Grow your own!

I was appalled the other day at the price of veg in the supermatrket and even though they are putting their rpices down , I think it's still worth growing your own.
The health benefits are that you can pick them on the day you use them and you know what they've been sprayed with etc. You're less likely to have to chuck stuff out because it's gone off and you're lowering your carbon footprint.

If you have a very small garden, grow stuff in pots such as tomatoe plants, peppers and chillis {these will also grow happily on a window sill if you have no garden} Strawberries are also good . I'm still getting ripe strawberries now. If you go for alpines they will go quite happily in a flowerbed or giganticus which will give you siper huuugee strawbs! The kids will love getting involved in planting ...and eating them. You can also grow blueberries and raspberries easily although raspberries take up more space.
Salad leaves can be grown on a windowsill or in a box out side and onions are really really easy , I tend to stick them in my flowerbeds to keep the slugs off.
If you haven't got enough money to go to the garden centre make friends with a local allotment holder or gardener , if they're amnything like me or the gardeners I know they will be happy to give advice, seeds and cuttings.

But those are the best sorts, just bung em in and watch them go! The tip I was always given was look in your neighbour's gardens and see whats growing well. It will tell you what sort of soil it is and light conditions there are.
For example we're on heavy clay with lots of slugs so theres no point trying to grow cabbages {mine went overnight } but carrots and parsnips do really well.
Basils always good for on the window sill and that's one that you pay through the nose for at the shops.

No Scotchlass, there are things you can plant now such as red mustard which is good for spicy salads and stir frys , early potatoes, early cabbages. You can pretty much keep a veg patch productive all year.
If you haven't got somewhere organised. What I would suggest is dig a square over and put as much organic matter {compost and...*(*(@::} then maybe putting something like mustard seed down which can be used as a green fertalizer {It grows over winter then you dig it in to rot down}
Basically the more food you give the soil, the more it will give you!

Glasgowgirl, I would reccomend Jerusalum artichokes, they grow anywhere. In fact the only problem is if you don't like them , they are a to get rid of because the plants quite invasive and look at some of the japanese salad plants which will grow in poor light and get a couple of mushroom logs {a bit of an expensive intial outlay but you can sell on excess produce}