Why you should grow your own food?

I don’t know how it all started, but we are continuously bombed with healthy food campaigns. Suddenly we have hundreds of new vegetarians, vegans or hardly-meat-eaters.  Eat this, try that, drink this, and use that. And is ok, I guess the results are not fake. But who can guarantee that what you buy on the market is indeed healthy? On this matter, I only trust my grandparents and the magic of their small garden. They are my inspiration why I want to grow my own food. Have you thought about it?

Usually, I provide myself with good quality food from the local organic stores. But it’s expensive and I cannot always afford it. Following the newest trends and positive examples of urban farming I’m really encouraged to start my small garden. I live in an apartment so that would mean that I have to find a good piece of land outside of the city. That’s crucial I think because healthy food depends on healthy soil, and I’m not sure how good the soil in the city is.

Reasons to grow your own food

Other reasons why I want to start this are the general pollution and the low standards on growing food, especially the excessive use of pesticides. This is confirmed in the latest researches that show that some of the vegetables like cucumber or tomato or fruits such apples and pears have a high level of toxic matters. So, I would say that food safety is the core reason for creating my own organic farm.

Here are some of the benefits of producing healthy food that I want to emphasize:

You will always know what you eat

You will always know what you eat and that’s really cool. I remember the first time I helped my grandparents in planting some tomatoes and pepper. Few months after I was so happy when they called to share that it was the best harvest in years and the tomatoes flavor was incredible. They practice natural farming and deliver chemicals free food for more than 30 years.

By growing your own food you have an opportunity to improve your health by consuming what you really need and follow your prescribed diet. For instance, this is a great chance for all who have to clean their liver. Personally, I have trouble with constant Fatty Liver. I’m vegetarian and I don’t drink, but the problem is that I consume too many sweets. That’s why once a year I have to go through more severe diet. I have a great experience with 10 days juice diet. It was an interesting detoxification adventure and I’m planning to repeat it again this spring.

While gardening, you have a unique opportunity to reconnect with nature. Every time I’m on the field I’m completely absorbed in silence, do my job while listening to the beautiful songs of the nightingales. Working hard is not that hard when you have fresh air to breathe in. If the day is sunny you have a complete detoxification treatment and at your break you can meditate or read some poetry, something to ease your mind.

A wonderful outcome of growing your own food is the possibility to reduce the waste and even more, to properly use it again in your garden or small farm as an additional nutrient.  Not only you can use the remains of whatever you harvest for composting but also you will become more careful regarding this issue. You will surely like to share your experience with your neighbors and friends. It’s possible that you’ll become more interested in the possibilities of using the food waste from your closest environment to create compost and maybe even make some money from it.

The financial benefit

But besides that, there is a general financial benefit from growing your own food. Composting for others, cultivating and selling seedlings can bring some extra income but the most important financial aspect of this effort is that it always pays off for you personally. You don’t have to visit the store anymore and save money on buying natural products. If your harvest is satisfying you can even sell some of your veggies and fruits on the local market or to your friends. Some of the veggies grow and can be harvested on longer period as long as there are good conditions for that. And what to say about freezing your food for the upcoming winter when veggies and fruits are more expensive?

The overall benefit from growing your own food is that it can give you a whole new way of seeing and valuing yourself. It can broaden your views too. Not only you will feel useful but on a deeper level you will increase your value and feel that you are part of something important. And as time goes by you will gain precious knowledge that can eventually help others. It’s a priceless heritage for the future generations. If you seriously consider the challenges that we are facing with as humanity you will appreciate even more this noble act.

Would you try it?