It’s funny how often we buy produce in the store without giving a thought as to how it’s grown or where it comes from. The natural convenience seems to block any potential care or interest in its original sources. An interest we should have. An interest in the quality of our food, the sustainability and the overall freshness that could make or break a meal. Is convenience really worth it?
It needs sun, soil, rain… time. None of these naturally happen in a grocery store.
Our common idea of “fresh” is walking into the grocery store and seeing our produce laid out, all tidy, neat, organized, perceived to be untouched.
This isn’t the truth though; we have been conditioned to see the image of our produce in the grocery stores as fresh. For most of us we believe it’s the only way to obtain fresh foods. So why do we feed into this cycle when we’re all so clearly aware that produce needs to grow? It needs sunlight, soil, rain… time. None of these naturally happen in a grocery store. Why aren’t we taking it upon ourselves to provide this sun, soil, rain and time? Why don’t we want to be the most in touch with fresh produce we could possibly be? Convenience. It’s too easy to rely on that grocery store.
There’s a wealth of benefits to growing your own produce, you save money, you’ll eat fresh and you gain a natural sense of providing for yourself, you’re living off the land. The problem is, not enough people have truly experienced this.
Yes, you go out to a nice dinner where the restaurant is sourcing their produce directly from a farmer, but you’re only partially experiencing it, only when you choose to go out. Bringing in that freshness seems unattainable in our home environment; it’s associated as something too difficult to achieve and this is completely untrue!
…the goal is to have lived well, provide proper, full nutrition to our families and enjoy every aspect of life to the fullest.
Let’s take it back to sun, soil, rain and time, all things that are naturally occurring. All things that take little effort on our part. Let’s change the perspective to sourcing and growing our own food. Let’s push the narrative that this is true convenience. In the end the goal is to have lived well, provided proper, full nutrition to our families and enjoy every aspect of life to the fullest. Shouldn’t we be pushing these ideals onto the three times a day we enjoy a meal? If we provide ourselves the opportunity to continuously eat fresh and well, it has a domino effect on different avenues of our lives.
To wake up to an omelet with fresh tomatoes and seared off the vine jalapenos, with crisp spinach only having a moment to breath from being plucked off the vine into our frying pans. To settle down to dinner with the family knowing you’re feeding them something that literally stopped growing within the past hour and is now settled onto their plates, ready to provide the most fresh, optimal nutrition. This sounds like a beautiful morning, a proper start of the day and a wholesome way to wind down and get ready for it all to unfold again. For every dish we make to be more impactful, more flavorful, more whole, this should be a goal we all strive for.
Gardening really is that simple, growing your own food really is that easy, and the rewards that come after cannot be replaced by a grocery store. Being able to have a one on one understanding of how to obtain and nurture your food for it, in turn, to nurture you is incredibly valuable and when mother nature is doing most of the work why not take a crack at planting some seeds. Let’s turn the focus towards fresh. Let’s turn the focus towards connecting over the most delicious of a meal. Let us reap the rewards, respect the land and let it nourish us, it has been designed to do so.
Sources
Hands with lettuce picture – https://pixabay.com/photos/gardening-plant-salad-garden-eat-5214372/
Tomato plant picture – https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1580057
