7 Benefits of growing your own food

You know I got a lot of stick from my peers when I took an allotment on.  In fact the name for the blog came from one of my mates who called out across the pub “Look Out! Here comes allotment guy” But I have been working the allotment for about 6 weeks now and planning it for a little longer.  And in that time the same people who gave me stick have started saying things like “Wow, you’ve lost some weight!” or “Allotment Guy you’re looking really well”.  Allotment Chick has also made some complementing remarks – but I reckon I’ll keep them to myself.  As well as the obvious physical benefits I have tried to list a few other benefits that I have noticed over the last few weeks.

Save the planet

You know when I see protesters on TV outside airports proclaiming that the end of the world is upon us because we use aircraft to fly all over the world – I usually find myself shouting at the telly.  Sure, air travel is a polluting industry, but the amount of pollution and contribution to global warming it brings compared to the industry that puts food on your plate is tiny!  Look at the figures and don’t be misled by what you see on telly; aircraft belching fumes = bad, cows in alpine meadow with blue skies and green grass = good, no no no, NO.  Believe me If you grow all your own food and holiday twice a year in Spain you are more likely to have a smaller carbon footprint than someone who never steps out of their house but has their shopping delivered to their front door from a supermarket.

Eat healthily

Look, supermarkets are great.  They offer choice, value and are damn convenient.  I’d be lost without my local one.  But they are in business for their share holders, that means suppliers get hammered on price and suppliers cut corners and compromise quality.  When you grow your own you know what has gone into the soil, you know what has gone onto the plant and you know how long it took from being a living vegetable to going on your plate.  You have the responsibility and control over the entire process. 

I can make a safe bet that once you have that control you will be eating the freshest, best tasting food you will ever see.  And that has got to be a step in the right direction for healthy eating.

Improve your fitness

Gardening is hard work.  OK it generally doesn’t get you out of breath and sweaty like you would be after a run.  But a session doing even gentle gardening tasks can bring surprising benefits.  Think about it, you are likely to be active and therefore have an elevated heart rate and metabolism all day, leading to weight loss.  But also the kinds of things you do in a garden like digging, potting pruning, putting up a shed or polly tunnel, etc, all improve mobility and therefore flexibility, whilst gently toning your muscles.  And even though you aren’t puffing and panting whilst doing gardening, believe me you will know you have done a good days exercise by the end of it.

Learn new skills

Strategic planning, production planning, patience, waste management, water management, environmental science, biology, basic carpentry, engineering, agriculture, horticulture, people management, time management...  These are just some of the skills I have increased my knowledge in over the few weeks I have had an allotment.  I’m not saying I HAD to have these skills in order to start, I’m just saying you kind of learn more about them by osmosis.

Make new friends

You have your work friends, your pub friends, your facebook friends now with an allotment you have your allotment friends too!  And I have found my new allotment fiends to be kind, considerate, friendly, willing to help and full of advice. It’s always good to have an extra friend nearby when things might not be going your way.

Relaxation

No doubt about it, we live in a fast paced world these days.  Wake up, fast food breakfasts, commute to work, meetings, more meetings, lunch meetings, rush to finish work, commute home, TV, bed.  On an Allotment it is TIME TO SLOW DOWN a little.  You have weeks before you have seedlings, months before harvest.  Things don’t happen all that quickly on an allotment, and that gives you time to relax, time to think, time to meditate even.  Pretty soon you will find that even work such as digging over a plot or weeding is actually quite therapeutic.

Become more interesting

Its lunchtime, guys are going on about last night’s match, chicks are going on about Eastenders or Emmerdale.  Suddenly you pullout your freshly prepared ‘allotment salad’.  Maybe it has a variety of purple carrot grated into it, or it is orange beetroot or a variety of tomato you can’t get in the shops, but I guarantee you – your new hobby will provoke some great questions.  Because secretly everyone wants to be an allotment guy or an allotment chick.  But everyone has their excuses, oooh I aint got the time, I have to look after my kids, I kill every plant I touch, etc, etc. I have heard it all before, but really they envy you and your ‘allotment salad’ and they want to know more...