Food prices are getting ridiculous.

Every time we go to the supermarket, it seems like something else has gone up. Fresh produce, herbs, fruit, spices, juice, and all those “specialty” ingredients can quickly add up at the checkout.

That’s why I reckon one of the smartest things we can do as home gardeners is not just grow the crops we like eating, but grow the crops that are expensive to buy.

Some crops are cheap and easy to find at the shops. Others make you look at the price tag and say, “Crikey, I’m growing that myself!”

Watch the video version below, or keep reading for the full article.

In this article, I’m going to show you five crops that can be expensive to buy, but are surprisingly easy to grow at home. And once they’re established, they can keep producing for years, or at least give you enough planting material to grow them again and again.

The crops are:

  • Ginger
  • Citrus, especially oranges, yuzu, and makrut lime
  • Turmeric
  • African horned cucumber, also known as kiwano or horned melon
  • Passionfruit

Let’s get into it.

1. Ginger

Ginger is one of those crops that is incredibly useful in the kitchen, but it can be surprisingly expensive to buy fresh.

The good news is that in a warm climate like mine here in South East Queensland, ginger is dead easy to grow.

You plant a piece of rhizome, give it rich soil, moisture, mulch, and some filtered light, and it will multiply underground from that one little piece. It does not need to be complicated.

I’ve grown ginger in all sorts of places, including in grow bags sitting on top of a raised garden bed. In one case, I had a bed that was infested with nut grass, so rather than growing directly in the bed, I placed grow bags on top and planted ginger in those. I did not fuss over it too much, and before long, I had a nice harvest.

That’s the beauty of ginger. You don’t have to harvest the whole lot at once. You can dig around the edge, take a piece when you need it, and let the rest keep growing.

That makes ginger my type of crop: easy, productive, useful, and a lot cheaper than buying little pieces from the supermarket every time you need it.

Fresh ginger can be used in stir-fries, curries, teas, marinades, ferments, preserves, desserts, and even drinks. Once you have your own supply growing, it becomes one of those ingredients you use more often simply because it is there.

And that is one of the great hidden savings of growing your own food. You don’t just save money by replacing what you would have bought. You also gain access to fresher, better produce right outside your door.

2. Citrus: Oranges, Yuzu, and Makrut Lime

Citrus is one of the best long-term food investments you can make in the garden.

Now, oranges might not always seem expensive if you are just buying a few from the supermarket. But once you start juicing them, you quickly realise how many oranges it takes to make a decent amount of fresh juice.

Have you ordered fresh orange juice at a café or restaurant lately? It’s not cheap. And fair enough too, because real freshly squeezed orange juice takes a surprising amount of fruit.

Having your own citrus tree is like having a fresh juice machine growing in the backyard.

But citrus is not only about oranges. Specialty citrus can be even more valuable.

Take makrut lime, for example. The fruit itself is not usually eaten like a normal lime, but the rind and leaves are incredibly useful in cooking. The leaves can be finely sliced and used in Thai-style curries, stir-fries, soups, and sauces. They add a beautiful aromatic flavour that is hard to replace.

Then there is yuzu.

Yuzu is a specialty citrus that can be expensive and hard to find. But if you can grow it yourself, you have access to a highly aromatic fruit that can be used in dressings, sauces, vinegars, drinks, desserts, marinades, and all sorts of fancy cooking without paying fancy prices.

Citrus trees do take time to establish. They are not an instant crop like radish or lettuce. But once they get going, they can produce fruit year after year, sometimes for decades.

That is real self-sufficiency.

You plant once, care for the tree, feed it, mulch it, water it when needed, and over time it pays you back again and again.

3. Turmeric

Turmeric is another crop that often looks exotic and expensive in the shops, but is surprisingly easy to grow at home, especially in warmer climates.

It grows a bit like ginger. You plant the rhizomes, the leafy tops grow through the warm season, and then when the plant dies back, you dig up the golden treasure underneath.

Fresh turmeric can be used in curries, pickles, soups, rice dishes, teas, smoothies, ferments, and spice blends. You can also dry it, grind it, and turn it into your own turmeric powder.

Just be careful when processing it, because turmeric stains everything: your hands, chopping board, bench, clothes, and probably your soul if you are not careful.

I also think turmeric is one of those crops people overpay for in supplement form. I am not making medical claims here, but from a practical food-growing perspective, if you can grow the real thing, dry it, grind it, and include it in your cooking, that makes a lot more sense to me than paying big money for heavily marketed capsules.

Another good thing about turmeric is that you do not need a huge area to grow it. It can grow in large containers, small containers, raised beds, or straight in the ground if your climate suits it.

A small finger of turmeric can grow into a big plant and produce a decent handful of fresh rhizomes in one season. Then you can keep some to use and replant some for next time.

In my garden, turmeric often comes back by itself. I’ll miss a piece when harvesting, and next season it sprouts again. That is the type of crop I like: one that wants to grow.

Once you buy or source your first piece of turmeric, you can keep multiplying it. That makes it practically free after the first planting.

4. African Horned Cucumber / Kiwano / Horned Melon

African horned cucumber, also known as kiwano or horned melon, is one of the strangest-looking crops I grow.

It looks like something that fell out of a spaceship.

It is spiky, bright orange when ripe, and inside it has green, jelly-like flesh full of edible seeds. It looks exotic, but it is actually quite easy to grow in warm weather.

This crop can climb, sprawl, and produce very well. Once you have seed, you can keep growing it year after year. In fact, if a fruit is left to rot or gets half eaten by wildlife, the seeds can spread around the garden and pop up by themselves.

If a seedling appears in the wrong place, you can transplant it. If it appears in a good spot, you can let it grow, give it something to climb, or let it ramble.

It will climb trellises, fences, and even nearby trees if you let it.

The flavour is mild, a bit cucumbery, a bit citrusy, and very refreshing. It is one of those crops that gets people talking because it looks so unusual.

In Australia, you do not often see African horned cucumbers in supermarkets. They are probably too unusual for the average fruit and veg aisle. But in places overseas, such as parts of the USA and UK, they can sell for big prices as a specialty fruit.

That is what makes them so interesting from a self-sufficiency point of view.

Why pay premium prices for something that is actually quite simple to grow at home?

I think African horned cucumber is one of the most underrated unusual crops around. It can be eaten fresh, used in drinks, made into salsa, added to dips, or used as a fun garnish. The seeds are easy to eat, a bit like kiwi fruit seeds, and the jelly-like flesh slides down easily.

It is unusual, productive, and fun. And sometimes, those are the crops that make gardening most exciting.

5. Passionfruit

Passionfruit can be shockingly expensive to buy, especially when they are out of season or sold individually.

But grow a good vine in the right spot, and it can produce bucketloads.

Passionfruit is perfect for fences, trellises, arches, and ugly corners you want to cover up. Give it sun, decent soil, something to climb on, and a bit of water, and it can turn into a monster — in a good way.

In my garden, passionfruit often comes up on its own. It can travel, climb, and find its way into all sorts of places. I have even had passionfruit vines climbing up citrus trees and using them as a living trellis.

Now, growing passionfruit up a tree or in part shade will usually reduce the amount of fruit you get. It will still grow, and you may still get some fruit, but if you want the best harvest, give it a dedicated trellis in a sunny spot.

That is where it will really shine.

Passionfruit pulp can be used fresh, added to drinks, stirred into yoghurt, spooned over desserts, baked into cakes, made into cordial, added to sauces, or frozen for later.

And honestly, few things feel more satisfying than walking outside in the morning, finding a passionfruit that has dropped from the vine, picking it up, and knowing it did not cost you a cent.

That is gardening gold.

Grow the Crops That Save Real Money

So there you go: five expensive crops you can grow at home for practically free once they are established.

Ginger, citrus, turmeric, African horned cucumber, and passionfruit.

And that is one of the best lessons in growing your own food. Don’t just grow the cheap stuff. Grow the crops that save you real money. Grow the crops that are hard to find. Grow the crops that taste better fresh from the backyard than they ever will from the supermarket.

Because once you get these crops established, they can keep paying you back year after year.

Sometimes you will not even notice how much they are saving you. You will simply get used to walking outside and picking what you need.

And that is the beauty of growing food at home.

You don’t have to be self-sufficient in everything.

But it is worth being self-sufficient in something.

Cheers,
Mark
Self Sufficient Me