Growing your own Food

As Ron Finley said, “Growing your own food is like printing your own money.” Read more to learn about it.

A lot can be understood from this statement made by the man who is a co-founder of an organization which deals with low budget urban farming in Los Angeles.

While growing our own produce is a trend abroad, India hasn’t paid much heed to this need of sustenance yet. Many researches have shown that organically grown food has more vitamins and minerals than chemically and synthetically produced food. Also, as most of us have seen how the prices of organic foods are tagged in the supermarkets near us. They are priced ridiculously high as compared to the fruits and vegetables found in the local markets. The possible way to combat these issues is by growing our own food. Sounds a little befuddling and tough at first but as we enlighten ourselves with the benefits it can provide us with, we wouldn’t mind giving it a try with all our heart.

The best way to begin this is by creating our own little organic kitchen garden in either our backyard, extended balcony or terrace. All we need is to find the right sunny spot to begin with. We can start with basic vegetables which are simple to grow, like basil, mint leaves, coriander, chillies, curry leaves, lemon grass etc. These can be easily grown as they don’t require too much sunlight.

If we are blessed with farmlands, then starting an organic farm to provide us with our basic vegetables and fruits need is the best option. This requires manpower and dedication but it has the benefits that are totally worth the hard work put in.

Below are the some of the reasons why we should grow our own food:-

• It’s economical and cost effective: Growing our own food can be very cost effective. That is because we wouldn’t have to go to the local market to buy the basic herbs and vegetables which we can easily grow in our kitchen garden. Thus, we can decrease our monthly expenditures considerably, by creating a kitchen garden of our own.
• All the health supplements that come with it: We know exactly what goes into the seeds we sow and what comes out of the produce we reap. That is, we can produce food free from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers because only we get to decide if our food is organic and GMO free or not. Our food can be as clean as we want it to be. Also, gardening provides a good exercise for the body and relieves stress.

• They taste better: The organic food produced retains their taste and freshness. This is the reason why good chefs use organic food in their recipes. They taste better than the vegetables and fruits available at the local stores. This is because veggies from a local store have a few days gap between their harvest and purchase, thus they lose their moisture content and begin to metabolize their own reserves. In contrast to this, home grown food can be eaten within a short time of their harvest. Thus, retaining the nutrients and taste it originally had.
• Convenience: What can be more convenient than picking up our food from a place which is just a few steps away from our kitchen? Pick it! Cook it! Serve it!
• Energy conservation: By growing our own food we can somehow cut down on the energy consumption due to modern farming. Synthetic fertilizers production requires huge amount of energy. So if we promote organic farming by growing our own food, we will help this energy consumption decline considerably. Thereby, helping in energy conservation.
• Protect future generations: Children are more susceptible than adults to some of the widely used carcinogenic pesticides in food. Thus, the food choices we make now will affect the future of our child’s health. If we include organic home grown food in our child’s diet, we are somehow securing his/her health by a wide measure. Wouldn’t we do this much for our future generation?

• For beautification purposes: When we think of a garden, we think of a beautiful picture with all the beautiful colours in it. Let’s think of a kitchen garden in the same way. Wouldn’t a garden with those lovely tomatoes, chillies and herbs be amazing to look at? Absolutely! So yes, even beautification could be a reason for creating a kitchen garden of our own.

Growing our own food provides us with a sense of self sufficiency, pride and responsibility. The happiness when home grown food is served at the dinner table is unmatched. The abysmal feeling of content and security we get when we know what we are eating is safe. So let’s all take a pledge to start growing our own food and become caretakers of our mother, Earth.