Food as Medicine or Why Grow Your Own Food

Ever ask yourself how our forefathers managed to live so long without easy access to a pharmacy on every corner and internet prescriptions?  Or how many people in the "old school generation" managed to live long, healthy lives without regular visits to the doctor for prescribed tests and pills? Before you conclude that I am against doctors, medicine and healthcare let me explain myself.

Growing up in a small town in Washington State, we had a quirky neighbor named Mrs. McRhone who had a small garden in her backyard and a juicer.  Every day she made some new juice made from celery, carrots, apples and who knows what else she put in it.  She would wash her produce, feed it into this very large, very noisy stainless steel machine and juice came out.  As little kids, we thought it was the coolest thing.  What was amazing was that Mrs. McRhone and her husband had the most beautiful skin!  Mrs. McRhone had this gorgeous, silky, waist length braided hair and she swore it was because of the juice and other things they ate from her garden.

We were little kids so everybody seemed old to us, but I imagine they were probably in their 50s or 60s like my parents.  While I didn't stick to a healthy diet once I grew up and left home, I never forgot the advice Mrs. McRhone gave us about eating fresh fruit & vegetables several times a day AND getting into the habit of juicing.  Years later in my 60's I am seeing the wisdom of her advice.  It brings to mind the famous quote by Hippocrates: "Let Food Be Thy Medicine & Medicine Be Thy Food."

In the last 20 years or so we have seen a surge in "natural" supplements made from food.   My question is "Why Not Eat the Food and Pass on the Pills/Powders?"  I think it's worth looking into for us especially as GMO food threatens to invade our lives on a daily basis.  If we can't get high quality, fresh, non-GMO food at supermarkets and retail stores "Why Not Grow Your Own Food?"

Virtually every vitamin that we take in capsule/pill form is an imitation or copycat of the real product.  While the supplement industry is making a lot of companies and doctors very rich, it doesn't seem to be doing much for the health of the average consumer.  I know people say that you would have to eat huge amounts of food daily to get the nutrition you need and that it would be way too expensive.  I think consumers can change this paradigm and do some things on an individual/personal basis to get fresh, pesticide-free food into their diets everyday.

My parents were from the deep south, Mississippi & Louisiana and they all grew their own food, had a smokehouse and went fishing in nearby water several times a week.  My parents swore they didn't know there was a depression in 1929.  It was business as usual for them as they continued to work the land and do whatever it took to take care of their very large families.

I always loved the "idea" of growing my own food but never took it seriously until I retired in 2014.  For years I had collected books on Lasagne gardening, Container gardening, Backyard gardening, Herb gardens, Gourmet vegetable gardening and even mushrooms.  It wasn't until retirement that I got serious and discovered the passion of working in the soil, planting seeds, watering them, weeding when necessary and then waiting for the magic to happen.

WHY GROW YOUR OWN FOOD

• It is fun & a great source of exercise
• It is inexpensive if you use seeds then save & collect your seeds for future planting
• It is rewarding when you seeds become seedlings, then small plants waiting to be harvested
• You can know what you and your family is eating  & avoid GMO food
• You can save money by having your own "organic" vegetables
• You can have a sense of security that you won't be "food deprived"
• The food you grow tastes better when it's fresh and grown in good soil
• You can market your produce and make some money
• It helps to develop community as you share food, ideas and thoughts with others
• You can give to people who are less fortunate (I could go on...)

We have it on good authority that food can be used as medicine.  This blog will show you HOW you can start to grow your own food.  Remember...any advantage you give your body to have optimal health and nutrition can only benefit you.  Visit your doctor and monitor your health to show her healthy you are.  She will probably ask what you're doing and you might just get a customer.

(This blog post isn't meant to give medical advice or to discourage you from seeing your doctor)

My Farming Experience - Failure is the Process

Several of the BUFA co-founders were talking the other day after working at the farm planting & weeding.  For months we were all "anxious" to get seeds in the ground and just get something planted.  We had a perfectly designed selection of crops for our winter planting, but gophers and rabbits delayed the build out of our raised beds.  We had to add gopher wire to the bottom of the raised beds so the gophers wouldn't eat the roots and snatch the crops before we could get to them.  I actually saw a gopher steal a beautiful head of romaine lettuce.  First I saw the lettuce move side to side, then the next second it was down the gopher hole.  So, wire on the bottom of the beds was not an option.

Then, one Friday afternoon out of the blue we got a curve ball thrown into our plans. Co-founder Susan Small  called and said that she was at the AG Center in Stockton and there were flats & flats of transplants being donated by a local nursery.  Enough transplants to equal $300-$400 if we bought them retail.  So the Aldridges and McMillons drove to the AG center to meet Susan and load up the trunks of our cars with the FREE transplants.

We weren't too worried about whether the transplants were on our list of planned crops or not.  They were in perfect shape, they were FREE and there were lots of them.  We loaded up on leeks, cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, sage, parsley, onion, arugula and did I say cabbage?  We had 4 different varieties of cabbage and we grabbed them all.  A few 6 packs of mustard greens were nestled in the group and we grabbed them too.

We got the transplants late Friday evening and stored them in an old mobile home that we are using as our makeshift office at the farm.  Every available space was taken up but it was well worth it.

The BUFA War Room/Prayer Room/Board Room - a blessing from Ms. Kitty Brown.  A lot of work & brainstorming gets done in this trailer

Monday morning we went to the farm to check on the transplants.  We took them out of the trailer and staged them on a makeshift table my husband built and began making plans for getting all of these transplants planted.

Did our crop selection and planting plan fail?  Technically yes.  We did not follow what we had planned for the raised beds and did not grow the selected varieties of produce.  Whatever our planting process was, it went out the window when we got those FREE transplants.  But in doing so, I learned something...that sometimes you create the design as you go with what you have to work with.  In our case, those transplants caused us to tweak our crop selections and get a jumpstart on the growing season with different crops.

I was channel surfing one day last week and came across an episode of Steve Harvey where he was interviewing four 20 & 30 something millionaires.  They were all entrepreneurs, but had one thing in common.  At some point early in their careers, they were all thrown a curve ball where they had to "ad lib" and risk failure.  Through some of their off the cuff decisions came success in a way that was different than most of them planned.

I know this is a snapshot of a much bigger issue and yes, you do need the business plan, feasability study, strategic plan, marketing plan, budget, 5 year projection.....I think you follow me.  Those things are all necessary to ensure you have a solid business model.  But, sometimes to use Steve Harvey's words, you have to let "failure be the process" and just JUMP!

Even though our initial planting process failed, it turned out better than we had hoped.  We are days away from harvesting arugula, kale, cauliflower & red giant mustard greens.  Now, we are hesitating because we don't yet have a firm "process" in place to sell our goods.  The research isn't complete on the average prices statewide, nationwide and locally.  Do we try to do better than the big box stores and established commercial farmers?  Fact is, I am learning one thing for sure.  When you are passionate about your product, know the quality is superior and know how your food was grown, you can be confident that others will see the value as well.  We asked friends if they would pay a certain dollar amount for our fresh, locally grown crops and almost all agreed YES they would.

I say we continue to prepare the documentation to show we did a price survey and compared what other growers were getting for comparable crops.  But what matters is what our customers will pay. If our prices are off, we can adjust.  But while we're adjusting we can be making our crops available to the local market AND making some money!

Our Arugula is ready and we will be selling small bags for $2.50.  A great buy for locally grown, organic Arugula.  Large bags will sell for $5.  We have pre-sold about 15 bags so far.  Considering this was not a planned crop, this sounds like SUCCESS!

BEAUTIFUL ARUGULA & THE FRAGRANCE IS WONDERFUL!

CO-FOUNDER & MASTER GARDENER ELLEN POWELL WITH OUR 1ST HARVEST OF ARUGULA!

LUNCH - FRESH ARUGULA SALAD W/CHERRY TOMATOES, RED ONION & FETA CHEESE

think our small harvest will yield about 25 bags. .