Getting your hands dirty in the garden offers an easy way to save amid rising grocery costs
CBC
As another pandemic winter melts away, some gardeners are already sowing tomato, pepper and other seeds indoors that are destined for outdoor gardens in the coming weeks.
With inflation exacerbating existing barriers to affordable produce, some green thumbs hope to plant a seed of encouragement in the minds of those on a budget to help them save on groceries, develop a new skill and make connections after two years of isolation.
"Many families have been impacted financially and find themselves struggling to afford things," said Linda Wall, president of the Manitoba Horticultural Association and a St. James Horticultural Society member. "This is a way to lower your food costs."
This month, Wall provided a tutorial to St. James residents about growing vegetables on a shoestring budget.
Garden boxes are great, but for those who don't have yard space or access to a community plot, Wall recommends investing in relatively cheap hydroponic setups. She points to her DIY arrangement of recycled sour cream and coffee containers filled with water and plant nutrients in which she grows lettuce, dill and borage (a plant whose flowers and leaves, as well as the oil from its seeds are used as medicine).
"It takes a little bit of experience and innovation, but you can grow fresh, healthy, nutritional food very easily in your home," she said.
Growing lettuce and sprouting mung beans in Mason jars indoors — in soil or in water, under a light or not — are other low-cost ways to produce fresh veggies year round, she says.
Greens from seeds such as barley, mustard, radish, lentils, broccoli and bok choy are also easy to grow indoors without much fuss, said Wall.
Ditto pea shoots — which go well in salads, sandwiches, stir fry and omelettes. Wall grows hers from the same $2 bag of dried yellow peas she bought in the dried food aisle of the grocery store almost two years ago.
"Always check your grocery store shelf," she said. "You can buy … a one kilogram bag of mung beans for a couple of bucks, whereas if you go to a … sprouting store or the seed house, it's going to cost you $5.99 for probably a quarter cup of seed."
Sage Garden has already seen enthusiastic shoppers buying up seeds at its greenhouse, in part, to offset grocery prices, says Dave Hanson, co-owner of Sage Garden Greenhouses.
"People are trying to think about how to take some of the difficult sort of heaviness that's out in the world and sort of channel that and think about ways to maybe improve your food security as well," Hanson said.
The best selling varieties most years are again in demand at T&T Seeds — from sweet cucumber cool breeze, zucchini noche, carrots Nantes and onion sets, says Chitra Paliwal, T&T marketing and sales director.
The store ran out of seeds in early 2021 due to a surge in demand.