home grown food

There is nothing, simply nothing that can beat the experience of producing your own food; well okay, nearly nothing... More and more people are turning to growing their own, and whilst this may seem like nothing more than the latest gardening “thing”, it is an essential skill which we have nearly lost, yet which we will all too soon come to depend upon.

I have written recently on hydroponics and aquaponics and felt I should redress any perceived image of not being in favour of good organic methods of growing veg. Nothing could be further from the truth, I think organic methods of growing are essential for future survival. Wherever people have a garden, they should be growing veg; the more, the better. This is essential practice for future times to come, but also has immediate benefit to those that partake of it.

Our chemical agriculture is killing our soils, degrading and denuding them, to our future detriment; there will come a day when we can no longer afford (or even produce) the chemical fertilisers, pesticides and diesel in the vast volumes that our global agribusiness now demands. When that day comes, we will be left with the prospect of trying to bring back to life the remnants of our soil by organic means, a prospect that is quite daunting. Fortunately, there is an alternative that can ease the coming food crisis with by use of a system that would yeald far higher output per acre for far less input: organic gardening.

But even if we put aside fears of peak oil and its implications for future food security, there are still many, many good reasons to grow veg. The primary one is for your own health: if you've grown it, you know exactly what's gone into its production. We are so uncaring about what goes into the food we eat, and the official reassurances are so limited in their scope, comprehension (of the issues) and biased in flavour of the industries it supports, that our real well being can only be left to ourselves. If we abdicate on that responsibility, what right do we have to complain of the consequences?

Growing our veg therefore is the first - and perhaps biggest - step towards taking responsibility for ourselves and our future, our health, our security. Some people will prefer to do it just for the taste, it doesn't matter, although awareness of global issues is of ever-increasing importance. Some will do it for the food-miles and cutting down of their carbon footprint. Others will do it because it relieves stress after a busy day at the office. Most likely, there will be a combination of many of these elements.

Part of the ethos of organic gardening is the care of soil, which, along with water, is our most precious resource on Earth. Feeding the soil is as important as feeding ourselves, for they are one and the same, on a most fundamental level. Restoration of the land and bringing poor soils back to fertility, is one of the most healing things we can do for ourselves and for the planet.

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The other day we had the most fantastic meal; omlets, from our own eggs, salad with assorted fresh leaves and basil. Only the onions, garlic and carrots were bought, because ours weren't ready. eventually, we will have them available all year round, either in the ground, or in storage. We have given ourselves a race: to record the first day of the year when everything on our plate is produced by ourselves, and to make that date earlier every year! Central to this aim will be our polytunnel - the cultural heart of our garden and so much more than just a piece of plastic stretched over a frame. We have, in fact, developed a whole way of life, called polytunnelculture, (polyculture for short, a nice play on words) which I might just write about in a future article!

Did I mention that organic veg freshly picked also tastes ten times better than the best organic veg you can buy? It's true...