Enough Is Enough

How do you work out what food to buy?Kale, beetroot, turnips, carrots, lettuce growing in garden Aug 2013

Do you take a guesstimate, or work from a meal plan and recipes, to determine your shopping lists?

And how does that go?

Do you have enough? Of the right stuff?

Or maybe too much…

So then you hate the wastage as you clean out the fridge at the end of the week. 🙁

Or maybe your fridge is one of those ‘science experiments’ because it contained staff that you didn’t want to waste by throwing out…so you kept it thinking you’d use it, but you didn’t get around to it… and now you dread cleaning it out….especially that packet of herbs you bought, but only used a little…and now it is a plastic packet of dark, slimy marsh lying in the bottom of your crisper.

Yesterday I watched an amazing video about food wastage…again:

It reminded me about how wasteful the ordinary Australian is.

And while our household does have some food wastage, it’s a far cry from that of my average compatriot.

Why?

One reason is because we make an effort to grow a lot of our own food.

I have spoken before about why growing your own food is so important.

One of the reasons is that producing even small amounts of your own food makes you appreciate all food more – so you don’t want to waste any of it!

And another reason is that, when you grow your own, you can bring into the kitchen only what you need.

If you only need one sprig of rosemary or parsley, then that’s what you pick: one sprig…you don’t have to go and buy a whole bunch, and you don’t get left with a packet of slime in the bottom of your fridge. 😉

And you can usually grow enough to meet most of your fruit and vegetable needs.

So, here I am, at the end of winter, starting to eat the last of my winter crops before they bolt…and planting the last of the crops that I will harvest in spring some of the early summer plantings.

In autumn I shared a video showing one of the ways I extend the growing season

And here is the proof of how successful it was:

Have fun thinking about how growing your own food can reduce your wastage and improve your sustainability.  I’d love to hear your thoughts…so share a comment in the box below ↓ …or send me a voice message by clicking on the tab on the right →

Till next time…be gentle to yourself and our world!