In recent years, it’s become a trend for people to grow their food. Whether you have a large backyard plot or a few small containers, growing your food is possible and beneficial. If you’re curious about some of the benefits of growing your own food, consider the following points.
Fresher Foods
Perhaps the most common benefit of home-grown food is that it’s fresh. When you pick “fresh” produce up from the grocery store, it often was soaked in preservatives, handled by dozens of different people, and left to sit in trucks and warehouses. By the time it gets through your door, the produce you bought as fresh is well on its way to the end of its shelf life. By growing food yourself, you can eliminate the need for a middle man and get the freshest food possible regularly.
According to Harvard, home-grown foods could have more nutrients than their mass-grown counterparts. Because the product is getting to you faster, the nutritional content in them hasn’t had time to wear down. By growing your own food, vitamins that you could only find in green superfood supplements can be easily accessible. You can get fresher-tasting produce that packs a nutritional punch every day. No matter what type of fruits, vegetables, or herbs you might be growing, you can ensure you’re getting the best nutrition possible.
Environmental Benefits
In addition to health benefits, there are some marked environmental advantages to growing your own food. Because you’re eliminating the need for a middle man, you can cut down on the number of carbon emissions and plastics needed to get your food to you. With home-grown produce, you eliminate the need for plastic packaging and burning fossil fuels to transport your food to you.
Rather than your food spending days wrapped in cellophane, you can pick it fresh and reap the full reward of your labor. Another way growing your own food can benefit the environment is by reducing the number of pesticides that contact your food. Not only can pesticides damage the flavor and nutrition of your produce, but they can also harm the environment.
By growing food at home, you control what pesticides and fertilizers contact your food. Having extra control over what goes in your body will lead you to be healthier and more energized with every meal you eat. Whether you have a large outdoor plot or a few small containers to grow food, having a home garden can help you protect the environment around you.
Community and Activity
Finally, having a garden at home can give you some social benefits. No matter what size your garden is, it will require plenty of work. Maintaining a garden can be very physically taxing, between pulling weeds, trimming plants, and daily watering. As you commit to the task of growing produce at home, it’s important to remember that you’ll need to put in some effort. While it can be exhausting, many people have found the routine of maintaining their garden to be very rewarding.
You can not only get delicious, home-grown food but also increase your daily activity level. Gardening can also bring a sense of community it. When you grow your own food, you become connected to the people and landscape around you. Depending on the size of your garden, you could have the opportunity to share your harvest with the people closest to you.
This simple act of sharing can help rebuild the sense of community that many towns were built on. Growing and sharing your food can help you make friends, strengthen bonds, and repair relationships. No matter where you live, it’s possible to use your fresh food to connect to the people around you.
Overall, growing your own produce not only gives you a health boost but also connects you to the world around you. As your garden matures, you might be surprised at the benefits you gain from a few simple plants.
Author: Finnegan Pierson
