The Food Revolution

For years now I’ve been learning how to grow food; herbs, fruit and vegetables, eggs, and good healthy soil. It is a life long lesson that will never end. These days I enjoy sharing these experiences with my children. Before becoming a Mum I had the time to really play in our vegetable garden. Mark and I regularly had whole meals that came from our backyard. These days we rely on shops, including the supermarket. But I’m determined to take us back to the good old ways.

When life gets too busy, we find our greatest joy in slowing down and playing in the garden. Lara often getting covered in mud, and Olivia cuddling chickens, whilst I harvest herbs and plant seeds. The girls coming and helping me for a while, before wondering off to dig for worms or find something to eat from the garden.

Sitting down and having a cup of tea with our grandparents we start to hear about their backyards, where their parents grew food. But when the economical food revolution happened, the whole point of food was forgotten about. Convenience took over and families stopped growing food.

Industry saw the need to grow more food, faster and some how that evolved to an economical focus on food instead of nutrition. Somewhere along the way we have forgotten our relationship with the land and the food that it provides us. This is one of the reasons why I’m so inspired to teach my children, and our community where real food comes from. I want to teach people how to grow their own food.

Inspirational Documentaries to Watch

I’ve been inspired by the documentary 2040 which delved in to answering the question that I’ve been asking myself a lot lately “what will the world be like when my daughters are young adults?”. Rather appropriately, they are promoting a Climate Strike on my daughters sixth birthday, Friday 20th September.

2040 had a huge focus on our energy usage, which has made me set the deadline for our house to have solar power before the start of 2020. So in reality I probably only have a day or two to do some research in to what solar panels and house batteries are the best option for us. I’m certainly open for suggestions.

The Sustainable documentary was about my true passion; farming. This piece answered the question I’ve been asking for years now “when and why did people stop growing food?”. Very simply, it was the economical food revolution.

Heirloom vegetable varieties are being lost due to genetically modified seeds that produce more crops faster, at the cost of nutrient complexity. Ancient grains that are being brought back in to the food chain are proving to be better for people. This is particularly evident for people on gluten free diets, who react to modern grains, but not the ancient grains. Accidentally I stumbled upon this fact when I started buying real bread from our local baker. I was trying their delicious loafs of ancient grain breads purely from a taste perspective, yet soon realised that I didn’t feel bloated or tired after eating them.

Our Grandparents Grew Their Own Food

Only two generations ago, many families grew vegetables. They had chickens in their backyards to eat their food scraps and give them fresh eggs. My husband’s Grandma used to watch her mother harvest a chicken every Sunday in Newport. But in my ten years of keeping chickens in our northern beaches backyard everyone who hears about our chickens is surprised to know that we have a farm in the suburbs.

I think supermarkets have a lot to answer for, and I can’t even start to talk about battery hens here. Any time anyone asks me about keeping chickens as pets I highly recommend it. Imagine if organic free range eggs were just out your back door.

You haven’t tasted eggs until you’ve gotten a warm one out of the chicken coop and poached it for breakfast.

The Joys of Growing Your Own Food

You haven’t eaten tomatoes until you’ve picked one and tasted the sun and soil burst in your mouth.

The fresh experience of eating cucumbers the day when those tiny little prickles on the skin don’t tickle your fingers. Pulling it off the vine and it smells so good that you bite in to it whilst admiring the maturing flowers on the vine, and taste fresh rain.

You haven’t tasted beans until you go searching for the next one hiding in the vine. Stopping at one is impossible, you just need more of that delicious crunch.

We need to get back to the love of food, the love of flavour and texture, and start reaping all the healthy nutrients that the land provides us when we farm sustainably.

A while ago I heard myself saying that my kids used to eat all sorts of vegetables and now they don’t. When I started to think about it I realised, they used to pick their vegetables from the garden. But their mum got too busy and stopped being an awesome farmer. So, in a few weeks we will have brand spanking new vegetable gardens. We will be building them, adding in gorgeous compost that I’ve been making, and growing our food from seed again. I’m on a mission to get every family growing something they can eat this spring. What do you think you might like to grow with us?

For a shortcut home click here.  

Go to my Backyard Farming page to read more about the food we are growing.

Want to read about parenting, click the link.

For restaurant reviews click the link.Tips and tricks for sustainable living.