My husband accuses me of being paranoid about rising food prices, but I've got the United Nations on my side. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported earlier this month that in January its food price index had risen for the seventh consecutive month.
Consumers worldwide can do nothing about most of the increases in food prices, given that many are determined by shortages caused by catastrophes such as the Australian floods. Higher international prices for sugar, wheat and oils are good examples of shortages pushing up prices, as are cartels or virtual monopolies.
For example, Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, last week said it wanted more for its beans, despite the price having already doubled in the past year.
Producing one's own coffee or sugar may be a bit ambitious, although sugar-beet could be a viable commercial crop for Otago and Southland, and I know a Northland gardener who grows sugar cane.
To offset the cost of imported items (but don't ask me to switch to ersatz coffee), we should take Charmian Smith's advice and eat what is in season, rather than buying, say, tomatoes, courgettes and capsicums in the middle of winter. (As our main winter supplies of these vegetables come from Australia, there may not be any to buy, but that's another story.)
Late February may seem a bit late to plant veges for winter, but silverbeet plants put in now will give greens in the chilly months. Chinese cabbages are toughies that grow quickly in good soil, so put in a punnet or two of pak choi and some seed of tatsoi, mustard streaks and bok choi for an ongoing supply.
The most familiar Chinese cabbage, pak choi, is like silverbeet in that it can be harvested by taking off the outer leaves and leaving the rest of the plant to grow on. Common in stir-fries, pak choi can also be braised, making a welcome change in winter from conventional cabbage.
Look for plants or seed of winter lettuces to keep up the supply. Even the hardiest do better with some shelter, so grow them under cover. If you are using a lightweight plastic unit, anchor it well to avoid my experience of having it sail across the garden when the wind blew.
Think ahead. Put in cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli plants, so they will be ready in spring. If sown in March and April, broad beans will be ready bright and early next season; while peas and onions can also be sown now. Garlic, however, can wait until May or June.
If you don't want a vege garden, take a potager approach and mix flowers and vegetables. An elderly Dunedin woman grows three Bright Lights silverbeet plants each year in her tiny patch of flowers. She says the red and yellow stems look good and keep her in greens for the winter.
Orach is a hardy, red-leaved, spinach-like plant that grows to about 1m, so put it at the back of a flower bed. Sown now, it may not reach its full potential, but will still have tasty leaves. Jerusalem artichokes and cardoons, which are closely related, are also good for this mix-and-match approach, although they won't crop until next season.
And if you've no garden at all, get into micro-greens, such as baby-leaf beets, which can be grown in pots outside or even indoors on a windowsill.
So, whatever your situation, start growing.
