TO GARDEN - OR NOT!

Many of my readers have been with me here on the blog for a very long time.  By now, everyone will have gathered that I love gardening.

Many of my readers also love to garden - like me they find the activity rewarding in so many different ways.

I cannot speak for others but my love of gardening has been solidly passed down through generations of family who have grown their own food - because they needed to feed large families.  They also grew beautiful gardens of flowers of every description, because they could.

My family's background is in farming.  So to put a seed in the ground, nurture it to grow and produce something useful to eat or to turn into cash to support a family was a natural occurrence.  

My parents always had a huge vegetable garden.  Our family ate fresh vegetables all summer long, and continued to enjoy good wholesome food for the remainder of the year, by eating the canned and frozen produce that my Mother prepared from her harvests. 

 I grew up knowing and appreciating what a tomato that grew and ripened completely in the natural way tasted like.   I grew up knowing how sweet a pea straight from a pod tasted.  How beans could be made to snap,  how the juice from a cucumber could run down your chin,  how raspberries and strawberries picked an hour ago could taste on ice cream.

If you grew up like I did, you can identify with what I say - and you will also agree, that nothing bought in a store or even in a farmers market, can ever compare to from the garden straight to the tummy.  

These days more and more produce is being imported from other countries.  Our governments would have us believe that this is cost-effective and important trade for our economy.  I'm not going to get political - but it's hog wash!

Consumers no longer have control over what they put in their stomachs - unless they grow their own food...  

It's a choice we make - or don't make.

I understand perfectly well that not everyone can grow their own - I couldn't where I used to live either.  But here, I can, and so I will.

The newly launched 2019 version of the Canada Food Guide, has now agreed, that more plant based food is better for our general health and well being.  So much so that they recommend at least one half of our daily dietary intake be plant based food products.

This is a major shift in thought - but one that I totally agree with.

It's a direction I plan to embrace.  More fruits and vegetables, more protein in the form of plant-based foods - less meat, sugar and starches....

If you haven't seen the new Canada Food Guide here is the link for it.  They even have recipes for you to try...

So pop some seeds in some pots or in the ground - and enjoy the flavour of healthy eating!  Your Heart will thank you!

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/