Producing our own food

We still go to the supermarket every now and then to buy food even though we have a number of vegetables and fruits growing on a strip of land across our home. Many of my housemates (ergo members of my family) prefer to devour dishes with a little bit of meat. Also, the stuff we grow across our home are not that much. We have to wait for another season for us to consume them again.

 

I would love to one day produce my own food. I notice the difference in my body as well when I eat organic foods. Not only is this the best way to go, but you're not consuming any of the processed junk from foods typically bought at grocery stores. I try to eat as healthy as I can right now but my goal is to one day completely grow all of my foods without going to the store for anything.

 

I am living in a city too. There is no garden or much place to grow our food. However, we can still grow food using pots and containers. I find that I may try growing sprouts and herbs which do not require much place to yield.

 

I have always produced my own food until I moved to the city and got a job where I have to travel a lot. I really miss the country, my garden and my animals. There is nothing more satisfying to me than growing my own vegetables, fruit and herbs and turning them into delicious meals. I know that I will return back to my favored life style as soon as I can.

 

I am a transplanted San Franciscan, having moved to northern Maine when I was 45. We moved here because when my husband proposed to me, I told him my mother would rather tell people I was dead than that I lived in Texas (his home). And he said he couldn't move to California, and what about Maine?

Well, neither of us had been here until our honeymoon, and we found a two-story 6 bedroom Cape house for $14,500. (No, I did not misplace a decimal point.)

In any event, it was a huge change, living here. Although we're not actually rural, we have to drive for 90 minutes to go to the cinema or Sam's Club.

So, little by little, I began making small changes, all of which shock people I grew up with.

One of those changes is that I grow my own herbs and vegetables.



I discovered the joys of fresh herbs about a year ago and started out with a window sill herb garden.

And this last spring, I had my husband build me a rudimentary flower bed. It was simply a large wooden rectangle with partitions going lengthwise. He then filled it to the brim with our homemade compost and soil.

And that is where I planted my first crop of onions, carrots, onions, broccoli, and dill.



Because our home is built on coal ash, the soil is only a couple of inches deep, then you hit what feels like asphalt, so we filled several leaf bags with compost and soil and planted potatoes in them.

And we filled styrofoam bins -- in which we got Omaha Steaks orders -- with compost and soil and planted tomatoes and cilantro.

Aside from a disaster with the broccoli, they all grew quite well, and we've been using them for food since late August.

 

I live in the country and for everyone here, growing your own food isn't an option. Most people here, including me, are farmers. We sure save a lot of money on food but there are fewer health problems because you can choose to use only organic manure for vegetables you'll consume. And the taste . . . organic food tastes much better.

 

I get eggs from friends who have chickens and I definitely notice the difference in the quality of the eggs. They are much, much darker in color and taste so much better, makes the store bought eggs taste really bad actually. I am hoping to grow some of my own food soon, but as of right now I don't. I have gotten some from friends during the summer season when they have surplus and it is definitely on par with the expensive organic produce in the stores. Growing your own food is incredibly time consuming though, even if you have the space. There is a lot of work that has to go into it from prepping the ground, to getting things started all the way through to cleaning up after the harvest.

 

I love the garden pictures! I've been working to increase the size of my garden sort of steadily. We just moved this past summer so my container garden moved with us, but next summer we really want to put some work in. One of my big projects will be planting blueberry bushes. I'm so jealous of those of you with chickens. My husband refuses to let me have any. I would enjoy it and I know we'd benefit from the better eggs, but he grew up on a farm and can't stand chickens. He'd rather pay $3 a dozen than raise them himself.

 

Yea, I think that it really matters that you produce your own food only if you know that much. I mean if you are say a biologists or a nutritionists who know so much about the foods that are edible to eat and are aware of the hazards that you might be doing, at the same time knowing also how really come out with a well-produced products, that is the healthy ones, then it would be way better that you produce you own, than buy if nothing close to you by proximity and by what you like is available. On the other hand, there are a lot of options now a days of the produces. It's just that, they always come with price, with the healthier ones and those that are really preferable to be eaten are far more expensive.

 

Gardening is not a easy thing to do, because my family used to do it all the time until a few years ago. For those that live in apartments or city areas with limited space for gardening, and wish to grow a lot of produce, one can either opt to find communal plots to garden at or drive a ways out a human who own land he/she is willing to rent for you to use. My family, being quite big, farmed at our home and at a farmer's plot we paid a cheap monthly rent fee with other friends. Our main crops were beans, cucumbers, watermelons, green onions, and garlic. Sometimes we sold our vegetables, but mostly my parents grew it for my family to eat and save money.

For those with limited space and not opportune with circumstances I wrote above, I recommend barrel gardening or bottle-water wall gardening - google it.

 

Don't think you can't produce your own food if you don't have a yard. Garden indoors! You will feel happier being around all of the green and your body will thank you for it because you're giving yourself good food without the pesticides. Skip processed food and you will feel much better. If you want hormone free meat and eggs then make nice with a local farmer.

 

I live in a rural area and I do have a garden, but I don't really produce any of my own food. However, most of the things I buy are locally produced. The local butcher's sell meat off their own farm down the road, eggs come from a local poultry farm and fruit and vegetables are often grown in the area.

 

I can't grow my own food yet, but I am so envious of those who do! There is absolutely a huge difference in the quality when done at home. I grew up on home grown food, my grandmother had a beautiful garden.. and ever since, I've been very picky about the produce I consume. that stuff in a grocery store is hideous.. and the farmers are the best I can do until I have the land necessary to do it all myself.

@Michelle.. I'm in love! lol. You are very lucky; enjoy

 

I live in the city now and always have but I do like to have a garden. I do not garden with the thought of growing my own food but for the joy of gardening. I grow a small amount of food, like tomatoes, green beans but since we have not place to store canned goods it is not to my advantage to grow a lot other than to help out the food bank with fresh food during the summer.