Lettuces for Less

Not sure if this should go in the Austerity Cook blog or here, but given it is about growing food rather than cooking, and concerns saving money, here it shall be.

We have a friend to thank for this tip. Thanks Louise.

Supermarkets sell cartons of 'living salad' for (in the case of Sainsbury's at least) £1. Buy one, harden the plants off with a few days outside and nights inside, then separate and plant them. We got 19 plants from one such container, all of which have proven healthy, and about half of which have been eaten already - they give you a quick start while your own seed-grown stuff is still on the way.

Another money saver that some gardeners won't be aware of: when you harvest a lettuce like this, leave a few of the outer leaves on the root, water it, and with luck you'll get a second plant in a few weeks.

Lettuce forms the basis of so many great things other than salads, so it's one of the must-haves in the garden. Cook peas fresh or frozen with a few leaves of green lettuce, some butter, and scraps of bacon fried till crisp and you have an approximation of petit pois a la francaise, a vegetable course in itself. They braise well in the oven too, again with a bit of bacon plus some stock to moisten things.

When you pay £1 a piece for decent lettuces in store such things can seem a bit extravagant; but when you have effectively paid about 5p for the growing salad jobbies they're a bargain. And if they are grown from seed we're talking a lot less than 1p each. Get growing.

Supermarket Basics

Supermarket Basics takes in several ways of economising, and to my mind of being a bit more eco friendly than otherwise.

We waste obscene amounts of food even before it has the chance to get to the shops, much of it because things fail to match the ridiculous standards set by bureaucrats. Produce destroyed as slightly uneven in shape; or not within the size limits set as norms. Some of the things not deemed perfect within those parameters are sold very cheaply as 'basic' or a similar designation in supermarkets. Buy them! It is not the taste but appearance that differs.

Likewise with cheap tinned tomatoes, basis of so many sauces and stews: their colour varies, or size, or maybe a tiny amount of skin clings to them. Buy them! Currently 35p or so for a tin of basic chopped toms against 50p or more for prettier-labelled 'perfects'. If you could save 30% on all your bills...

A similar line of thought follows with cheeses. I always glance (guiltily in case friends around) at the nearing-sell-by-date shelf for cheeses, and if I see any brie or camembert or good blue will buy them, as they will maybe be ripe and ready to eat. Better for less - new chalky camembert is not worth its place on the cheese-board.

Some fruits are sold cheaply because they too are ripe, or there is over-supply. Buy them! and eat quickly rather than keeping them for weeks then forgetting to check and letting them rot. To paraphrase Byron, Arise ye goths and eat your gluts (though you can feel like you are glutting your ire against EU silliness too if you want).