Why You Should Learn To Grow Your Own Food

With the latest trends in urban gardening, it doesn’t matter where you live or what kind of space you have, you can still grow your own plants. Bigger gardens or even a small holding are ideal for larger crops, a greater variety, and a plentiful harvest. City dwellers, however, are growing their own greens in planters and vertical gardens. Either way, there are great benefits for you and the environment in growing your own food such as:

1. More nutritious

Most produce found in grocery stores goes through a long process of handling before reaching the store shelves. They’re exposed to a range of unnatural conditions and often live in storage or on the shelf for some time. The addition of harmful chemicals from pesticides, processing, and packaging all result in nutritional loss. 

When you pick produce straight from the garden, you get the freshest, most nutritious form of the food. There hasn’t been excessive handling or processing which means you get the minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants intended from your greens. You also get the tastiest produce with great texture, color, and flavor.

2. Save money

Whether or not you save money will depend on a few factors. Some gardeners go all out with their gardens. It can be easy to spend a significant amount on having an immaculate setting. You can, however, also grow your own veggies without spending much at all.

Growing items that are pricey at the grocery store and that continue to produce fruit more than once are a great choice. Unlike carrots or cabbage that you grow, pick and eat (end of story), tomato plants will keep on producing fruits and so will bell peppers. This makes your investment go much further.

Peppers are one of the more expensive produce items to purchase. By getting an indoor pepper growing kit you can yield a good amount of peppers without needing much space. These types of plants are ideal for limited spaces.

If cost saving is one of the reasons you want to grow your own food, being selective about what you grow can make a big difference to your monthly expenses.

3. Less waste

From the farm to your home, there is a considerable amount of unnecessary food waste. Industrial farming can be hard on plants when it comes to machine harvesting. In addition, they’re exposed to many chemicals and pesticides. Plants that don’t look near perfect or are a little limp, generally don’t make it to the store. There are also many edible parts that go to waste. Think about carrot or beet tops which are delicious and nutritious, but rarely used by home cooks. In fact, these are often removed even before reaching the shelves.

By growing your own produce you can use the entire plant, and make use of your full harvest. Parts that don’t look that great but are fine to eat can be used for soups, sauces, pesto and smoothies instead of being wasted

4. Fresher and more flavorful

A lot of commercial produce is picked well before it is ripe and then artificially ripened. Although this prevents fresh produce from going bad during shipping, it affects the integrity of the food. In these cases, consumers get muted flavor and poor nutritional value. 

It doesn’t get any fresher than garden-to-plate. By growing your own veggies you can pick them at their peak ripeness which offers the best flavor and nutrients.

5. No chemicals

By growing your own food you have complete control over keeping it organic and chemical-free. With fewer harmful methods used for growing, there are fewer chemicals and improved nutrition going into your body. 

With so many benefits for our bodies and the planet, it’s time we start shopping in our own backyards for the best nutrition.