Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace, but fell out of favor as the food industry became more industrialized and the convenience of supermarkets began to take over. In recent years, however, more and more people have started growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you should get your own kitchen garden going…
– Freshness
Fruit and vegetables taste better and are healthier, if eaten as soon as possible after picking. Most fruit you buy from supermarkets are picked well before it is properly ripe, to extend shelf life, and has an impact on flavor as well as nutrition. Growing your own fruits and vegetables lets you taste the freshest possible produce as it’s meant to taste.
– Quality
Commercially grown crops are often selected for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives, rather than for quality and taste. When you grow your own, you can concentrate on the quality, rather than the economics.
A lot of supermarket fresh produce is hugely overpriced, despite their advertising claims. Growing your own food from seed is about as inexpensive as you can get. And even growing your garden crops from small plants you buy, is likely to provide you better food at a lower cost. With many plants, you can use the seed from one growing season to provide plants for the next – a self sustaining cycle that will cost you only time and effort to keep going.
– Provenance
More and more people have concerns about how our food is produced, with chemical pesticides and GM (gene modified) food a particular worry. With your own vegetable patch, you know exactly where your food is from and how it was grown. Growing your foods organically protects your family from harmful chemicals.
– Variety
There are literally thousands of different varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to concentrate on only the most profitable and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own, lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and to experiment to find new ones you’ll rarely see on sale.
There is of course a “downside” to all this – it takes time and effort outside in the air and sunshine to tend to your garden. In these hectic times, you might think you do not have time to spare, but you do… Start small with a few herb plants on your windowsill, or even the odd tomato plant. This will give you a taste of what growing your own food is all about… and might even be enough to hook you into it for life!
About the Author: Read more about Fruits.
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