Benefits Of Growing Your Own Produce

We have become so detached from where our food comes from and how it’s made, and this stirs up a whole bunch of issues, from eating unhealthily to wasting food. The convenience of modern-day life causes us to forget about the hard work and resources that go into growing produce. But we can relearn our long lost connection with what’s on our plate by learning how to grow our own fruit and vegetables.

The Covid-19 lockdown saw a lot more people taking up gardening during their spare time indoors, and many discovered a love for it. Perhaps in the distant future, we will be seeing commercial farming becoming less and less common as more folks take up gardening from home!

You can grow your own produce, whether you live in an apartment or a house. All it takes is a sunny windowsill, and there you have the perfect space for growing herbs! There are many benefits to starting up a produce garden, and I have listed a few of them below for you...

By investing in seeds and supplies, you are likely to save money in the long run. Once you’ve learnt the basics of gardening, you can start to learn how to increase your yield and get more bang for your buck. 

Research has shown that produce may be at its most nutritious as soon as it’s harvested. This is because deterioration starts as soon as the crop is picked. That’s great news for all of the home gardeners because they have the advantage of eating their produce seconds after it’s plucked off of the plant!

Store-bought produce must withstand a long journey from farm to store and then to your home where it will likely sit in the fridge or pantry for a while longer. During all this time, it’s slowly losing precious nutrients! 

We’re all guilty of needing a little nudge to eat more fruit and vegetables now and then. The temptation of convenience foods and takeaways makes sure of that! By starting a produce garden, no matter how small, you will encourage yourself to eat more fruit and veg, because who wants to waste their hard work?! Here are a few recipes to give you inspiration for what kind of meals you could create with homegrown vegetables:

There is not much more reassuring than having full control over the food that you consume. By growing your own produce, you can decide whether to use pesticides or not and enjoy the benefits of eating organic without the high price tag. There is also less risk of contamination. 

Did you know that doctors are starting to prescribe gardening for anxiety and depression instead of medication? Spending time with nature does wonders for your mental health, and gardening can be good for physical health, too. The act of growing life from seed and nurturing plants boosts your confidence, self-esteem, and provides you with an escape from everyday life.

Packaging puts a terrible strain on resources and is a large contributor to the world’s waste problem. Unsurprisingly, food packaging is one of the biggest culprits of waste. By growing fruit and veg for yourself, you will be reducing the demand for plastic-covered produce.

In addition to this, growing enough food for your household is a fantastic way to lower your carbon footprint. If more and more people start moving towards self-sufficiency, we could begin to see farming become less intensive. 

Cooking from home means fewer takeaways and less eating out, which also means less food packaging and carbon emissions! It’s not only beneficial for the planet but your health too; both mental and physical. Cooking is therapeutic, and you could even consider it an act of self-care.

Making your own food also gives you control over what you’re eating, enabling your meals to be more nutritious and healthy. There are millions of cookbooks in the world to choose from, with great inspiration and advice. Whether you’re vegan, keto, vegetarian, or gluten-free, there will be a cookbook out there that suits you. 

I invite you to ask any gardener about the taste of store-bought fruit and veg versus homegrown, and I can assure you they’ll tell you that there’s nothing like homegrown produce.