Thoughts on the lettuce shortage

lettuce

We’ve read so many articles about the lettuce shortage and how it’s affecting supermarket shelves that we thought we’d give our two pennies worth.

If you haven’t heard about this lettuce shortage, then our quick ‘in-a-nutshell’ summary is this:  due to poor weather conditions in the mediterranean there is a shortage of imported lettuces (as well as broccoli and courgettes) and so they are being rationed by some supermarkets (and prices have gone up.)

Unsurprisingly, we fall into the camp of thinkers who believe that growing your own is (and always has been) one of the most important things we can do with regards to food production, and we’re evidently not alone, as many garden centres have seen the sales of lettuce seeds rise dramatically. Yay! We think this is excellent news…the more people that grow their own, the better.

There are three things that we want to mention. Firstly, you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own food. Secondly, it saves oodles on the weekly shop (veg doesn’t come cheap in stores!) and, thirdly, it’s better for you and the planet (no air miles to worry about, and your home grown veg will be more nutritious).

We think that, of these three things, the number one reason that people hesitate to grow their own food comes down to space and we’d like to set things straight…

We are forever promoting the fact that you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own veg – a small container on a sunny windowsill can be really quite productive. You could grow 3 or 4 lettuces in a single window box for example. Just make sure they’re cut-and-come again varieties and remember to water them and you should be harvesting your salad leaves right through the summer, before planting winter varieties in October which you’ll be harvesting right through till spring. Brilliant! If you’ve got a balcony or a patio, then you could grow loads with our Cut & Come Again Salad Planter. In under 1m2 of space you’ll be growing 50 salad plants. Not bad, eh?

Please, if you’re not already sold on the idea of growing your own, give it a go, not matter how small your garden (or windowsill) may be. We promise it’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that you have grown the food that is on your plate!