Each and every growing season comes with its own excitement. Do you remember the feeling you used to (... or maybe still do) get for Christmas? The anticipation, the excitement, just the feeling in the air that makes you feel like something really cool is about to happen? That is the feeling I get every spring. And as we put our garden to bed for the winter I can't
help but get a little nostalgic for that feeling I got in the spring. This got me thinking about why it is that I like to grow my own food so I thought I would share.
When thinking about why I want to grow my own food, my mind can’t help but wander to carrots. Stick with me… Carrots are seriously the perfect vegetable. They are crunchy, they are sweet, they are savoury, they are oh so satisfying to pull out of the ground and they go well with everything!
Growing up, these were my favourite vegetable that my mom grew in her garden and they are still one of my favourite vegetables to grow today. I always get a little exciting feeling whenever it comes time to harvest my carrots.
When it comes to growing your own food, the list of benefits is long and everyone’s list of “Why” looks a little bit different.
Here is mine:
· I want to build a connection to the land and the food I eat
· I LOVE saving money on groceries
· I enjoy taking pride in food that I grow and harvest myself
· I like to learn new things and each growing season presents its own unique set of lessons
· I pretend I'm a history buff, looking into the past and what's been grown on my plot of land
· I want to support local businesses and families
· I feel a need to know where my food comes from
· Food you grow yourself can actually be healthier than food bought from a supermarket
· It is A lot of Fun!!
Recently, I have been seeing that not everyone shares my excitement or enthusiasm for growing their own food and I have been wondering what the difference is. Are people just too busy? Are there just not as many farms? Are fresh veggies harder to come by? What the heck is going on!?
While it may seem like farming and agriculture are dwindling, the statistics say something different. According to statistics Canada the amount of overall crop land increased from 2011 to 2016. Ontario also accounted for over 25% of all of Canada’s farming operations*! Wow! So it makes me wonder, How is it that the province who has over ¼ of the country’s farm land, also has 26.6% of its obese population**?
Growing up in northern Alberta, farms were everywhere, and I’m talking HUGE farms. Farm fresh vegetables, fruits, meats and everything in between were easy to come by. Hunting and fishing were popular activities and there seemed to be an instinctual connection with the earth. Most people in my hometown of Cold Lake were either farmers or oil rig workers so whether they were putting something in or taking something out, the ground was where most people made their living. I can’t help but wonder if this is where that connection to the land came from.
When we moved to Ontario, things just felt different. You are never far from a town or city, fast food is extremely accessible and I felt like my connection to the land was gone. Being a teenager at the time, I didn’t dig too far into these feelings, I just carried on and embraced the new lifestyle in front of me. I mean, what teenager wouldn’t love going to McDonalds on school lunch break? Looking back at things now, there wasn’t a problem with Alberta or Ontario. It is a problem with our education system all over this country. We are not taught enough about nutrition or healthy living in schools (I vote we replace algebra with Nutrition… but that is just me…). And remember that client I was telling you about in my first post? I bet they didn’t get the education on nutrition either!
If I haven’t already convinced you, let’s talk numbers. Not only does Growing your own food give you that connection to the land and the knowledge of where your food is coming from, it saves you a lot of money!!! We all know that the cost of food in our province has sky-rocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic. The cost of fresh vegetables is up 10.3% in the province of Ontario since 2021***.
So here we go! I want to investigate what the average cost difference is in my beloved carrots. Let’s do some math:
When I Buy a bag of carrots from the store it costs $2.49. Each bag has approximately 5-8 large carrots, so you are paying at least 31 Cents/ Carrot.
My bag of Organic Carrot Seeds are $3.95. Each bag has about 500 seeds. Even if we have a success rate of only 50% (A lot can happen when you are planting seeds and asking for mother nature to help grow them) our carrots cost 1.5 Cents each. That is a savings of 30 cents/ Carrot. If you buy one bag of carrots every other week, that is $124.80/ year Average that out over the course of your life and you could save a ton of money!! That is money that can go toward buying other good organic food, a vacation, college savings etc! And that is the savings on ONLY CARROTS!!!
My mission through this blog is to make the education we all miss in schools, accessible and easy to use. Simple bits of information and actionable items that you can put into practice in your day-to-day life. I am not an expert in everything, there are a lot of things that I am still learning. And there are a lot of things that we will be learning together! We are so excited to be on this journey of growth together.
Whether you are looking to get healthy, build a connection with your local community or just save some cash, leave me a comment and let us know why you want to learn how to grow your own food and what you want to learn next!
Happy Planting!
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