Grow Your Own and Then Some

If the media are to be believed then Britain is undergoing a renaissance of grow your own, and even raise your own, as back gardens fill with chicken coops. But why is this?

There are so many reasons that a list is the best option here:

• It's economic and times are tougher. I have calculated - back of the envelope style - that we save about £1000 a year by growing our own fruit and veg, and that was before we got chickens. Next year I intend from January 1st keeping a diary of what is spent on seeds, compost etc, and what the estimated price of the produce we get to eat would be, to prove the economic case.

• The fantastic variety: with what we have growing now on our allotment and in the kitchen garden here we have, depending on how you score the thing, nearly 40 different vegetables (I count things with different uses, rather than varieties, so radicchio, Catalogna chicory and sugar loaf count as three, but the eight or 10 different lettuces is one). On top of that we have more than a dozen fruits.

• That variety means we get to eat stuff that never makes it to the shops - Hamburg Parsley roots, asparagus chicory, Chinese artichokes, cima di rapa, loads of different chilies, Swiss chard, fresh borlotti beans, tiny broad beans (the shops go for biggies which are bitter and mealy) quince...

• It is great exercise. For a couple of years I had a gym membership, and loathed the tedium of machines and the narcissistic people using them. In the end my £25/month meant one reluctant visit over that period. Digging, carrying, pulling etc etc take it out of you, but with a purpose that obviates the need for posing mirrors.

• We control what we put on our plants, so can be confident that our salad has not been sprayed with noxious pesticide and stored in an unpleasant gas.

• The supermarkets choose veg for looks (so they sell) not taste, and for keeping quality. Not taste is an important thing. If you grow your own then keeping quality is secondary, as the bulk of the stuff you produce is harvested and eaten the same day or within two at most. The difference between our own new spuds and the ones bought from Sainsbury's is incredible, especially if we dig, cook and eat them within an hour.

A fiver for that Jamie?

Sainsbury's ads with Jamie Oliver cooking dull food for a fiver starting to get up my nose. Twee, simplistic, condescending. Which is a pity as his heart is in the right place.

Just had a meal for about £3.50 I'd guess. 89p for 250g of mushroom, onion from allotment, £1 for 6 eggs from a guy who rescues battery hens, free salad from plot too - red mustard, rocket, lettuce, and pea tips from the greenhouse. Bacon bits for 60p from Lidl on the salad, a pepper say 45p, dressing home-made, bread with rosemary home-made, and the second strawberry granita of the year from allotment strawberries and a 20p lemon.

What it comes down to is taking time to cook. Even if you know nothing but take some time, make the effort, you can cook. I listened to a local radio show recently where they were interrogating mothers (sexist gits) about cooking, and one had me screaming, saying she never made fresh, she was too busy. Does the concept of busy legitimately include bingo, the pub, and Coronation Street?

I love nosing at other people's shopping trolleys, and you get some doozies, like one woman with about twenty chicken curry boxes. Maybe it was a party, maybe an event. But for a quarter of the price fresh she could have done a better meal. She was doubtless too busy, too busy also to care about the crap she was going to present to her guests, throwing money at it not time. 'Let's have a bloody awful meal together' is not an attractive invitation.

How can you be too busy to live well? It reminds me of an obituary I read years ago for a guy who died from overwork, aged 40 killed by exhaustion. The paper, though, sang his praises, saying he built up a huge fortune in a short time.So not only did he die with the most toys, but he beat everyone else to it. Brilliant.

Real luxury comes out of time not money. People appreciate it if you take time. Food tastes better, the digestion is better, and your health is better. But you'll miss bingo.