Local farmers share advice for consumers amid high grocery prices

JACKSON, Tenn. — As inflation heats up, consumers are seeing higher prices at grocery stores due to tariffs on imported goods such as fruits and vegetables from Mexico, Canada and China.

We spoke to local farmers who say buying locally or taking the time and effort to grow your own food could help you avoid steep prices. The first step to growing your own foods is to select a suitable location and choose plants appropriate for the climate.

For those with limited space, raised garden beds help with moisture levels and can help reduce chances for diseases that come with plants being too wet.

“Great way to grow vegetables. It gets the plants up a little higher where they have better drainage,” said Bart Gilmer, farmer at Falcon Ridge Farm.

5-gallon buckets are also ideal for small spaces like patios, balconies or other areas where traditional gardening is not possible. This time of the year, West Tennessee can still see cooler temperatures.

“Behind us we’ve got about three different types of lettuces that we are growing right now. Lettuce is a good cool-season vegetable that you could actually plant now,” said Gilmer.

Other vegetables safe to plant now are collard greens, turnip greens, kale, celery, Brussels sprouts as well as root crops such as radishes and beets. More advice from farmers is to just try it out. Start small and purchase plants from your local nursery and read up on it.

For those that still want fresh vegetables, and don’t want to pay high prices at the grocery store or grow their own, there are still options to purchase locally.

“Let us grow it for you. We grow all different kinds of fruits and vegetables here. We have a CSA program the delivers fruits and vegetables that we grow here on the farm, 30 weeks out of the year; that begins in April,” said Gilmer.

To discover more ideas on food production contact your local county’s Ag extension service. For more information on Falcon Ridge Farms’ community supported agriculture program, click here.

For more local news, click here.