This blog was originally published on my Foods We Can Trust website on 13 June 2025
Writing and publishing the pages of Foods We Can Trust as I go, does mean that I have had the opportunity to reflect upon and even mention relevant topics from the news as I go.
A few days ago, at the end of May, it was pleasing to see The Times report that former President of the National Farmers Union Minette Batters (Who has taken the step of working for the government, now that she is in the Lords) suggested that future housing developments should include Allotments.
Sadly, comments that followed on social media branded this as ‘Everythingism’; a term that like many others that is now being used to dismiss anything with deeper meaning or a point that runs contrary to common or ‘accepted’ thought.
Allotments, or rather the Allotments that are available for people to rent today are popular. This point was proven well when I did a search as I have been writing and found that the Local District Level Authority where I live, Cheltenham Borough Council has a waiting list for the Allotments under its control that can extend from a matter of weeks to a couple of years.
Contrary to what some might immediately think, I am not criticizing CBC or any Local Authority in any way for not having Allotments immediately available today – as it’s great that they are there and can be available. Popularity does of course vary and the last thing that many people think about today when it comes to Food, is Growing Your Own.
The need for us to contribute to Food Security
If you’ve read the page ‘What is Food Security’, you will now have a better idea of what it means to be ‘Food Secure’ and why we really aren’t Food Secure, anywhere in the UK today.
Unfortunately, finding a way to help enough people understand that we are all taking a massive risk by trusting that the Food we eat everyday will always be available and that as if by magic, the Food Chain will keep on doing what it does today, isn’t easy.
Especially as everything that the Government is currently doing is reinforcing the message that the UK doesn’t need Farms and that the Food of the Future will be manufactured in warehouses and factories – sadly without any regard for what that will really mean for us all in terms of not being able to eat Foods We Can Trust.
If we continue to wait until there is a real problem with the UK Food Supply, before we begin taking steps to ensure that we always have enough Food available and ready to Feed everyone across the UK, we are all likely to experience Food Shortages quickly. And as time goes by, following the arrival of a serious Food Supply Shortage, more and more of us may even be forced to go without.
Food Shortages are not a problem that any of us should be taking lightly. But neither should any of us – and particularly our politicians – be taking it for granted that enough Food of any kind will always be available for everyone – as is clearly the case, right now.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding the risk to UK Food Security and then considering the steps that need to be taken to ensure that we will always have enough Food, is this:
The UK Food Chain is currently unable to Feed the UK Population without considerable supplies being imported from Overseas.
If that’s difficult enough to accept, the next point we need to understand is this:
If Overseas Food Imports were stopped, UK Farms and Food Producers would be able to provide significantly less than the 54-58% of ‘self-produced’ or ‘UK-Produced’ Food that UK People would immediately need. Because the Food Supply and Logistics Chain isn’t set up to prioritise British Consumers today, and very few of the Farms the UK has would be able to supply Food that is ready to be prepared to eat, direct.
To add some further perspective, we must then accept that:
The Farms across the UK that are geared up and have the systems in place to provide Food to us direct are likely to already being doing so. They are what we already know and use as our Local Farm Shops and Food Businesses that are selling us the Food that we already know to be coming from Local Farms, Harbours and Fisheries before being turned into Dairy Products, Breads or any of the Foods that are available to us through recognizable Local Suppliers or direct delivery services.
The question of the Food We Eat, is now Food for Thought.
Waking up to Our Food Supply Reality
A Report by the Countryside and Community Research Institute in May 2024 suggested that the amount of Food that comes to us direct from Farms is about 11% of what the UK Population needs to eat.
In real terms, that means that if the Border around the UK (That’s transport by Air, Sea or the Channel Tunnel) closed for any prolonged period, there would only be the equivalent of enough Food available for 1 in 9 People – in relative terms.
And that’s before we think about cost, accessibility and all the things that Foods We Can Trust is about.
Whilst I will always champion UK Farmers as some of the most entrepreneurial and creative People I have the pleasure to know, the time it would take to transform and restructure the UK Food Chain so that it works as it arguably always should – in our best interests and for us all, following a crisis or breakdown in the Food Supply – would probably be a period of months, before everyone was being supplied with at least some Foods that we should all have available to us, right now.
We will not have the luxury of time for the Food Chain to change, if we wait for Food Shortages before we begin
Whilst it would be beneficial for the majority of Our Farmers to begin restructuring their businesses to work towards Local Food Chains and UK Food Security through self-sufficiency today – for themselves as well as the UK Population, many remain tied to the way that the Food Chain in the UK has been evolved by the Global Model (Most strikingly, through the UK relationship with the EU).
Many UK Farmers still believe that a change of government or the politicians themselves, will be all it will take for them to get paid more or to be subsidized further for what they do, so that they receive a higher, or more appropriate income than they do now.
However, Farmers and existing Food Growing Businesses are not going to survive, if they do not adapt their businesses to operate independently as part of Local Food Chains.
Because the economic system we have today doesn’t value independence in the Food Chain and is already actively working to remove it.
At some point, probably sooner rather than later, UK Farms will be called upon to make this necessary change.
Sadly, as things stand today, this is likely to be when the UK is already in crisis – as it will only be when we are in the middle of a Food Crisis, where everyone is experiencing the problem themselves, that the real meaning and need for genuine UK Food Security is going to make sense.
However, that doesn’t mean that we cannot do something to help, right now, if we can see that hope and waiting for tomorrow is very unlikely to save the day.
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Growing Your Own is the most trustworthy way to source Food
Whilst talking about the role we all have to play in the UKs future Food Security might feel like a deviation from the direction of Foods We Can Trust, it is important enough for us to be aware of and to understand the real benefits from having and developing access to home grown, community grown and Food that comes direct from Local Farms and Growers, today.
Just having Food to Eat is important. But prioritising Food Chains that supply the Foods We can Trust is essential.
There is no better way to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust than if we Grow Our Own Food. Whether it be at home, within community allotments or gardens or other shared spaces, where we can be sure of everything used to Grow Our Food, as well as the continuation and availability of the supply.
Grow Your Own Foods We Can Trust
As we have discussed above, there are two very good reasons to Grow Your Own:
- Growing Our Own Food will at least increase the Food we have available, and
- Growing Our Own Food is the surest way to know we are eating Foods We Can Trust
There are other advantages to Growing Your Own Food too, such as producing Food that we can all share with others, or exchange for different types of Food or other essentials that we might need in a crisis.
However, one of the biggest, and probably best reasons to Grow Your Own (beyond having a supply of our own Food to Eat) is that the process of growing, harvesting, cultivating and handling Home Grown Food can be very good for our mental health or sense of wellbeing, as well as the activity required to do so contributing positively to our physical health.
Foods We Can Grow Ourselves
Understanding and being open to the idea of DIY Food Growing is where the whole idea of Grow Your Own can become even more interesting and exciting, as the list of the different Foods We Can Grow Ourselves is extensive!
In fact, what We Can Grow Ourselves may only be limited by the space and resources that we have available we have.
To illustrate just how broad the list of Foods We Can Grow Ourselves and the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food really is, we will now share lists of the different Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Animals that we can grow ourselves, along with suggestions of the different ways that we can grow them.
The following list IS NOT exhaustive and there may be many more!
Please note that links to organisations, businesses and groups that are added anywhere on these Pages about Grow Your Own are for information sharing purposes only. They are not recommendations and certainly not endorsements of any other organisation, product or the advice and suggestions that they provide.
Vegetables that can be Grown at Home
Growing Vegetables at home probably feels like the most obvious type of Food to grow when it comes to Growing Your Own.
However, did you know just how many types of different Vegetables there are that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK?
| List of Grow Your Own Vegetables in the UK: |
| Aubergines |
| Asparagus |
| Beans |
| Beetroot |
| Broad Beans |
| Broccoli |
| Brussels Sprouts |
| Cabbages |
| Carrots |
| Cauliflower |
| Calabrese |
| Celeriac |
| Celery |
| Chard |
| Chicory |
| Chilli Peppers |
| Chinese Broccoli |
| Chinese Cabbage |
| Courgettes |
| Cucumbers |
| Endive |
| Florence Fennel |
| French Beans |
| Garlic |
| Globe Artichokes |
| Jerusalem Artichokes |
| Kale |
| Kohl Rabi |
| Leeks |
| Lettuce |
| Marrows |
| Mizuna & Mibuna |
| Okra |
| Onions |
| Pak Choi |
| Parsnips |
| Peas |
| Peppers |
| Potatoes |
| Pumpkins |
| Radishes |
| Rhubarb |
| Rocket |
| Runner Beans |
| Salad Leaves |
| Salad Onions |
| Salsify |
| Shallots |
| Soya Beans |
| Spinach |
| Squash |
| Swedes |
| Sweetcorn |
| Sweet Potatoes |
| Tomatoes |
| Turnips |
Please note that I will cover the different methods that can be used to Grow Your Own, depending upon the resources and space that you have available once I have finished listing what you can grow.
Suggested further reading for this Section:
RHS – UK’s leading gardening charity / RHS
20 Best Vegetables to Plant and Grow at Home
Top 20 Easy Vegetables to Grow at Home (A Beginner-Friendly Guide) | Envynature
Herbs that can be Grown at Home
There are lots of Vegetables that we can Grow Ourselves. But the list doesn’t stop there, as we can also Grow Herbs – which will of course help to add flavour to the other Foods that we Grow Ourselves when we have them available.
| List of Grow Your Own Herbs in the UK: |
| Basil |
| Bay |
| Chamomile |
| Chervil |
| Chives |
| Coriander |
| Dill |
| Fennel |
| Horseradish |
| Lemon Balm |
| Lemongrass |
| Lovage |
| Marjoram |
| Mint |
| Oregano |
| Parsley |
| Rosemary |
| Sage |
| Savory |
| Sorrel |
| Tarragon |
| Thyme |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
RHS – UK’s leading gardening charity / RHS
The 16 easiest herbs to grow indoors: a beginner’s guide
16 Herbs That Grow Indoors All Year
Fruits that can be Grown at Home
Vegetables and Herbs are likely to be the easiest and, in many cases, the quickest Foods that we can Grow at home.
However, if you have access to the space and resources necessary, there is a surprisingly long list of Fruits that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK too!
| List of Grow Your Own Fruits in the UK: |
| Apples |
| Apricots |
| Blackberries |
| Blackcurrants |
| Blueberries |
| Cherries |
| Citrus |
| Damsons |
| Figs |
| Gages |
| Gooseberries |
| Grapes |
| Kiwi Fruit |
| Medlars |
| Melons |
| Mulberries |
| Nectarines |
| Olives |
| Peaches |
| Pears |
| Plums |
| Quinces |
| Raspberries |
| Redcurrants |
| Strawberries |
| White Currants |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
RHS – UK’s leading gardening charity / RHS
5 Of the Easiest Fruits and Veg to Grow in Your Home | Ecoscape
Top 10 Easy to Grow Fruit Trees & Plants | Thompson & Morgan
Animals that we can keep for Food at Home
Some will be surprised to learn that it is possible to keep some kinds of animals for Food at home.
In fact, historically, it was quite normal to keep some animals as a source of Food for domestic consumption.
Perhaps the most obvious animals to keep at Home for Food would be Chickens. Not necessarily as a source of fresh meat. But as a source of fresh eggs. Which anyone who has had home grown eggs or eggs straight from a local Farm will know often taste much better than those we buy in supermarkets or online!
Other types of poultry, rabbits and fish are different animals that can more easily be kept as a source of Food at home.
However, it is important to be aware that these and other animals that are sometimes kept at home for Food such as pigs, goats and anything else that you might have space for, may need to be registered or cared for under licenses that it may be difficult for a normal home to hold.
As such, it may be better left to a local farm or community small holding to keep them.
Like pets, any animals kept for Food require time, commitment and unavoidable expense which may mean that keeping them is simply impractical.
Suggested further reading for this Section:
How to Keep Chickens – A Beginner’s Guide | GardenLifeDirect
Creating A Good Home for Chickens – The Open Sanctuary Project
5 Tips to Raising Livestock from Melissa Norris
Slaughter poultry, livestock and rabbits for home consumption – GOV.UK
Home slaughter of livestock | Food Standards Agency
Methods for Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs Ourselves
Learning to Grow Your Own doesn’t have to be boring and certainly doesn’t have to follow any kind of rigid model or set plan.
In fact, like all of our homes, the resources we have and the time we have available will be different. So, Growing Our Own Food doesn’t need to be the same as what anyone else does, even if we are growing the same Foods!
Yes, having some ground available in a garden, allotment or open space is of course a fantastic place to begin. But we don’t need a garden to Grow Our Own Food and there are ways that we can grow all sorts of different things simply by making better use of the space that we have already got.
Here are the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food, either alone or in collaboration with neighbours or members of our local communities:
Grow Bags
Perhaps the simplest, quickest and most cost-friendly way to get started with Growing Your Own Food will be to use Grow Bags.
Garden Centres, Farm Shops, Country Stores and at certain times of the year, even supermarkets will have Grow Bags available to buy.
Grow Bags can be a fun, efficient and low-cost way to learn about growing Food, without making significant commitments with resources, money and time.
The range of Vegetables and Herbs that can be grown using Grow Bags may not be as extensive as it would be with other spaces and resources to use. But there is still plenty that you can try!
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for Grow Bags: |
| Celery |
| Chillies |
| Courgettes |
| Herbs |
| Lettuce |
| Radishes |
| Rocket |
| Salad Leaves |
| Spinach |
| Spring Onions |
| Sweet Peppers |
| Tomatoes |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Link to Suttons Seeds page on Grow Bag Growing
Gardening in Grow Bags | Answers to All Your Questions | joegardener®
Grow Bag Gardening Do’s and Don’ts | The Beginner’s Garden – with Jill McSheehy
Window Boxes
Space for growing any type of Food at home can be a challenge, and I’m certainly not taking it for granted that you have a garden or space available inside.
If you don’t have space outside or inside near a patio window or perhaps a conservatory area, growing Food using a Window Box may be another way to get started:
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for Window Boxes: | |
| Baby Carrots | |
| Basil | |
| Beets | |
| Bush Beans | |
| Celery | |
| Chamomile | |
| Chives | |
| Dwarf Peppers | |
| Garlic | |
| Green Onions | |
| Lettuce | |
| Microgreens | |
| Oregano | |
| Parsnips | |
| Parsley | |
| Patio Tomatoes | |
| Radishes | |
| Spinach |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Window Planter Veggie Garden – Planting Window Box Garden Vegetables | Gardening Know How
Here’s a helpful page from Gardening Know How
Containers
By this point it may be becoming clearer that Growing Your Own Food can be much easier to begin than we might have assumed!
Now that we’ve covered Grow Bags and Window Boxes, it might also be helpful to consider that Food can grow very well in containers of all sorts of descriptions.
This includes old buckets, watering cans and even dustbins (that have been cleaned out!).
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for Containers: |
| Beetroot |
| Broad Beans |
| Carrots |
| Chillies |
| Dwarf French Beans |
| Herbs |
| Peas |
| Potatoes |
| Radishes |
| Rocket |
| Runner Beans |
| Peppers |
| Salad Leaves |
| Salad Onions |
| Salad Turnips |
| Tomatoes |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Vegetables in containers / RHS Gardening
How to Grow Vegetables in Containers: A Beginner’s Guide – Simplify Gardening
Hydroponics
If you have limited space where there is access to daylight in your Home and you enjoy a little DIY with technology, perhaps you could give Hydroponics a try.
Hydroponics – or what is known by some as Aquaculture, is the process of growing Food using water-based systems that provide nutrients and whatever the plant-based Foods you are growing through the water itself, which can be circulated around even a very small system that might even be small and compact enough to sit on a shelf.
Hydroponics supplies are now widely available, and it would be well worth doing an online search for them if you are interested in giving this form of Grow Your Own a try!
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for Hydroponics: |
| Arugula |
| Basil |
| Butterhead |
| Collard Greens |
| Celery |
| Cilantro |
| Cucumbers |
| Fennel |
| Green and Red Oak |
| Kale |
| Mustard Greens |
| Oregano |
| Peppermint |
| Peppers |
| Rainbow Chard |
| Romaine |
| Rosemary |
| Snap Peas |
| Spinach |
| Strawberries |
| Thyme |
| Tomatoes |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Complete Guide to Hydroponics | BBC Gardeners World Magazine
Hydroponics: How It Works, Benefits & How to Get Started
And here’s a helpful page from Eden Green
Greenhouses
Some of us may already have Greenhouses or have space where one could easily be erected.
Greenhouses or glass boxes of any size or kind aren’t a small or low-value purchase – so please be prepared for this if you are going to research further after reading this section.
Greenhouses of any size are a great way to Grow Your Own, because they can be used to provide an environment that can be managed to be consistently the same for longer periods throughout the year.
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for a Greenhouse: |
| Asparagus |
| Aubergines |
| Bean Sprouts |
| Beets |
| Broccoli |
| Carrots |
| Celery |
| Cherries |
| Chillies |
| Cucumbers |
| Garlic |
| Grapes |
| Herbs |
| Kale |
| Lemons |
| Lettuce |
| Onions |
| Peppers |
| Radishes |
| Raspberries |
| Spinach |
| Squash |
| Strawberries |
| Tomatoes |
| Turnips |
Like each of the sections covering ways to Grow Your Own, researching Greenhouses further will be a great idea before ruling the idea in or out – not least of all because of the wider range of Grow Your Own options and what could be year-round ability they offer to Grow different Foods.
Here are a few links to help, but please do take time for a wider online search if you can!
Suggested further reading for this Section:
Beginners guide to greenhouse gardening – Gardening Express Knowledge Hub
15 Vegetables to Grow in A Greenhouse | Alitex
Vegetables: growing in your greenhouse / RHS Gardening
Allotments, Gardens and Vegetable Patches
If you have access to a Garden or an Allotment, there is a large variety of Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs that can be grown – subject to seasonality and the amount of space you have available.
Like all of the different ways to Grow Your Own, researching the best options for you will be a great place to start and it may also be useful to search online to see what other people are growing on their Vegetable Patches, Allotments and in their Gardens in the area you live in – bearing in mind that the climate across the UK can vary!
| List of Grow Your Own Foods for Allotments and Gardens: |
| Beetroot |
| Broad Beans |
| Brussels Sprouts |
| Cabbage |
| Calabrese |
| Carrots |
| Cauliflowers |
| Celeriac |
| Celery |
| Courgettes |
| French Beans |
| Garlic |
| Herbs |
| Leeks |
| Lettuce |
| Mangetout Peas |
| Melons |
| Mixed Salad Leaves |
| Onions |
| Parsnips |
| Peas |
| Potatoes (Not early varieties) |
| Pumpkins |
| Purple/White Sprouting Broccoli |
| Radishes |
| Rhubarb |
| Runner Beans |
| Salad Onions |
| Shallots |
| Soft Fruits |
| Squash |
| Swedes |
| Sweet Potatoes |
| Tomatoes |
| Turnips |
Suggested further reading for this Section:
What to grow on your allotment / RHS
Top 10 Vegetables to Grow | Allotment Book
Allotment Garden Vegetables | Allotment Gardening | Fothergill’s
Low-maintenance Veg and Fruit to Grow | BBC Gardeners World Magazine
Citizen Farmers – Working together with other members of Your Community to Grow Your Own
Whilst these pages on Grow Your Own are primarily intended to raise awareness for People who may be open to growing their own Food at home – whatever space and resources they might have available, there is a different, more community-orientated approach to Growing Your Own Food that is available to many of us too.
Where there are enough People ready to work together as a community or on behalf of the community they live in to grow and supply Food, there are different approaches that can be used to develop and manage the cultivation, growing and harvesting of all sorts of different Foods locally, working collaboratively, together with like-minded People, who live close by.
Whilst it may conjure up all sorts of different ideas and responses, putting the ideologies, agendas a bias that get in the way of us all having unfettered access to Food We Can Trust aside could easily lead to the age of the Citizen Farmer. Where everyone, young and old contributes to and plays a vital role in Local Food Production – recognising that even with U.K. Farming and Food Production infrastructure realigned, meeting our nutritional needs year-round and with Food being prioritised in the way that it should be, is likely to mean everyone playing their part.
People and Groups are already growing Food together, but an undercurrent in thinking still exists where whatever the stated aims and agendas might be, a big issue with ‘us vs them’ remains.
However, times are changing and changing quickly. The role of Citizen Farmer, whether it’s through Grow Your Own and then sharing, exchanging or bartering anything they don’t need, whole communities helping to grow fruit, vegetables and animals on shared farms or helping farmers to get their crops in, will be what True Citizen Farming is all about.
The options for Collaborative Food Growing that already exist include:
- Community Gardens
- Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming
Community Gardens
Earlier in this topic, I mentioned what Minette Batters said about the inclusion of Allotments in future Housing Developments.
As you will probably guess, I agree with Minette and believe that this is a valuable suggestion. Not least of all because there are good and growing reasons to believe that whilst Growing Your Own may only be considered a hobby by many today, it could easily become a need for many of us, in no time at all.
Green spaces, green lungs and park areas are of course required to be considered in appropriately sized Developments already. And a time of emergency or prolonged Food Shortages, it would not be unreasonable to consider using some of these spaces – where appropriate – to begin growing Food.
Green spaces and parks, like homes and business premises have their own Planning Restrictions too, so at any other time, thinking about creating a community space or area for growing Food may need to consider areas of land that may not be immediately obvious, or perhaps even renting a field or some land from a local farmer that can be used in this way.
If you should find yourself amongst a group of local people or a community that has agreed that there is a need for such a space and there are enough people committed to the idea to make it work either through self-funding or by seeking some funding support, it will be worth getting in touch with your local Parish/Town and/or Borough/District Council to ask for their help and guidance.
In my experience of working with Council Officers of all kinds, it has always been far more productive to ask for that help and guidance before beginning. And it’s advantageous as it’s the quickest way to find out what you can and cannot do!
The big upside of speaking to the local Council(s) is that you may also be guided in the direction of other people and organisations that can help – and perhaps even be signposted to sources of funding and help for groups of people working together that you may not have thought of along the way.
At the very least, knowing what steps to avoid locally is good for everyone. It will save time, good will and perhaps even money too – and that has to be something that’s good for everyone!
Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming (Social Enterprise)
Whilst the key aim of these pages on Grow Your Own are really about encouraging us as individuals to think about the opportunity to Grow Foods We Can Trust in our own homes or using the resources that we already have available, it will also be useful to think about and be open to the idea of working with other People in our communities to provide Foods We Can Trust, for everyone in the community.
Surprisingly, this isn’t just an idea for a rainy day (or when there are real problems with the Food Supply) and People, Groups and Communities are already working together to produce, share and sell a wide range of Foods to benefit their Groups and the Communities in which they operate.
Most shared farming or community farming projects that exist today are relatively small. They service or supplement the Food Needs of what we would probably agree are a small number of People who are usually members of a charity, cooperative or social enterprise that has been set up as a way to manage a project that benefits all those involved, mutually.
If you research projects like this great one called Stroud Community Agriculture, based in Gloucestershire (UK), near to where I live, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that community farming isn’t scalable and that it is more like a shared version of hobby farming.
However, projects like this one are already learning invaluable lessons. They are helping to create the models for re-learning the practical skills, knowledge and understanding that are needed for a much more hands-on approach to Food Production that itself has the ability to create, contribute to and provide Food Security, built around Local Food Chains.
For those of you thinking more carefully about shared farming and community farming, it might be helpful to consider that the model of Farming most likely to work best for everyone will sit somewhere between groups of what we recognise as typical small commercial or family farms today and the community farming models that we can already see in action like this one in Stroud today.
When you consider all the different Foods and the quantities that can be produced across a range of farms, and then add local processing and retail (like abattoirs, butchery, milling, bakery, dairies, fishmongers, greengrocers) – which will quickly make a lot more sense in a time of Food Shortages, it is much easier to visualise how Local Food Chains can not only work, but will begin to restore Food and Food Production to being a central part of our communities and life.
Food: The heart of Communities of the Future
These pages on Grow Your Own have turned out to be much more extensive than I had expected when I began writing over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend.
I hope that by reaching this point and having had the opportunity to consider all of the options and aspects there are to Home Growing and Growing Food with the Community, you may have begun to see how Food and Food Production can bring People together, as well as Growing Our Own being a very important part of creating access for us all to Foods We Can Trust.
Whether we Grow Our Own at Home, or contribute to a Community effort in whatever form that might be, there is good reason to believe that even if not all of our Food is grown and brought to us this way, a significant amount of it will be, IF we really want to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust, whilst also having an economic system that not only includes everyone, but is also balanced, fair and just for all.
If you would like to read more of my work on this important area of new thinking, please visit and take a look at my previous works which you will find on my Blog.
Cost
I am very mindful of the additional cost or ‘start-up’ costs for anyone who would like to Grow Food at Home with limited resources.
Like most things today, prices of any of the equipment required will always vary and it is always advisable to shop around.
However, the links of suppliers and organisations that are listed as we have covered the different methods to Grow Your Own and the Foods that you can grow too will certainly help with online searches for better prices – if the prices that some of them offer aren’t as competitive as they could be themselves.
I’m not kidding when I say that some of the people who could benefit most from Growing Their Own Food today are also those who simply don’t have the spare cash to invest in any of the things that they would need to continue alone.
For anyone experiencing that kind of difficulty, or for those who would prefer to work with others and perhaps get the social benefits of doing so, there is good reason to believe that looking for local gardening clubs or similar organisations could easily open up opportunities to collaborate, work together and pool existing resources, so that the initial outlay and costs associated with getting Your Home Growing started can be shared in different ways.
Online searches that use the name and location of the place that you live will always be a good place to begin. For example, search ‘gardening clubs in (place I live)’, or ‘gardening clubs near to where I live’.
Sharing Your Knowledge on Home Growing
With it being likely that many of us will need to embrace Growing Our Own Food, I am keen to link and collaborate with people, groups and organisations who are open to sharing their knowledge, experience, tips and stories that can help anyone who wants to consider Growing their Own Food using whatever resources they have or may be able to secure.
If you can share information, downloads or would perhaps like to record a tutorial or interview, please get in touch.
Thoughts on Grow Your Own
Writing this section of Foods We Can Trust has so far taken the longest time to complete.
Grow Your Own offers an opportunity for us all to reconnect with sustainable living and demonstrates that the opportunities to return to DIY living or to make an active contribution to ways of providing the things that are essential for us all to live are not something that can only happen out of sight, out of mind or behind the screen of some digital box.
Honestly, I was amazed by how much information, resources and advice is available for anyone thinking about Grow Your Own.
The list and variety of the Foods that we can grow at home, whether it’s in a container, grow bag, window box, greenhouse, garden, allotment or using hydroponics is simply staggering.
Yes, there are some very good reasons for as many of us as possible taking up Growing Our Own Food, but the benefits are much bigger than just adding a source of Food alone.
I hope that after reading through these pages, you will feel the same!
Adam Tugwell 