[JayG]

After 50 years of growing fruit and veg (I started young!) it seems to me that some things are much easier, productive, tasty or profitable to grow than others, which (deep breath!) you could therefore save yourself a lot of time and trouble by buying in the supermarket (SM).

Worth it:
1) Sweetcorn; there is nothing you can buy which comes anywhere close to a freshly picked cob, even though it takes up a fair amount of space for what you get.
2) Runner beans: surely the easiest and most productive crop for the space taken up.
Always quite expensive, sometimes stringy from the SM.
3) Raspberries: easy, delicious, again always expensive in SM.
4) Various salad crops; pretty easy and good saving on SM prices.

Maybe:
1) Peas; home grown delicious, but I can't grow 'em. Bought frozen peas are not bad either.
2) Asparagus; After 5 years my asparagus are just getting into their stride (!) A sparse, short-season treat which takes up a lot of space and need a fair bit of looking after.
3) Carrots;  Not easy to grow really well, quite cheap and some tasty varieties in SM.

Not:
1) Salsify; Messy to prepare and cook and tastes pretty yukky!
2) Asparagus pea; lot of faff for not much product or taste.
3) Brassicas; don't suit my sandy soil, very pest and disease-prone, and mostly pretty cheap and good quality in SM.

What do you think?

 

[tode]

JayG, you've forgotton the blackcurrants    
Which should definitely go into another class:  "Can't live without"     
   

[Pompey Spud]

Er. Not sure I see the point of the post.

We grow anything we eat a lot of:

Pots/toms/Strawbs/Raspberrys/Salad/Beans/Aliums/Plums/Peas/Sweet Corn/Squash/Asparagus/carrots

We now eat in season and don't buy it from the shops if it's not apart from staple stuff.

[maxie]

Worth it.
Sweetcorn definitely.
Early potatoes.
Carrots the first carrots are always a treat and since enviromesh came out a relatively easy crop to grow.
Peas,well ive got three kids that love them.
Beetroot.
Leeks are well worth growing,leek and tatie soup,also cooked in butter then mixed into mashed potato,bootiful.
Not worth it.
Maincrop potatoes,the farmers can do it so much better.
Caulies still my worst crop.
Kohl rabi,spinach,mustard greens.
Maybe.
Broccoli,brussels,Tomatoes<onions can be bought cheap but i still like to grow them.

[Pompey Spud]

To us having an allotment is about trying to be a little self sufficient where we can, to re-educate ourselves, our kids and have some fun at the same time.

Sure, the farmer can do a better job with all his tricks but I bet my Cara's taste better.

 

[JayG]

Er. Not sure I see the point of the post.

To us having an allotment is about trying to be a little self sufficient where we can, to re-educate ourselves, our kids and have some fun at the same time.

I wouldn't still be growing my own after 50 years if I didn't still LOVE the challenge and excitement of doing it.
My point is that despite that, some things are more worth growing than others when it comes to easiness, problems, taste, yield, and value compared with what you could buy them for, and I wondered what other people thought.

[madcat]

French beans are a definate, as are soft fruit and (strange as it might seem) courgettes and squashes and pumpkins. Lettace, spinach, yup they are definate.  And new potatoes and shallots and leeks and runners.  And herbs.

The jury is out on tomatoes - when they grow, yup a definate.  But blight .....

I like growing onions - so satisfactory - but harder to justify.  Spring onions - l wish I could.

But not peas.  Apologies to the pea god, but the frozen ones are excellent and space is limited.  Mangetout is a different question - sooooo expensive to buy.

[sclarke624]

Worth it:
Sweet peppers much sweeter and nicer than SM
Spring onions easy to grow for me, tastier and cheaper
Toms defo worth it not had blight in the four years I've been growing  YET they are tastier
Lettuce convinient outsid e kitchen door as eat a lot and don't want to keep going to shops also cheaper.
Radish when they grow properly for me same as lettuce
new potatoes tatier lot of work in pots but I don't mind
cape gooseberries cheaper
raspberries easy cheaper
strawberries cheaper easy
Celery so easy and tasty apparently and cheaper

Not sure on carrots have only managed in four years to frow bitter ones, am leaving  them longer this year as read something about letting the sugars develop.

dunno about onions they are nicer but take up a lot of room in my one high rise

Fennel for the bulb not worth it as always go to seed for me.
Beetroot having found a quicker way to cook them found they gave me belly ache.

[NigelB]

Good thread JayG, 

Definite:...
Overwintered and spring cabbage.....  Yum.
Spuds most years but I'm about to give the soil a rest from them to avoid the inevitable  build-up of pests..
Mange-tout... My first year growing them and I noticed that most of my family would grab a pod and munch it while looking round the garden.. 'Grazing your garden' they called it.
Onions and Garlic and Leeks as ever.
Oh, and spaghetti marrow:  Delicious to eat.... It takes on flavours really well....and such a heavy cropper. I have the seeds saved all ready, already, for next year's spring sowing.. 
Greenhouse tomatoes and chillies are a staple too...

Maybe:
Sweetcorn....... I dunno... The last three years growing Sweetcorn have been pretty grim to be honest. This year we had one cob from a dozen plants.... But that cob was so yummy.... I dunno.
Peas: Just can't seem to grow the things..... Time to give up I think...
Beetroot:.... I hardly ever touch them now.... The smell of them boiling is just so earthy, it puts me off eating them........ I'll probably grow just a few to give to my friend's mum who loves them fresh from the garden.

Not.
Fennel: Too poncy and not worth the fuss...
Purple sprouting broccoli: What a waste of space they turned out to be... I overwintered them, fed them, gave the all the space they seemed to want... And all I got back was a few tiny heads of purple broccoli.... and even the purple came off into the water they were boiled in... Never ever again....