Saturday 9 July 2011

Get things growing


Delights from my garden

A new generation of veggie gardeners are transforming the urban environment and the way we are thinking about food. They are digging garden plots in city parks, tearing the turf out of their back yards and filling their balconies with pots full of herbs and greens. It’s the young, the urban, the cool.. and hopefully the rest too.

Waves of immigrants from Europe brought gardening knowledge and tradition with them to Australia in the years before and after the war, but the gardening bug skipped a generation as many children of the immigrant families rejected those “old world” ways (yes I’m talking about you Mum and Dad). Fortunately, the grandchildren – the new generation of veggie gardeners - are driven by the search for unique produce, heightened flavours and organic pesticide-free food. And so, the simple garden-to-plate approach is finding new relevance.

And here’s why:

·         Simply seeing how long it takes for food to grow gives a whole new respect for the ingredient. 

·         Fresh, flavourful, more nutritious produce. Vegetables and fruit grown in nutrient-rich soil and picked minutes before eating is much tastier and much more nutritious than produce that was picked two weeks ago, shipped across the country and artificially ripened.

·         Pesticide free produce. If you actually knew how many times store bought produce was sprayed with artificial fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and growth promoters - the chances are you probably wouldn’t eat it. Many pesticides and herbicides were registered long before extensive research linking them to cancer and other diseases could be established. They are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can therefore also harm humans. 

·         Getting your kids to love vegetables. Kids who grow vegetables are more likely to eat vegetables. This is also a good way to foster a child’s connection with the natural world and sense of environmental responsibility, and to help them to establish a lifestyle that includes good eating habits and outdoor activity.

Whether it’s a move to the future or back to the way we were.. it’s a move in the right direction.

More of my home grown delights

1 comment:

  1. truly lovely produce! why wouldn't you grow your own vegies...so ornamental, so yum and so much fun!

    ReplyDelete