Domestic goddess rating: 0% (slogged through four hours of gardening in a thunderstorm, I deserve a break) Five-a-day: 4/5 Food miles: none
On the menu: sausage and egg (breakfast); cup of coffee and rain (lunch); curry and rice (supper)
Well – I know it looks a bit wild and woolly at the moment, but I thought I’d introduce you to my allotment.
This is where I hope I’ll get most of my seasonal food this year – it doesn’t yet supply us all year round because I haven’t cracked how to grow a constant supply (am constantly thwarted by a combination of pigeons, slugs and appalling weather). But I do my best – you can make out the Savoy cabbages I’ve just planted for next winter in the foreground, so you see I do plan ahead a bit.
Growing your own is by far the best way to get hold of seasonal produce. You don’t have any problems with your source, as you have control over what veggies are available when. Also things treated as rarities in the shops – forced rhubarb, salsify, purple sprouting broccoli, that kind of thing – are commonplace on allotments, so you start taking them for granted (I think this is why I’ve been so shocked how difficult it’s been to source seasonal food). And what’s more they’re very cheap – the price of a seed, in most cases.
It’s good for your fitness (you work up a real sweat digging over those beds), it’s good for your health as you get to eat lots of completely chemical-free, ultra-fresh veggies – and it’s good for your pocket. What more can you say than that?
Filed under: Gardening, Grow your own, Seasonal eating, healthy eating | Tagged: allotments, finding seasonal food, Gardening, Grow your own, home grown vegetables, local food, organic vegetables, sourcing food, where to get seasonal food
