In the 1940s, women in America grew “Victory gardens” to support the war effort.
Growing can be looked at as a great deal of work, or it can be looked at as an aesthetically pleasing act of self-love.
Regardless, there is something very healthful about eating foods that have been in the ground five minutes before you consume them.
I live in San Francisco, the second most densely populated city in America.
This is guerrilla urban growing…you must provide your own Earth.
Here is a fifty pound bag of organic soil carried six blocks and up four flights of stairs.
If you grow outside, you must protect your food from blackbirds and rats.
The six wooden feeders that you see are 18 inches high to protect from rodents.
There are also glass slats (right side) or acrylic sheets with holes drilled in for air (left side) to protect from blackbirds.
Or, you can grow indoors. Your crops are safe, but the challenge of proper transport of water, once or twice a day, has to be addressed.
After 4 to 6 days, you will have a yield of product. This picture is of sunflower sprouts.
I grow only four things, as I am not a professional grower, and have no real gift for this sort of thing:
Sunflower sprouts
Buckwheat
Sweet pea
Wheatgrass
While there are many healthful things to grow, these four are very simple and hardy plants, which are very nourishing.
There is something cool, in the digital age, about digging in the dirt for your food.
So…you drag up some more dirt.
In this picture, with eight feeders, you also see a green mesh and a beige mesh cloth.
This is used to cover the sprouts when they are very young and tender from the direct sunlight.
Also, growing outside, enables you to use a hose, so watering is easier.
While growing outside is aesthetically pleasing, variations in temperature, wind velocity (I am four blocks from the San Francisco Bay which is one mile from the Pacific Ocean) and the occasional curious neighbour, make indoor growing, with lights, more tenable and anybody can do it…because you don’t need land.
When I have time to eat properly…this is a 6 ounce serving of sunflower sprouts, served with half an organic lemon.
This, along with a two ounce serving of raw, organic nut butters:
Almond butter
Cashew butter
Walnut butter
Pecan butter
Macadamia nut butter
or simply Organic Peanut butter,
is served as a complete meal.
Otherwise, it’s liquidarian fare, which is fine if you’re in a hurry because, let’s face it…this stuff doesn’t taste like chocolate.
If you eat like this…You can look like this. It’s not about the exercise… It’s about the food!