Growing Your Own Fruit And Veg

Buying fruit and vegetables from a shop or even a local market all costs fuel - driving to somewhere, driving back again and of course the distance that the produce has come as well. Not to mention the fact that much of the fruit and veg on offer has travelled from America, China or other far-flung reaches of the world.

With higher oil prices and all this travelling, food prices have also started to rise. I have managed to buy myself literally hundreds of seeds for just under NZ$60 [convert], probably somewhere around 2000 seeds at a guess! If even 10% of them grow to maturity I will have saved hundreds of dollars at the supermarket - enough to buy even more seeds next year!

Then there are the added unknowns like pesticides, fertilisers and so on. Apples, for example, contain a natural wax on them to help retain moisture. After collection, apples are washed and their natural wax is lost. To keep them fresh, a man-made wax is applied to them to keep them fresh.

As for pesticides: "Most pesticides become inactive or are removed long before an apple reaches your table. U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys of pesticide residues on foods have shown year after year that most apples are practically residue-free, and when a residue can be found it is generally at levels well below government-established safety standards." i.e. there are some pesticides in your apple but not enough to worry about at those levels [source].

There are other market considerations to understand as well. Take for example a carrot that has two stumps and looks more like a Y than an I shape. Would you want it, even though it tastes like a "normal" shaped carrot? According to the supermarkets, you wouldn't, so these perfectly acceptable foods are simply binned in a world where people starve. [source] "Farmer Bruce Carlisle is used to seeing hundreds of tons of his potatoes rejected at every harvest. Thirty percent of the crop he delivers is rejected"

30%? That kind of waste should be illegal!

I'm not sure how well known this fact is, so I'm hoping that providing you with a little bit of background as to why I'm venturing into the world of Grow Your Own will help you make changes in your life. Even little changes, like buying a wobbly cucumber or strange-shaped potato. They taste the same so why wouldn't you? If you have kids, a carrot with two legs instead of one might be the novelty they need to eat it with a smile on their face!

I'm hoping to start to grow my own and I look forward to showing you all the various shapes and sizes of the fruit and veg that I grow. Who knows, maybe I'll be happily munching on 30% fresh food that most people never get to see in their local supermarkets...