6 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

As of today many of the news headlines are talking about food shortages. As a kid I couldn’t even imagine having a food shortage in this country, today it’s a very real possibility and it’s not even coming from the routes we would have thought. This is why more than ever supporting local farmers, small farms, homesteaders, and even growing a little garden of your own is so important. So here is a list of why we grow our own food and why you should grow your own food too.

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1. Homegrown anything just tastes better

Taste is a huge reason we got into growing our own garden in the first place. You can read more about that here. Homegrown foods whether it’s produce or meat just taste better. Why? The most basic explanation is because it’s always fresher. A tomato that is grown in a hothouse, picked before peak ripeness, and shipped thousands of miles will never measure up to warm tomato picked fresh off the plant in the heat of summer.

The other factor involved is nutrition. Animals and plants both need nutrition balance to produce better-tasting products. This is why honey is sold in different “flavors.” Is the honey actually flavored? No, the bee collects pollen from different types of flowers and therefore produces different-tasting honey. One of my favorite gardening books “The Intelligent Gardener” by Steve Solomon talks about how the soil nutrients in his own home garden drastically changed the nutrition value of his produce.

“…Annie and I start gaining weight even though we were consuming mostly vegetables; we hadn’t yet learned to adjust our intake down to match the increase in how much we were eating because the vegetables all tasted so great!”

The Intelligent Gardener by: Steve Solomon with Eric Reinheimer

When you grow your own food you can control the nutrition of the animal or plant and therefore have more control over your own nutrition. If you want more information on soil health and how it relates to your nutrition you really need to check out the book mentioned above.

2. Finding better health

We, as a family, have been “lucky” in life and have been healthy most of our lives. We have always tried to eat healthy which has never been about maintaining or losing weight but just making good choices in our food. After starting to homestead and growing our own food we quickly learned all of the misconceptions we had been led to believe. Now our freezer is entirely stocked with locally raise food, mostly from our own farm, but there are still a few goals we have to achieve. The most important thing is our farm-raised food is nutritionally sound, not all lettuce is created equal. Knowing where your food is coming from, what it ingests, and how it is treated is the first step to a truly healthy journey.

3. You never run out

This last year we learned just how amazing it is to have a pantry and freezer stocked. When others were struggling to get to the grocery store we knew we had plenty to eat and did not need to fight that battle. Now with the possibility of beef and pork shortages, once again, we do not have to be worried. We will continue to do raise our own animals and continue to fill our freezers.

You can have your own food security too. It doesn’t have to mean a freezer full of meat it can also be a garden full of produce. No matter how small your garden is that garden can provide some food security for your family. Even one tomato, cucumber, and head of lettuce can make a beautiful salad. An herb garden can save you hundreds on buying fresh herbs at the store each week, especially around the holidays they are expensive! A single apple tree can fill your pantry with applesauce, apple pie filling, apple butter, and the waste turned into apple cider vinegar!

4. You learn to use what you have

The most unexpected blessing our homestead has given is learning to use what we have. Our pantry is stocked full of dried goods and canned whole foods. When I plan meals I pick what protein we want out of the freezer then figure out what to compliment it with from the pantry and garden. This last winter was the first where I truly tried to stay away from the store. We ate what I had preserved and what we had available locally. Three years ago that idea was so overwhelming to me, I thought it meant I had to eat the same thing every day, but that’s so not true. This year I will be working hard to grow a fall garden so we can extend that harvest even more.

5. Farming is our hobby

This farm/homestead is not a job it is a hobby. It is a hobby we enjoy! It has to be! I could not do this day in and day out if it was something I did not enjoy. This is actually why we found this has worked so well for us. The farm gives back to us with food, money, and being able to work side by side. No other hobby that each of us had before was something we did together. This we do together as a whole family.

Sometimes the garden does not produce, the pig doesn’t get bred, the eggs don’t hatch or the shipment of chicks all perish. It’s not all glory and profit. We do this because we love it. The rest is a perk, BUT you cannot grow anything if you don’t try. The seed will not grow if it doesn’t get planted, you can’t raise your own pork if you don’t buy the piglet, you can’t get eggs if you don’t raise the chicks, so get started now and grow your own food!

6. Kids will never stop learning

Our kids have benefitted so much from being around the animals, doing daily chores, and learning to appreciate their food. They spend their summer days running through the garden finding snacks, picking berries, and exploring the nature around them. Some days are tough, I won’t lie, some days they don’t want to do the chores, but that’s what life is about right? I love that they get to experience this life, and it fuels me on my tough days.

The best part is our kids will know how to grow their own food when they are grown up. They may not have a farm or even a garden, but they will know how to make it happen if they need. This is something they cannot unlearn.

If you are reading this and considering your own homestead I cannot say enough about how much joy it has brought to our lives. The homestead has benefited our family, our free time, our kids, our health, even our dogs, and most of all our bellies. Even if a homestead is not in your future find something to grow. You can only benefit from its endless value.