Supermarket Sweep - A Quick Look at Bagged Salads

One of the reasons why I started The 52 Week Salad Challenge was when I realised the bagged salads we're buying are much more expensive - weight for weight - than buying meat. Not only did that seem a crazy thing to be doing, I immediately realised that here was a golden opportunity to make a big saving on our weekly food bill.

Since then I've been having a closer look at precisely what's on offer in our supermarkets. Whilst the shelves are stacked high with lots of different salads e.g. sweet, baby leaf, bistro, herb, Italian, individual leaves and suchlike, the actual mix of leaves in each of these types is quite limited. The total number of different leaves used for the various mixed bagged salads is around 24. The maximum number I've found in an individual salad is six (and even that isn't guaranteed) and the more typical packet has just 3 to 4 different kinds.

Already we've seen that even in winter the number of different leaves available for cropping is much wider and with a much greater range of flavours than those displayed in the above photo. You want a boring salad? Then buy one from a supermarket! Carl has shown us salads even in the depths of January can have more than 20 different kinds of leaf. If I can provide at least half of that at the end of the year I'll be very pleased.

I'm starting a new salad growing area in a part of the garden I've not shown you before to prove all this can also be done in a very small growing space. More on this project shortly. I hope I've done enough to persuade you to join me in The 52 Week Salad Challenge if you haven't already!