The Good Human » Food

Homegrown Vegetables: Get In Touch With Your Food Source.

david — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:30:41 +0000

Not sure when or how, but we’ve become totally out of touch with our food source. How many of us have ever had the pleasure of enjoying some homegrown vegetables? I read the book Plenty and in it they said that our food travels from farm to plate about 1,500 – 2,000 miles. That’s insane and I wanted to do something about it.

This past spring I decided it was time for me to get back in touch with my food source and grow my own vegetables. Some of you might be rolling your eyes and saying, “No shot. I can’t do that. I have no space. I don’t have any experience. It’s too expensive.”

To that I say neither did I. I live in New York City on the 4th floor of an 8 story building. It took a bit of creativity on my end to pull off the ultimate urban vegetable gardens. I now have a fire escape garden and a backyard vegetable garden at my Grandmother’s in Brooklyn.

Up until I started these gardens, I had zero experience in gardening too. I just kind of experimented to see what would happen. You know what happened? I got some fresh homegrown veggies. No degrees. No books read. I just did it.

The whole experience has been great and a lot of fun. If I want a fresh salad, I go to my fire escape to harvest some lettuce and kale. It doesn’t get much fresher than that. It’s a great feeling to eat a big freshly harvested salad that you grew on your own.

Not only is it fresh, but I know exactly where it came from and what’s happened to it before I grew it. Though I didn’t start from seed, I bought the plants from a local gardener at the Farmer’s Market. She is the one who planted the seed and was with the plant from it’s beginning. When you go to a chain the employees have no clue as to what happens to the plants or seeds.

In terms of cost, they are minimal as well. I built self-watering containers using recycled materials that cost less than $5. You could also make hanging planters using soda bottles.

So getting back in touch with your food source and enjoying some homegrown vegetables is definitely possible.

If you are still hesitant, which I’m not sure why you would be, and want to get more involved in knowing where your food comes from I’d recommend joining your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or food co-op.

These will help to put you in touch with the farmers and get whatever questions that you have answered by the source that is taking care of them.

What’s stopping you from growing your own?

Mike Lieberman resides in New York City and provides simple solutions for living in a complex world. Besides his own blogs, he contributes to others across the web. You can find all of his work at CanarsieBK.com and follow him on Twitter @CanarsieBK.

Post from: The Good Human

Homegrown Vegetables: Get In Touch With Your Food Source.

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You’ll Never Look At Dinner The Same Way Again.

david — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Because of where I live, this movie probably won’t be here anytime soon so I will have to wait for it on Netflix. But in the meantime, and if you haven’t seen it already (most major cities have had screenings), check out the trailer for the film Food, Inc. From what those who have seen it have told me, it will change your eating habits forever:

Post from: The Good Human

You’ll Never Look At Dinner The Same Way Again.

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Photos Of Front Yards Turned Into Edible Gardens.

david — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:30:37 +0000

What good does all that grass really do anyway? Wouldn’t a front yard covered with edible plants make a lot more sense than just a big expanse of grass that needs mowing but serves no purpose? Well, these people have discovered the art of planting edible gardens in their front yards, which simultaneously saves them money on buying vegetables and contributes to better health. This is truly using your land to your advantage! I would love to pick tomatoes from my front yard instead of spend time mowing it, so I am pretty jealous of what they have been able to do. Take a look:

Do you have an edible front yard? If so, do tell us about it!

Post from: The Good Human

Photos Of Front Yards Turned Into Edible Gardens.

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To Organic Or Not To Organic – It’s An Obvious Choice.

david — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:30:29 +0000

Recently, a study was released that said that organic foods had no health benefits over non organics. The study was done by the UK’s Food Standards Agency, their equivalent of the US’s FDA. The FSA said that organics have “no nutritional superiority” over traditionally produced food and that “it shows that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food, and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.” Well, there you go everyone – stop buying that organically-grown food, as there are no additional health benefits in them that are not in food grown with fertilizers and pesticides! To be honest, I somewhat agree with them – there probably isn’t much (some, but not much) you aren’t getting from the organics that you cannot get from traditionally grown food. But I bet there are health detriments to eating food coated with possibly toxic and carcinogenic pesticides! According to our own EPA, laboratory studies show that pesticides can cause health problems, such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer, and other effects that might occur over a long period of time, and some pesticides also pose unique health risks to children. Sounds healthy to me – how about you? Still not sure if eating organic might be more healthy for you on just a basic level? Ask yourself one easy little question:

If someone put two pieces of food in front of you, and told you that one was grown organically without toxic pesticides or fertilizers and one was grown using the toxic pesticides or fertilizers, which one would you choose to eat?

photo credit: Daniel Beaman

(Boy do I miss the Santa Monica Farmers Market, shown above)

Of course, everyone would choose the organic one because the other might be coated with chemicals! Just because you cannot see the chemicals when in the grocery store, doesn’t mean they weren’t used in the production of your food. The food gets exposed, as do the farmers, the factory workers, the grocery store workers, and finally your body gets exposed. Organically grown food is good for everything and everyone. So while you might not be missing out on a few antioxidants and the like when eating traditionally grown food instead of organic, you are doing damage to the world around you and yourself. If you cannot buy everything organic, here is a helpful list of the things you should definitely be buying organic. Next time, choose organics and pay no attention to studies telling you that it’s not worth the money – it really is.

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To Organic Or Not To Organic – It’s An Obvious Choice.

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