Portland Foodie

Growing Food: A Guide for Beginners

Today marks the release of my first book, Growing Food: A Guide for Beginners! YEA!! Below is a preview of the back cover...but I would love for you to take a look at it on Lulu.com. There you can peruse the first few pages and see what the inside of the book looks like.

And other big news...I am currently developing a new podcast with a crazy chick you may know, Amanda Thomsen of Kiss My Aster. It is called Good Enough Gardening and we will be debuting our first episode in the next week.

But wait...that's not all! Today on Cooking Up A Story, you will find me kneeling in the garden, attempting to teach you how to plant beets. Only Rebecca Gerendasy could convince me to do such a thing. It is a cute video, though...did I mention how amazing she is? And speaking of amazing women...two upcoming interviews are in the works. Tonight I am being interviewed by everybody's favorite life coach (@coachvanessa) at Integrative WellnessWorks in the Let Your Life Bloom Series. Next week, I will be chatting it up with @FarmerPhoebe...more details on that in a couple of days. And in case you missed it, The Nutrition Data Blog did a nice little write up with some quotes from me! 

WHEW! OK, finally, here is the back cover of the book...I am so excited you guys! YEA!

Can You Survive Without a Grocery Store?

It has been a long time since American’s were worried that they might have to answer that question. Recent economic and food safety concerns have contributed to a new local food movement in which communities are talking about increasing independence from the supply chain and supporting local growers. Many people have decided to start a vegetable garden…and you can’t get any more local than that!

If you want to join them but are afraid that you won’t know how to get started … relax, we’ve got you covered!  “Growing Food” will teach you everything you need to know about how to plant, harvest, prepare and store the top ten (okay, eleven) vegetables in simple terms and step by step instructions.

And, this book is full of opportunities for you to connect with all kinds of resources. For the first time in gardening history, there is finally a resource that combines written information with live online interaction. Just think, you can ask a real person your gardening questions!  In this book you will find information about:

•             Organic gardening blogs

•             Facebook, MySpace and Gather Grow Your Own Food groups

•             Gardening forums, videos and podcasts

•             Tons of topic specific web pages for more in depth reading

 

This book is not the end of your learning experience. It is the doorway to a whole network of people who can support you in growing your own food.

Can You Survive Without a Grocery Store?

There are several reasons why now is the right time to learn to grow your own food...cost savings, certainty of production methods, supporting your local community.  Lots of writing and conversation has come forth about the return of the Victory Garden…and I don’t mean the TV show.

There was a time when we knew how to take care of ourselves in this way. We could grow and harvest our own fruits and vegetables, care for our own chickens, and milk our own cows. Even in the past 50 years or so, the family veggie garden was a common part of life.

 Then we went and got all  “citified”. Stopped relying on ourselves and started buying into the myth that getting our produce from the grocery store was a better idea.  And the more we purchased, the more big agriculture grew, finding new chemicals and genetic modification practices to increase yields and length of storage.

Looking back on it, I can understand why we were eager to embrace “progress”. It was an amazing time saver, particularly for women who were raising a family and working full time. I mean, who had time to put in a full garden?

But in embracing this cultural shift, we’ve lost our respect for food.  We have lost the understanding of what it means to value the earth and the bounty that it provides. We’ve lost touch with small farmers, now struggling to survive. We’ve lost the ability to provide for ourselves. And this is a bad time to not know how to provide for ourselves.

The biggest hurdle we face in returning to some level of food self-sufficiency is overcoming the notion that buying produce at the local grocery is a good strategy for healthy living. It is more than evident that salmonella is sneaking in to food production at many levels. Toxic sprays and other inorganic farming methods are harming the environment and our bodies. And we have no idea what the long term ramifications of genetically modifying our food will be. Quite frankly, that’s the thing that scares me the most.

The good news is that it takes very little to reclaim our past. Anyone can grow their own food, even if it is in pots on a balcony or in a sunny window, you can grow some portion of the produce you need to sustain your life. Seeds, soil and pots can be found for little to no cost. Taking small steps as an individual can make a big difference. By choosing to grow your own food and frequenting local organic farms, you help strengthen your community. And by not buying produce from big agriculture, you are using your money to vote for change.  Together, we can make a difference.