How to grow your own food with the intention to lower your grocery bills over time?
I found that perennial vegetables hardy to your zone are good sustainable vegetables to introduce to your garden. Over time these vegetables will replace annual vegetables in your cooking.
Money saved from not buying certain vegetables and fruit from the grocery store can be allocated toward other food staples you do not grow. This could help you keep your grocery budget the same even if prices increase at the grocery stores. Your garden will supplement you with greens, fruit, and spices.
It was the end of summer and beginning of fall here in zone 5A at the time of the recording (8-28-22).
Perennial vegetables to grow in your garden
One perennial vegetable we grow is Egyptian walking onion.
Egyptian walking onion
We have been growing them since 2014. Overtime we harvest enough and stopped purchasing regular onion from the grocery store.
You can have 3 harvest times for Egyptian onion including spring, summer, and fall.
Egyptian onion grows green onions in spring and fall. You can harvest them for a month or so in spring and in fall. You rinse, chop, and freeze them for winter use. In summer, they produce small bulbils or top onions, you can harvest some for eating and replant the rest at the end of summer to increase your onion patch. If your have a lot of Egyptian onion in your garden, you can also harvest few Egyptian walking onion bulbs from the ground for eating.
When to plant Egyptian walking onion?
You can plant Egyptian walking onion at the end of summer. In our zone 5A garden, I do not go with a set calendar. I observe the nature and see when the onion stalk supporting the baby onions is mostly yellow, it is a sign the mother onion is done feeding the baby onion. I could harvest the onion bulbils m and replant them right away. If the mother onion starts to shoot new grow from the ground, it is a sign that I should replant the bulbils.
At the end of summer, when I get outside to harvest greens for cooking, I come out with a shovel. I harvest some onion bulbils and replant. By doing it a little by little, I plant the bulbils without spending many hours in the garden if I don’t have time for it.
Sorrel
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a perennial vegetable or herb in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), It is also called garden sorrel. You can use it to replace lettuce in your salad and spinach in your cooking.
We grow broad leaf sorrel.
How to propagate sorrel?
You can propagate sorrel from seeds, from root, and from shoots.
The seed stalks grow shoots toward the end of summer. I like to peel the shoots and replant them in moist soil. They root easily.
Horseradish
Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is hardy in our zone 5A. It is a perennial spice root you can grow in your garden to overtime replace spices in your cooking.
Garlic
You can grow garlic as perennial. Hard neck garlic grows a lot of bulbils on top. You can harvest the bulbils in late summer and replant.
Using garlic greens
You can use garlic leaves in your cooking as spice and leave the mother bulbs in the ground to keep coming back year after year.
You can chop garlic leaves to add to your salad dressing.
Garlic ice cube
You can blend garlic greens and water and transfer to ice cube trays to freeze. You transfer the ice cubes to a freezer bag to store in your freezer and use in winter to season your cooking.
You can also use garlic ice cubes to make natural remedies during the cold season.
Garlic butter
You can make garlic butter by mixing chopped garlic greens and butter and transfer to a glass jar and freeze for winter use. You can add some garlic butter to baked meat like pork chops for instance, or to make garlic bread.
Sage
Sage (Salvia officinalis) or common sage is a perennial subshrub in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It is hardy in zone 5a and is a perennial herb you can grow and use in your cooking.
Winter savory
Winter savory (Satureja montana) is in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It is a perennial herb hardy in zone 5a. It can be used raw or in cooking.
Wild thyme
Wild thyme (Thymus praecox) is a perennial herb hardy in zone 5a. It is hardy compared to the regular thyme. You can use it as herb or spice to season your cooking.
Planting in the ground
If planting at ground level is not hard on your back, it saves money to plant your vegetables at ground level. When you want to change your garden layout, you can make the change easily.
How to save money by growing your own food?
By growing some of your own food, you might keep your grocery budget the same even if prices increase at the grocery stores. Your garden will supplement you with greens, fruit, and spices. You will then save money from not purchasing some greens and use that money to purchase grocery staples you do not grow.
Growing perennial vegetables saves you money as you purchase them once to plant. Then you propagate from your existing plants and overtime you increase your patch to the point that you can harvest enough and cross some greens off your grocery list.
If you have land around your property, instead of watering and mowing lawn to keep up with your neighbor, if you are trying to reach your financial independence, you can grow some of your own food to supplement your grocery budget and save money. When you don’t spend all your paychecks every month, you can save some money to put to work by investing in your own side business, in the stock market, and or in real estate.
Conclusion: Food to grow to save money
You don’t want to trade your time for every dollar you make. You can put your hard work and earned money to work to overtime create streams of income that will surpass your income from your job. You invest your active income, and you use the profit from your passive income to provide for your family.
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