Fresh produce on a Shoestring?

A dozen tomato plants

There’s no doubt that a gluten-free diet can be good for your health — but bad for  your wallet. Gluten-free frozen meals, baked goods and bread can be double or even triple the cost of their gluten-containing counterparts. But so many people feel that having to live gluten-free leaves them with no other choice. You simply have to buy the specialty foods and pay the high cost. With Gluten Free on a Shoestring, I’ve tried to show how that’s simply not the case. You can take back control by learning to cook and bake gluten free with more taste, and less cost.

While cooking and baking yourself can minimize certain costs of being gluten free, other expenses are harder to avoid. For example, even though you can make your own gluten-free pasta from scratch (see recipe: http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/fresh-gluten-free-pasta/), sometimes we just need to rely upon packaged gluten-free pasta. And even at a good price, that can cost double what regular, wheat-based pasta costs. So you have to get more creative and look for other ways to save and make up the difference.

One way is to try growing your own vegetables. Let’s face it. Fresh produce just isn’t cheap. I use tons of frozen vegetables, which are picked at the peak of freshness and generally very cost-effective. But some things just can’t be frozen with good results (frozen tomatoes, anyone? blech). So if you can grow your own, it leaves you with some extra money to buy those $2-$3 bags of gluten-free pasta and that occasional $7 loaf of gluten-free bread when you’re really in a pinch (heaven help us!). Don’t already think you have a green thumb? No worries. The time to start is now, and here are some tips to get started:

1. Plant what’s expensive to buy, and easy to grow.

While the idea of pulling a fresh carrot from the ground may be alluring, it’s not the best use of your gardening time. Carrots are inexpensive to buy fresh, all year long. Instead, plant more costly things like cucumbers (almost $1 each in my area, even in season) and tomatoes (usually around $2.00+/pound). Also, consider what’s easy to grow. Time is money, so you want your efforts to bear fruit … or vegetables. We have had great success in our back yard with zucchini. So it’s a staple every year. Herbs are easy to grow as well. And there’s nothing like adding fresh-picked basil leaves to your pasta sauce, salad or tomatoes and mozzarella.

2. Start small and early.

If you want to get the most from your effort, it helps to start early. But be careful. Plant too early and cold Spring weather will kill your plants. So here’s what you can do instead: Save your empty cardboard egg containers. Fill them with a small amount of potting soil and  drop in and cover the seeds of your choice. Then water periodically, just enough to keep the soil moist. You can leave your plants outside during the day. But you should move them inside (or to the garage or shed) until the weather is consistently at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. Depending on your area and climate, this could be mid-May to early June.

There are a couple of reasons to use the cardboard egg cartons. 1) They give you individual sections for your seeds. 2) They biodegrade, so you can break off the individual compartments, peel off as much paper as you can (without damaging the plant) and actually plant the whole thing right in the ground. If you keep them wet enough, you’ll even notice that your plants will sprout roots right through the bottom of the carton.

3. Skip the soil and get some FREE compost.

Here’s an extra Shoestring tip: Instead of buying potting soil, find out if your town has a compost pile. Our local sanitation department has a huge mound of compost available for FREE (and no, it doesn’t stink). People are constantly driving up to fill their buckets, trash cans, pots, etc. You can’t beat the price, and compost is great for those little seedlings. FREE compost is a lot less expensive than paying $4 for a small bag a potting soil. It’s also a whole lot greener.

So break out your garden gloves and trowels this season and give gardening a try. It’s the Shoestring thing to do. Plus, it can be lots of fun, especially when you get to harvest things like this:

Warmly,

Nicole

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