All around us we see plants acting on their biological instincts – reaching for the sky and sprouting itty bitty leaves that grow bigger every day. The sight of life inspires many of us to plant gardens and grow some of our own food. In fact, 1 in 3 families grow a portion of their food to reap health benefits, save money and lessen their impact on the environment.
The good news is gardening isn’t a chore like doing the laundry; it’s a chance to literally get in touch with the earth that sustains life. Sometimes getting dirty is good clean fun. If you are interested in starting your own garden, here are three steps to sustainable gardening and a step by step process demonstrating how to test your soil to see what (if any) fertilizer is needed.
If you aren’t the gardening type, here are a few other popular ways to eat local.
~ Farmer’s markets are fun outings for the whole family. Often open on Saturday mornings, you buy food directly from the farmer who grew it. It’s fun to compare produce, prices and sometimes barter for a bargain.
~ Farmer’s co-operatives (co-ops) are when a group of farmers come together to market their goods directly to the consumer. It’s sort of like a farmers market, all under one roof, open most every day.
~ Community-supported agriculture (CSA) With a CSA “share” you pledge support to one or more local farms, sharing the risks and benefits of farming. You pay up front for a share of the harvest and receive weekly shares of produce or meat, which can be picked up from a site close to your home or, sometimes, delivered to your home. Many farms offer “work-share” opportunities, where you can work to pay for your CSA – a great bargain and a great way to teach your family about the value of soil and farming.
All three of these options are great ways to try new foods, eat seasonally and directly support your farming community. Buying directly from farmers is good for the local economy and good for the River.
An example of single week’s fruits and vegetables from community-supported agriculture share: peppers, okra, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, garlic, eggplant, squash.
Find your local food resources!
Home gardening and supporting local agriculture are important to River health because they allow you to decrease the demand for food mass-produced by factory farms where over fertilization is standard practice. Excess fertilizer runs off the land, making our local streams unswimmable, deteriorates River habitat and is a main contributor to the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
You can check the 1 Mississippi events calendar for farmers markets in your area. Another great place to find your city’s local food resources is Local Harvest, which lists farms, markets, co-ops, as well as restaurants and u-pick places.
Wishing a happy healthy growing season for you, your garden and your family!
Annette Anderson
1 Mississippi Outreach Coordinator
Trivia Question:
At 1 Mississippi, we often dish the dirt you need to know from Washington, share dirt-cheap ways to connect to the River and show you how to hit pay dirt as a River Citizen. With so many kinds of dirt, what do we really know about it?
a. It is a weird Courtney Cox movie
b. There is no such thing as dirt, it’s soil
c. 1 tablespoon of dirt has more organisms in it than there are people on earth
d. There are 70,000 different types of dirt in the U.S.
e. All of the above
Find out the answer in this month’s blog post “Good and Dirty.”