In the backyard, on the deck, out on the balcony, on the kitchen bench, behind the sports shed at school, at cafes and sometimes EVEN out the front….it seems the EVERYONE is growing their own.
Is growing your own food suddenly trendy? Or is this shift back towards simplicity a real shift in the way we want to live?
Producing food at home, to go out and collect herbs and salad leaves from your own garden and prepare healthy fresh meals, is truly wonderful. And in a fast moving world with instant everything, the process of growing food provides lessons in patience, and teaches us that the real rewards come from our own efforts.
If you’ve ever produced food, you know the excitement and pride that comes with – it really is a grown up version of show and tell!
Our local restaurants and cafes care more about where their food is produced – and some even make an effort to establish their own farms or onsite beds, and make real connections with the growers supplying their goods.
More and more schools are not just putting in a vegetable patch, they are incorporating growing and cooking in to their curriculum. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has made serious inroads, with over 600 schools now running the program is some form. I don’t know if they have any surveys to back it up, but I assume there is a positive knock on effect where the kids who really get into it start encouraging their families to put in a little food garden too.
According to a report from The Australia Institute (2014)…”Over half (52 per cent) of Australian households are growing some food themselves, predominantly at home, with a further 13 per cent intending to start growing food in the next 12 months.”
This provides an amazing use of our urban resources, and creates incredible opportunities for food swaps and information sharing. More and more people are realising that growing edible plants is not some sort of mysterious gift, it is a skill that can (and should) be learnt. And like anything, the more you do it, the better you get!
So what about you, are you doing it?