saves $$. I can, dehydrate and freeze. you all on here pretty much taught me how to can.

 

[headfullofbees]

I am reminded of something I read about Vikings having an almost perfect diet in that it consisted mainly of root veg and fish.

 

[headfullofbees]

HeadFullOfBees - The only things on your list that I haven't grown with ease (this is my second season so my skill level is stick it in the ground and hope for the best) is Aubergine and Pepper (sewn early, nursed indoors under lights - but they just sulk when they go out to the polytunnel). Chilis of all types do well but not peppers. And I always lose my brassicas to cabbage whites - the only success I had was starting them very early so they were out the ground before the cabbage whites really got going. Kale and perpetual spinach are the only ones that don't get attacked.

I haven't tried over winter onions - I'm going to look into that. I think I pulled up my butternut squash too early last year - I thought there were no fruit and pulled them out sometime in Sept, but noticed lots of little green baby squash. So I'll leave them longer this year.

But what I was really getting at (and I phrased my question badly) is can you do it for absolutely no cost? So without buying seeds, compost, fertilizers etc? Of course you'll have setup costs, but my goal is to get to a point within a couple of years of having 100% free veg. Saving my own seeds, making compost (adding in seaweed, manure from the farm next door, anything the neighbours give me), making my own potting soil, wormery, comfrey and nettle fertilizers etc.

p.s Do you keep bee's? Just wondering given you name?

It may get too hot in the polytunnel if you stock it too early & have to keep the doors shut.
It's not a greenhouse; stock it 3 weeks later, so you can open the doors during the day, & that's enough protection for them.
If you have side vents, open them too.
May I ask what size your polytunnel is, & how much sun it gets?
Spray your brassicas with actively aerated compost tea, which has had 2oz per gal molasses. Too rich for caterpillars.

Perpetual spinach & chard are the same thing; beet leaf.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Perpetual spinach & chard are the same thing; beet leaf.

That's what a bit of research told me, except that they are varieties of the same plant, the chard has great big thick stalks , more than two inches across sometimes, that are edible with a more subtle flavour than the green top.

 

[Susan BBPM]

It may get too hot in the polytunnel if you stock it too early & have to keep the doors shut.
It's not a greenhouse; stock it 3 weeks later, so you can open the doors during the day, & that's enough protection for them.
If you have side vents, open them too.
May I ask what size your polytunnel is, & how much sun it gets?
Spray your brassicas with actively aerated compost tea, which has had 2oz per gal molasses. Too rich for caterpillars.

Perpetual spinach & chard are the same thing; beet leaf.

The polytunnel is 2m x 4m and gets the sun from first thing until about 4 oclock. We have shade netting over it most of the mid summer. On hot days it gets into the high 30's for short spells, but normally we manage to keep it at just below 30. The tomatoes are happy, the chillies do well. But my sweet peppers barely grow. They'll get perhaps one fruit that stays small. I tend to put the tomatoes in quite early (mid may), but leave the peppers until it's warmer. The doors are almost always open during the day - unless it's cold.

I have a bed beside the house that we can keep covered so if peppers and tomatoes don't like the same conditions I can perhaps move the peppers out to there. Also, I've bought the cheapest pepper seeds - I was thinking of trying something more suited to the colder climate.

I didn't know you could get molasses here - I keep hearing people recommend it to feed microbes. We certainly have plenty of compost tea so we'll give your suggestion a try.

EDIT: Is molasses the same thing as treacle in the UK?

 

[headfullofbees]

The polytunnel is 2m x 4m and gets the sun from first thing until about 4 oclock. We have shade netting over it most of the mid summer. On hot days it gets into the high 30's for short spells, but normally we manage to keep it at just below 30. The tomatoes are happy, the chillies do well. But my sweet peppers barely grow. They'll get perhaps one fruit that stays small. I tend to put the tomatoes in quite early (mid may), but leave the peppers until it's warmer. The doors are almost always open during the day - unless it's cold.

I have a bed beside the house that we can keep covered so if peppers and tomatoes don't like the same conditions I can perhaps move the peppers out to there. Also, I've bought the cheapest pepper seeds - I was thinking of trying something more suited to the colder climate.

I didn't know you could get molasses here - I keep hearing people recommend it to feed microbes. We certainly have plenty of compost tea so we'll give your suggestion a try.

EDIT: Is molasses the same thing as treacle in the UK?

It's cold sunny days that are the real killer, as a polytunnel of that size can experience a swing from -3C/-4C with May frosts, to +35C when the sun is fully on it.
That'll inhibit nearly every plant except cactii, so my advice would be to delay stocking everything in the polytunnel another fortnight, as even the plants that do ok will do better.
I also find that bullhorn peppers are easier to grow here. I don't know why.
I picked 7 Corno de Toro Giallo from three plants yesterday for making a batch of pasta sauce, & have numerous fruit on the red "Thor".

Molasses is, more or less, the same as black treacle, but if you use equine molasses, that tends to be cheaper itlr.

 

[Meadowlark]

It grows in USDA climate zones 2 thru 11, so it's pretty versatile.
BTW, folks: Malabar Spinach is not a type of Amaranth and very different from Jamaican Callaloo.

The main things about Malabar Spinach are

1) it is an easy to grow warm weather substitute for often difficult to grow spinach and

2) it tastes great and produces abundantly and

3) it's never sandy and gritty like spinach with it growing as a vine.

Can easily pick every day until frost...

 

[Susan BBPM]

It's cold sunny days that are the real killer, as a polytunnel of that size can experience a swing from -3C/-4C with May frosts, to +35C when the sun is fully on it.
That'll inhibit nearly every plant except cactii, so my advice would be to delay stocking everything in the polytunnel another fortnight, as even the plants that do ok will do better.
I also find that bullhorn peppers are easier to grow here. I don't know why.
I picked 7 Corno de Toro Giallo from three plants yesterday for making a batch of pasta sauce, & have numerous fruit on the red "Thor".

Molasses is, more or less, the same as black treacle, but if you use equine molasses, that tends to be cheaper itlr.

I just spotted this reply.

That makes sense now - it's the extremes of temperature that are problematic. I tend to get my tomatoes out beginning of May, with fleece at night (assuming forecasts seem OK. But the temp swings I hadn't considered.

I've got solar power this year, so the daytime sunshine can be converted into grow lights meaning the plants can stay indoors until June.

I've ordered a few pepper varieties from RealSeeds.co.uk - they sell seeds suited to the UK climate. They are in Wales, so it won't all work here, but it's a better starting point. All heirloom varieties.