Gardens get groovy

Posted on May 24, 2009, 5:17 pm, by Nancy Mann Jackson, under fresh vegetables, vegetable gardening.
Last summer, my husband and I were the only thirtysomething couple we knew who had a vegetable garden in the backyard. None of our friends spent late nights shelling peas, shucking corn or canning tomatoes after the kids were in bed.
cucumber
But this summer is a different story. A few weeks ago, I was in a local coffee shop when I overheard the shop’s owner, who’s probably about my age, talking to another young customer about his new vegetable garden. He’d just planted peppers and tomatoes for the first time, and the customer said she and her husband were planting their first garden too. An old friend from college recently emailed to say that she was starting a vegetable garden this year with her four children. Even the Obamas have planted their own vegetable garden, which is the first White House garden since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden was planted in 1943.
Suddenly, it seems like we’ve all got the itch to grow our own food. And there are plenty of good reasons for that. Among them:
  1. The economy stinks. With millions of Americans out of work and millions more with tanked investments, we’re all trying to save a little money this year. And a few seed packets and some sweat are a lot cheaper than buying fresh (or canned or frozen) produce at the grocery store.
  2. The food industry is scary. During the past few years, anybody keeping up with the news has become a little wary of the mainstream food industry. Earlier this week, 96,000 pounds of beef were recalled due to an E.Coli scare. But it’s not just meat we have to worry about: In the past few years, everything from fresh bagged spinach and frozen chicken pot pies to Little Debbie snacks have caused widespread illness.
  3. Fresh, local food tastes better. If you don’t believe me, try it. I guarantee you can taste the difference.

Like so many other young families, my family is growing a lot of our own food this year. And we’ll preserve much of it (or “put it up,” as we say in the South) so we can keep eating it all year long. It’s become our lifestyle over the past few years, and it’s a way of life that benefits our physical and mental health, our pocketbooks, and our kids’ awareness of the world around them. This blog will chronicle the experience that increasing numbers of families are choosing, to grow food and raise kids at the same time.

Are you growing a garden this year? Getting the kids involved? What are your reasons for doing so? Please comment below with your own story and any ideas or suggestions for this blog. Thanks for reading!

Photo credit: Morguefile.com

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