Is this the year that you finally begin to grow your own food? We’re not talking about complete self-sufficiency, but about taking the opportunity to learn how to grow something edible. Ask any produce grower around the country and they will tell you the same thing: nothing beats eating something that you have grown yourself!
Producing your own veg, herbs, or fruit is a great way to try new varieties of something which you love to eat. Home-grown crops have an unparalleled freshness and have not travelled for hundreds of miles to get to your plate, or been sprayed with nasties and wrapped in plastic.
Need some more reasons to be convinced to give growing your own a go this year?
Reduce Food Miles
The less distance produce has travelled from plot to plate, the more you reduce your own carbon footprint and the more flavour the crop retains. Nutrients can start to deteriorate as soon as fruit or vegetables are picked so if harvested at their peak, they have time to accumulate nutrients that might otherwise be lost when foods are picked before they are ready. Commercially grown and shipped food is often picked to ripen during shipping which means the crop has not fully matured whilst still ‘on the vine’ or in the ground.
Avoid Pesticides
Growing your own fruit, vegetables, or herbs means you get to choose to garden more simply and organically.
Increase Flavour
The sugars of some crops, like sweetcorn and peas, start to turn to starch as soon as they are picked, so it is only by growing your own that you can taste them at their very best.
Maximise Freshness
Just picked food is packed full of healthy nutrients but the benefits start to fade the longer fresh food is stored. Lots of supermarket vegetables are chosen for how well they travel rather than how good they taste. Growing your own veg, fruit, or herbs allows you to experience freshness that you just cannot buy.
Enhance Well-Being
There is a sense of pride and achievement in harvesting fresh food that you have sown and nurtured yourself. The very act of tending to a growing crop, no matter how small, will reap dividends for your mental health as well as boosting Vitamin D levels if you are someone who needs a reason to get out in the garden.
Feel Smug
There is no healthier way to get your five-a-day than from your own back garden, allotment, or window box. Plus, the very best reason of all to plant and grow edibles: in the event of a food shortage, given recent events like covid-19, you can sit back feeling smugly sustainable!
If the thought of growing your own food scares the life out of you, read up on growing specific crops here, ask for help to get started in our readers’ private Facebook Group, or drop us a message. If you are ready to go for it, check out our editor’s top 5 tips in The Last Word, the feature on Starting a Veg Plot, and Seeds, Soil, Sow!