How many of you have ever grown your own food?

[Kan' Sharuminar]

I don't have the abilities or the resources to do it just yet.

My mum though, is converting the bottom of the garden into a fruit and vegetable nursery. I think we have carrots or cabbages or something growing down there, and there's an apple tree too.

 

[Red Stranger]

It's a waste of time to grow your own food. There are people who do it for a living, and they do it better than me. I'll focus on what I'm good at and leave the food growing, and food cooking to the pros.

 

[El_Machinae]

It can be a waste of time (except those who view it as a luxury activity). I think about it more in terms of resources.

An apple tree in my back yard makes my arable land into productive land (instead of being a drain on the economy and evirnonment). Plus, the resources devoted to picking and eating apples is MUCH lower than purchasing them at the store.

For a similar reason, we grow other foods too. Because it's fun, easy, and efficient. I certainly cannot feed a family off of the efforts, but a few 'free' meals is fun.

 

[7ronin]

My wife always has a garden going where she grows strange oriental vegetables with unpronounceable names. We also have a lemon tree and an orange tree.

 

[Perfection]

Does herbs count?

Only if you eat them.

 

[mrtn]

Ah, someone quoted what I said 4 months ago, now I don't have to look it up.

I usually have a pot of basil in my kitchen window the sunny months.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

I voted no, but I guess I had a lot of raspberries growing around the yard when I was younger.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

My mom grows illegally imported vegeabables from Taiwan.

(My grandmother smuggled 2 bags of seeds over)

I wonder why they are illegal... Is it the regenerative properties of the plant? Or because it is so tasty? (I haven't been eating it for 4 months, in the event that you think I'm addicted to a "drug plant")

Because it is not a naturally occuring species here, and thus it is invasive. Invasive species have little to no predators and thus, spread like mad around their new home.

We used to casually grow veggies in our garden: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, radishes, beans, peas, sweet corn, rhubarb, potatoes, kholrabi, watermelons, squash. That's about it I think, never all at once, generally in different combinations. We haven't had much success with the potatoes, and radishes and that due to the fact that the soil around our house has a high clay content. We tried the first year, and the potatoes didn't get very big, whereas at our old house (more sandy soil) we got literally dozens of potatoes most of which about the size of a 20 oz bottle of soda (3 inches in diameter and about 4-8 inches long). Man those were good.

 

[JohnRM]

Never have. But it would be nice to try though, though it seems like effort to grow your own fruit when just a minute down the road you can buy some from the supermarket.

Well, hopefully for you a day never comes when the supermarkets no longer sell food.

 

[JohnRM]

Well actually the saying is

"You reap what you sow*"


Where * is:

providing you supply adiquet water, fertilizer,have luck with sunshine, and germinate. Not forgetting to weed!

Well, actually the correct spelling is...

"adequate"

 

[El_Machinae]

Fruit trees require very little nurturing, and turn a ecologically useless back yard into a producing resource.

And producing resources (with minimal cost) are foundational to increasing wealth!

 

[BCLG100]

i grew cress at home as well!!!!

 

[Urederra]

I didn't vote because I used to grow veggies during the summer, when I was a child/young teen, but nowadays I don't.

and, of course, there is not option for that in the poll, despite of the fact the question is "how many of you have ever grown your own food?

Oh... and during the summer we used to live at the countryside, where my uncle had some chickens and pigs, I don't know if that counts either.

Ummmm.... I have a large crawling space in my new house, I wonder how difficult to grow mushrooms would be... anyone has done that?

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I have a potato patch at my summer house

 

[Narz]

I've grown a bit. Eventually would like to grow/gather 50%+ of my own calories (thru my own efforts and that of family/friends/community).

 

[7ronin]

Fruit trees require very little nurturing, and turn a ecologically useless back yard into a producing resource.

And producing resources (with minimal cost) are foundational to increasing wealth!

Roger that! Our three foot tall dwarf lemon tree produced 150 plus lemons this year.

 

[georyan]

I grew popcorn in middle school once. I got the kernals out of a microwave popcorn bag and they produced plants. I didn't actually get to eat it though, because squirrels got to the ears I had when I was drying them. I grew them with my grandmother though and I think she got to try popping some though.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

My grandma has a small garden and she gives us a few tomatoes when they are ripe. I hate tomatoes, but those don't taste like the water-in-a-red-spherical-crap you get at the supermarket. So i like grandma's.
The same goes for the chicken eggs. I was so surprised when i saw the colour, i was used to the pale yellowish colour of the yolk from supermarket eggs. The actual colour is bright, golden yellow and you don't even have to add salt for it to be edible, the ones bought req lots of salt on them in order to feel a "whatever-taste".

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Yeah, but only vegetables in the backyard. Nothing too exciting.

 

[Atlas14]

In the past 7 years we've grown:
corn
horseradish
turnips
beets
carrotts
potatoes
pumpkins
squash
tomatoes
gords
cucumber
watermelon
greenbeans
canelope
strawberries
blueberries
apples
pears
we collect buckets of raspberries every year

Of course we never grow enough to sustain ourselves for a long time, but we get plenty of meals off of our grown food. I hate having potatoes so often though, it sucks after the first day.