The way that we look at food has changed over the past 10 – 15 years, for many people cheap mass produced fast food is just not acceptable in their diets any longer as they now understand more about the implications of how the food was produced, what it does to our body and the ethics that have gone into the production of the food. For this reason more and more of us are turning to growing our own vegetables and even having a go at rearing our own animals for meat and food. This all ties in very nicely with the boom time that cookery is having at the moment due to the increase in cookery programs on the television. We are more educated about food and how to cook it than ever before and with the help of the inter web we are never far away from some exotic recipe or another. So what can you do to join the growing number of people that are becoming self sufficient and more educated in what we eat and the way we produce our food?
Growing your own vegetables is pretty simple stuff really; all you need is the correct tools of a spade, a fork and a hoe and then a plot of land in which to grow your crops. It really is that simple; many of the everyday crops such as potatoes, carrots, beans and cabbage have been cultivated over hundreds of years and developed into crops that are usually pretty hardy and easy to grow. Certain things are important to ensure that you get a plentiful crop such as a good fertilizer, a good compost and good pest control all of which are easily sorted but decisions have to be made at an early stage as to which way you would like to go, organic gardening or conventional gardening.
The trend at the moment is leaning towards organic gardening for the simple reason that you have gone to all of the effort in deciding to grow your own vegetable crops so you might as well go the whole way and produce your crops in an organic way. Organic gardening is not that much more difficult than conventional gardening, it only takes a little more research and time to carry out but the rewards make it all worthwhile.
Rearing your own meat is a little bit more tricky than growing your own organic vegetables but after the initial settling in period where you are learning the basics it is relatively simple to have your own little farm going that takes up very little time. The most popular animals to raise on a home farm are chickens and pigs, chickens take up less space and are a little easier to look after and pigs need more space and take a bit more of your time up. The extra work that is needed to look after the pigs is more than rewarded by the amount of food that the pigs produce but depending on the space you have available both animals are more than manageable.
Both chickens and pigs are fairly low maintenance and the benefits of rearing these animals far out-weighs the disadvantages, as well as the effort that is put into keeping these animals for food you will have the added advantage of being educated about how to keep the animals in a humane way which will help you and your family understand the true value of meat and food.
Keeping chickens and pigs has other benefits such as the manure that they produce can be used to fertilize your garden and help your vegetables to grow, helping you to have a truly organic gardening experience.
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