The tide is turning in regards to home grown vegetables. No longer is spending time in the garden and growing your Sunday vegetables a thing for grandma and granddad. More and more people are looking to gown their own vegetables and for good reason. ‘YouGov’ even suggest that 45% of people in the UK now seek a ‘babysitter’ for their plants and vegetables when away on holiday.
As the pressure grows on farmers and food supplies to get food from the field to the shelf as fast as possible it can be suggested that shortcuts are being made. Shortcuts in the form of chemicals, pesticides and synthetic fertilisers have very much increased across the board. The quality of any food depends on how it’s grown in the field and handled before it reaches us, if questions are raised regarding this process then consumers are a little apprehensive in the shopping isles.
Reducing Dependency
With the quality of food at stake here there is one way we can reduce our uncertainties in this produce, and that’s by taking away our dependency of this produce, simple right?! If we become self-sufficient and grow our own vegetables then reducing dependency on frankly unrecognisable vegetables in the supermarkets will also reduce our anxieties around this subject area.
Through home growing we can take care of our own health, well-being, whether we are blessed with large growing garden or looking to maximise a smaller back door space. Either way you can use your time, and space by growing fruits and vegetables of your choice.
Benefits of home-grown foods
You are the gardener and you are in charge of how and when you grow your vegetables. Home grown veg puts you in the driving seat in regards to the growing process. This makes the produce very often organic and in turn you will know how high the quality of food will be. Chemical contamination is drastically reduced in your back garden together with the opportunity to grow different types of produce close together. Something that doesn’t often happen in the vast fields of consumerism, pardon the pun.
Further benefits include developing a healthy and productive hobby and interest. This past time is very effective in terms of encouraging your family to be self-sufficient, as well as developing your own relaxation technique and opportunity of escapism away from hum-drum of everyday life.
Planting and grown veg from seed is very much a procedure that reduces stress and provides focus, to the busiest of lives. Your ability to learn a new skill sky rockets as fast as your leafy green shoots. By concentrating on your planting techniques and what steps are required next encourage active participation in the process with the jeopardy of being partly responsible for the outcome of the produce, this can become quite pleasantly competitive, so be aware! To further this point there are studies for further reading that actually suggest that home growing can lower the risk of developing dementia, brain training at its very best.
Cost Effective
Weekly shops do add additional pressure to households, especially if you are conscientious enough to encourage healthy eating through the form of fruit and vegetables. Regardless of the size of your garden or home environment growing foods can considerable reduce the burden of cost on your family.
Growing foods at home not only increases the volume of food produce available at home, but also the cost on the family per meal. To further this point, once you are up and running there is even potential to sell foods to friends, family and even at local markets to earn some extra income on top of your finely honed skills.
These skills can certainly be passed on to your wider family, including your children. Developing home grown skills as a child is a lifelong ability together with a good understanding of the food produce itself; but also having an understanding of the impact of home grown, nutrient rich food has on our health and well-being is imperative. The educational process for your children can also be a cheaper source of produce for their future too.
Nutrition
With foods grown in your own place of comfort you can guarantee yourself good nutrition. By fully ensuring yourself that your home grown foods are free of pesticides and fertilisers you can preserve the actual nutritional benefits of the food.
Having the ability to produce anything you want is inciting more and more people to start home-growing. This helps families to grow the produce they like as well as trying out new and exciting vegetables once witnessing it grow from seed to plant, to plate.
Having ingredients growing in arms reach of your kitchen is a huge advantage for unplanned meals, quick and easy solutions to roast some vegetables or slow cook them ready for when the family walks through the door.
This easy access to home grown vegetables is transforming the business market too. The vegetable seeds industry is booming, together with increasing sales figure received from the suppliers very much show that the demand for home growing has increased.
A further reason for this boom is that the vegetables grown at home free from the artificial additives is quite clearly better tasting, alongside being more dense in nutrition. Home grown is more natural in taste, colour and shape. Buying vegetables and fruits from supermarkets allow for that “dead space” of time to affect the quality of the produce, degrade in size, colour and of course, taste. However, growing your own at home allows you to leave the produce on its delicious vine or plant for example, right up until you need it. Literally ready to eat, when you are!
The plants the vegetables are attached to in general are a whole lot denser in goodness too, including fibre, vitamins, minerals, all of which contribute further to the quality of the home grown produce.
Home growing can ensure the grower, you, and your family of food safety. There is no contamination in the process and no alternations that can happen during the transport process, i.e. from your garden to your kitchen, as opposed to farming, manufacturing, and transporting.
Beginner Veg
Go on, try it out yourself. Salad greens are best for beginners, if you have a spot of land, or even large plant pots then lettuce, for example are great as they take up little space and can grow amongst flowers.
Furthermore, tomato plants and vines look great, are easy to manage, contribute to air quality and produce delicious ripe tomatoes. Grow these in baskets or pots too, inside or outside together with sun and a cane for support.
