I apologise that I have not posted for a while but I have been sent a few curve balls recently, including my lap top packing in. I am attempting to write this on my phone which makes everything really small. Please excuse any mistakes.
The garden is doing really well this year, mainly due to a warm Spring. Luckily, there has not been much of a hunger gap in 2025. Things like spinach, rocket, radish (that I grew in a raised box under glass outside) are ready early. My rhubarb has also supplied enough for the freezer and a couple of nice desserts. Even the potatoes that I grow in the greenhouse are near to flowering. I just protected them from the cold with bubble wrap.
One way that I usually fill the hunger gap is to get the discounted Easter vegetables and store them. Another way is to get bits of fresh food by sticking the ends of things like bought lettuce, celery or pak choi in water. My lettuce end that I stuck in a ramakin with a bit of water has been providing lettuce leaves for sandwiches for over a month now. I change the water every day. Don’t you just love free food?
As I am stuck at home at the moment due to an injury, I am going to try utilising the food in my fridge even more to produce free food. I usually grow with heritage seeds and save them each year. Other seeds I get given or swap. I do wonder what would happen if seeds became scarce, though, and notice how most people are reliant on buying new seeds each year.
Last year I regrew a carrot and obtained a beautiful flower with lots of seed that I sowed in March and they have sprouted in one of my raised boxes already. I also managed to get some free onions and garlic by planting sprouting cloves and the insides of the onions. Sprouting supermarket potatoes are also planted each year. To be honest, I forget which bucket they are in and can’t tell when I harvest them.
There is this myth that you can’t grow from food bought at the supermarket or saved from F1 seed packets. This is not true. They may not be identical to the item that you took them from, but I have always found them to be tasty and a good source of free food.
When I first started growing, I couldn’t afford to buy seeds. That year I had a great harvest from the seeds of supermarket peppers, tomatoes, chillies, butternut squash, and packets of dried peas and beans.
Last week I planted the tops of some carrots to see if I would get more seeds to plant this autumn. Lentils is something I would like to have a go at growing this week. I have tried growing sweet potatoes but have not had any luck so far. Maybe this year will be different.
I endeavour all of the time to not rely on the system for necessities, and so saving seeds and growing from what is in my cupboards and fridge is just an extention of that, as well as being frugal.
Do you grow food from supermarket food?
Loved this blog…thank you! Good to see you back too! I have been successful in planting butternut squash seeds, I had just made a b’nut curry so thought why not try to plant the seeds? The next day I planted and I already have a plant growing now in only about 7-10 days! Yay! Last year I purchased a gorgeous looking tomato from the supermarket (don’t know it’s name) it was lime green and purple – saved the seeds. Now I have the plants growing well and they have a delightful purple colour on the underneath of their leaves – gorgeous! Pepper seeds are going to be sown tomorrow from a green pepper – fingers crossed! I love getting free seeds. I also prolong the life of celery and spring onions by keeping them in an old yogurt pot with a tiny amount of water in the bottom, will try with the lettuce too.
Any tips on prolonging cucumber?
Sending healing love to you Toni, hoping you recover soon – take care.
Well done. The way I prolong cucumber is to make fridge pickles with it. There is a recipe on here but can’t do the link on my phone, sorry. Thanks for your lovely long comment.
Thank you Toni – yes of course I had forgotten about your fridge pickles! Brilliant that is the plan for the cucumbers then! Cheers
Brilliant 😊
Thank you for this post , you’ve reminded me to make more of an effort with seeds and plants . I’ve only grown supermarket parsley so far . I do pinch the tips off Basil plants , they root very quickly in a small glass of water . This keeps us in Basil all year . I must try with tomato seeds though x
I forgot about herbs in my post. Thanks. I do grow most by seed but grow basil from supermarket basil. Didn’t know that about the pinched tips. Thanks I will give it a try.
Very best wishes for your recovery. You are in many peoples minds and hearts.
Thank you. That is very kind of you
Regarding growing things from “nothing” – I recently saw a video about growing potatoes – and eating them. He grew new plants by potting the chits, and each grew into a fine, productive potato plant. I decided to try it out and reserved four of my terribly expensive seed potatoes. I popped them, wrapped individually in newspaper & all in a plastic bag, in the fridge to delay the chitting, as I had just planted all the other seed potatoes. I took them out about a month ago to chit them. Three days ago I eased off the chits from one and a half of these potatoes and divided the multiple ones =17 chits – and potted them. And it works, they are allready visibly growing! He said in the video, that one seed potato had kept him supplied with chits for two years and was still producing. I shall not need to buy seed potatoes again exept perhaps to get another variety.
The bought seed potatoes are treated with all sorts of poisenous stuff, so I lable them carefully when in the fridge. It was all that poisen, that prompted my research on the internet about using your own potatoes as seed potatoes, but my goodness, I thought this chap a genius. Just one or two potatoes kept in the fridge the year round and taken out for chitting when needed, that is brilliant. Otherwise I would have been reserving 5-10 % of my harvest for seed potatoes. One lady had supplied a whole village with potato plants from a single sack of potatoes.
Wow that is amazing. Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know that. I new that you could cut a potato up and plant it as long as it had a shoot. I saw that on a video from the war. Every day is a school day. Gonna try that thanks x
Good luck! Allways fun to share and you have taught me so much – not to mention the relief of finding a blog on frugal living, that is not about not going to restaurants all the time and about cancelling unused subscripions… as if these things were relevant in our lives.
The chappie with the video used chits of about 1 cm, which is therefore also what I have done. I used the rounded tip of a potato pealer to ease the chits off the potato.
I love learning new things as well. Yes I find many of the frugal sites quite patronising 😁
Whilst at the supermarket today I noticed some slightly dry looking basil stalks for pennies. I brought them home, wrapped them in some damp kitchen paper and popped them in the fridge. They already look better so I’ll use the lower leaves tonight on some fresh pasta. Then the stalks and top leaves will be popped into a glass of water to root before being planted out. They should be well rooted just in time for me to companion plant with my tomatoes.
Brilliant. Thanks for sharing.