Grow your own

Comments

• CombatWombat@feddit.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  You’ve never bought a tomato in a grocery store half as flavorful as the Cherokee purples I grow.

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  • hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is it for me. When the tomato gets ripe right there in front of you, the taste ruins all other tomatoes forever.

    Same with strawberries. Why even bother buying some little red water crunches in December? Buy the real ones from farmers market that taste like real strawberries. Embrace seasonality. Don’t live in some Boomer fantasy where the shape of the water crunchies available in January means we beat the Soviets.

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  • fu@libranet.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    @CombatWombat I grew up on an organic farm and my dad grew something like 18 different varieties. I assure you if there was such a thing as a good tomato I would have eaten it by now. I actuality all tomatoes are disgusting.

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    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That just means you don’t like tomatoes.

      It’s okay, I kinda don’t either. But on occasion, certain varieties in small amounts, paired with the right stuff, yeah I can enjoy.

      It’s usually heirloom varieties though, not the ones from the grocery store that are genetically engineered to produce large, heavy, tasteless fruits that are mostly water and have low nutritional density.

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• bigfish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  $2.17 pfft.

  Pack of 50 good tomato seeds: $3.50. Bag of manure: $10. String for tying up the plants: $2. Sticks to tie them up to: found in the yard. Water: no idea. Plant 30 seeds, get 20 plants big enough to transplant. Grow a pithy 5lbs of tomatoes from each plant in your first year because you don’t know what you’re doing. 100lbs tomatoes, would be $5/lb at the store (and don’t taste as good), $500 - $15.50 = $485 savings, less water costs.

  Same set up in the next year, less seed costs (you kept yours right?), $50 in steel pipe to trellis the tomatoes to, few hours of YouTube University, and look at that, twice the yield. Now you have to buy some ball jars and a pressure canner ($100). $1000 - $162 = Still $838 ahead. And you now have fresh jarred tomatoes for the whole year.

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  • socsa@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I can easily clear 20 or 30 pounds per plant depending on the variety without trying too hard.

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  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You’re assuming a lot by asserting the average backyard gardener has the space and time to grow 20 plants, and averages 5 lbs yield from each one…

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  • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Why pressure can tomatoes?

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    • bigfish@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Botulism.

      And I don’t have enough space in my freezer for as many jars of sauce I make every year. I need them to be shelf stable, and that requires canning, and pressure canning is faster and more consistent than deep water bath canning.

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• Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I simply do not trust people who think the appeal or value of gardening is saving money or that local tomatoes are no different than mass shipped grocery store tomatoes.

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  • Johanno@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Money is not the reason why I plant tomatoes.

    If I could I would buy them, but you can’t buy the flavor when they ship it green over the half the continent.

    Buying locally could work, but the business doesn’t work because it would be expensive and most people would not pay more for local food.

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    • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Buying locally could work, but the business doesn’t work because it would be expensive and most people would not pay more for local food.

      Do you mean specific to your location? I just paid $1.70 /lb for 60lbs of tomatoes from a local organic farmer whereas the grocery story will sell them for closer to $0.60, and there is a wait list for the farmer! I’m not that picky about organic but these tomatoes are amazing.

      I do grow some at home but we preserve all the tomato sauce we need for the year ourselves and we haven’t been able to grow that much…yet.

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  • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I grow cayenne peppers to save money. One plant yields so many peppers that it’s legitimately profitable.

    I do save money growing mint over buying it at the store, because mint is eternal. I’ve been making juleps and jelly out of the same mint plant for about 6 years now. But mostly I keep mint around because I like it.

    Tomatoes? It’s not really about the money, it’s that grocery store tomatoes are designed for durability rather than flavor.

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    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Mint is also a glorified scp attempting to breach containment and will take over the world if given a chance.

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    • Buckshot@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I’ve grown cayenne for the first time this year. I’ve got so many! It’s only in a 15l pot.

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  • altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I picked my first peach from our first peach tree and the aroma was glorious. The taste of it was between giving up everything I own for a second one and meeting my wife for the first time.

    Nothing beats growing your own food. Plus the little tomatoes, although I’m allergic, taste like berries.

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    • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I couldn’t afford to live where the peach trees survive the winter here lol. But I treat myself to a basket or two of Niagara’s finest each summer 🤤

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• this@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I don’t grow tomatoes, but am related to people who do.

  It ain’t about saving money, they just taste way better.

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• zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yeah, the point isn’t to save money lol

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• Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Meh, I like tomatoes to taste like tomatoes.

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• Medic8eme@piefed.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I grow enough tomatoes for our family of five for the year. Tomatoes,sauce, salsa, tomato paste…we do it all.

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• the_q@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  You gain more than saving money when you take the time and learn to grow your own food.

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• Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I didn’t do it to save money. In fact growing my own tomatoes and chili’s cost more that it saved.

  I grew chili’s inside a greenhouse with growlights and outside to test the difference. Inside the greenhouse was over 30C every day and they had 10h of light per day while outside was much more variable and lower on average.

  The ones from the greenhouse were so spicy that I could barely eat them.

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  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Checkout Aerogarden and their knockoffs. So idiot proof and self-contained.

    I have a brown thumb and these things make me look like an expert.

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    • Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Cool! I’ve essentially made that myself. I’ve also ordered custom grow light PCBs and SMD leds from China and designed my own pump system.

      It was quite an elaborate project and some day I’ll put it all online. Not sure where to share such projects though.

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• Malyca@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s also how you avoid explosive diarrhea from Trump’s dysfunctional FDA testing.

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• jjpamsterdam@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Growing your own veggies, at least in most western countries, is seldom about saving money or food security.

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  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Herbs are a massive saving if you cook.

    To make one pot of some dishes you’re looking at $3-$6 of herbs from a grocery store (if they have them at all), when growing my own we’re talking pennies.

    Just as important to me is flavor and convenience. My own stuff tastes like the real thing, and I know it’ll be there every day.

    When I trim the herb monsters back, I give those trimmings to my neighbors since I can’t use all I grow.

    Oh and I grow everything inside, in the old “TV space” (since it’s useless anymore) using self-contained little hydroponic setup (Aerogarden knockoff).

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    • socsa@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I grow an entire wall of basil. Not even exaggerating. It’s an 8’ long row with about 15 plants of different varieties, which get 3-4 feet tall. By the end of summer I’m clipping a whole pound per week just to keep them from flowering. I give away gallons of pesto for thanksgiving and Christmas. If I cared I could probably make legitimately a couple thousand dollars at the farmers market if I wanted to.

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  • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, although I do focus on things that are worth more. That can also just be something that shops don’t usually stock too.

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• schmorpel@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Only in the first year. Be patient and stubborn and after a few years you will have learned enough about the needs of your plants to grow veggies more reliably and consistently.

  I still buy the ‘cheap crops’ - potatoes, carrots and onions because I’m still not growing enough of these. Everything else, including fresh aromatic herbs every day, comes out of my garden - at the moment it’s plenty of tomato and aubergine, cucumbers, courgette and green beans.

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• queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s the journey more than the destination. But stick with the journey long enough and you’ll find yourself at some exceedingly tasty waystations.

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• Entropy_Pyre@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I think part of the trick is more just growing what already grows well in your area. I have a cherry tomato plant that I didn’t buy seeds for—I just tossed a few old tomatoes in the garden and it popped up subsisting off excess water from the lawn sprinklers. These last couple of months I’ve been able to step out every morning and pick a few to go with my breakfast. I haven’t had to spray for bugs because the local lizards keep them clear. I think more passive gardens like that might be the way to go.

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  • schmorpel@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is why I started using seed mixes. I throw a mix of different seeds on my garden beds. I get a diverse and more resilient plant community and can learn how to use the new climate change seasons to the best of my abilities. This is also the only way I manage growing carrots and beetroot that never wanted to grow when seeded separately.

    Usual mixes contain carrot, beetroot, dill, coriander, parsley, turnip, radish, linseed, sunflower, maize, cherry tomato. Plants like non-cherry-tomato and cabbages I tend to plant when somewhat grown.

    Disclaimer: can be problematic with some plants that want very specific seed depths, so use at your own discretion.

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    • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wish I thought of that. What survives is what I will grow next year is a decent way of finding out what grows well. I did plant a mix of things in different spots though.

      So far best vegetable crop is rhubarb. Nothing else even really compares which is a bit annoying because I do want to grow more than just rhubarb. But at least it is a start I suppose.

      May look into more fruit, usually I forage for plums, apples and blackberries which are incredibly abundant. So growing it in my limited space feels a bit like a waste of the space I have.

      Kale would be nice but kept getting eaten. Maybe I need to get nets for it, don’t really like plastic everywhere though.

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• blueworld@piefed.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This is one of those where the act is more than the physical result.

  Gardening keeps you outside, active, and in our day and age away from your screens.

  Indeed in the US environment it also means you know the providence of your food and my guess is that your tomatoes don’t grow up near a feedlot ending up with salmonella spillover and more.

  And beyond that it allows you to stretch those inflating dollars and get more nutritious food than the ultra processed grocery cheap food provides.

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• the_wizard_of_0Z@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  But the ones in my garden taste better and landscaping is for idiots.

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• Blurntout@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Big grocery propaganda lol

  5 Roma tomato plants and you got salsa for the year

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• Zephyr@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Grow what is suited to your environment and season them you won’t have to do much while providing way more than you can use. Grow something not ideal them yeah it’ll be a perpetual uphill battle.

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• wax@feddit.nu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The smell of fresh tomatoes is one of the best things though

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• Zacryon@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I suppose that depends on the amount of tomatoes you’re growing.

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• HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Rhubarb is over £10/kg. In a single year rhubarb plant should be able to produce a few kg of rhubarb.

  At least that is what the internet tells me, I only got it a few months ago so the yield so far is zero. Oh and it keeps growing year after year and I plan to multiply it to grow even more. Tough I might buy a few more rather than go with just 1 so its a bit faster to get a decent sized patch of then. I also plan to make rhubarb wine and mead. Which is worth even more.

  Herbs are worth quite a bit too, grow them to make my own herb salt mix for roast potatoes.

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  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ve got rhubarbs in the garden, been there as long as I can remember, in the same spot even. Still consistently getting rhubarbs every year, more than I can eat.

    Rhubarb based alcoholic beverages tend to be a bit too dry for me personally, but you do you. I know a bunch of people like them.

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    • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You can add some sugar back to it before drinking

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• rayyy@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Growing your own food is like printing money but you need to know a little bit about gardening. It’s a journey, adventure and philosophy. If you are working hard at it you are doing it wrong. Read Ruth Stout’s and Masanobu Fukuoka’s books. They make it a lot easier. I wouldn’t hardly eat vegetables or fruit if I had to eat store produce. Tomatoes and peaches from the store are atrocious.
  I don’t plow, till or weed much. My garden produces way more than we can use so I try to give friends, family and needy people the excess - don’t get me started on the excess cucumbers and zucchinis.

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• socsa@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Have you seen how much tomatoes cost these days? On a good year I can get hundreds of dollars worth from 6 or 7 plants. Most of that gets turned into hundreds of dollars worth of frozen sauce.

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  • Buckshot@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, decent tomatoes here are like £3 for 250g. Last year I grew 55kg. This year not going so well but also I planted a lot less.

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• yermaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  For today sure. What it mainly means is that next time the world does a thing you can definitely still have tomatoes.

  Remember when covid started and suddenly the shelves were empty and people who didn’t understand the importance of masks were fighting eachother over the last tin of beans?

  That wont be you. You’ll be chilling in your vegetable patch.

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  • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You’d need a toilet paper plant though…

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    • faultyproboscus@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      laughs in bidet

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    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Meh, a year’s worth of TP fits in a space about 6 cubic feet.

      That’s a single “family pack”. You could keep that under your couch.

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    • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, you can use the leaves of many plants to wipe.

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• inari@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  There’s a good reason we’ve all outsourced farming

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• laceybeach@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Sure, if you buy tomato plants at steep prices, plant them in golden pots and install drip systems for each one separately…

  Don’t believe the advertisement hypes. Tomatoes are one of the easiest crops to grow! You can grow them in containers if you don’t have a garden. I’ve even seen them grow wildly in an abandoned closed off shop sprouting from cracks in the floor.

  If you grow tomatoes once they’ll probably show up year after year from fallen tomatoes. They’ll become your new garden weeds that give even mint some firm competition. Throw some tomatoes in your garden today and you’ll be eating nothing but tomatoes next year.

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• altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’m allergic. But it’s such a good fruit to grow and eat. Specially the tiny grape tomatoes.

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• PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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