Sharing the Good (Simple) Life

Explore how gardening can enrich your life - and help others.

Until I recently moved into a little home of my very own with my amazing wife, the closest that I'd ever really got to growing my own food was based on distant memories.  Watching my father dig over the vegetable patch at my grandfather's house and watching The Good Life on the television when I was a youngster.  Neither really resonated or enthused me to be honest, mainly because until recently I never liked vegetables - or rather, I thought I didn't.  Childhood memories of being told to eat my vegetables and salads, with the ubiquitous salad cream dolloped on top, still send shivers down my back.

However, that's all changed now - big time; in fact, so much so, that for about a year and a half now I have been a very happy pescatarian.  Why? Two reasons - firstly Guosto and secondly, being lucky enough to have my own home with enough space for a small vegetable patch.  Both have changed my life, for the better.

Regarding the vegetable patch and growing my own produce, this may well be due to the fact that I'm made for middle age and it's just something middle aged folks do.  If so, fine - but perhaps it's because when you get older you simply appreciate things more; maybe you naturally get more mindful as you get older and appreciate the simpler things in life better.  What an amazing experience it is though to actually plant seeds in the spring, without knowing what you're really doing, to weed and look after the growing shoots, feeling earth between your fingers (something I hadn't really done since I was a kid) and watching vegetables grown and ripen.  Wonderful.

Eating petis-pois straight from the pod has got to be one of the most rewarding gardening experiences this year, closely followed by eating home grown salads full of tomatoes, radishes, carrots, lettuce and spring onions.  Wow.  Home grown sautéed potatoes with sea food cooked on the BBQ, delightful!

I simply can't recommend it enough - the whole experience is rewarding, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable.  If you do end up with a few too many of any single vegetable, no problem - either give them away to friends and neighbours or simply indulge in the bonanza (such as making the most of a glut of tomatoes). 

Even better though, why not consciously help someone else?

You can either give surplus produce/ products to foodbanks - a simple search will provide locations, e.g. UK, US, although you will need to check whether they take fresh produce - or via community sharing apps/ programs - such as OLIO - where you can connect with other folks to share your excess.  Both are very worthwhile and rewarding approaches, after all there is no excuse to waste food (fruit, vegetables and other food stuffs) when there are folks near you that need it.  Even those who you may not think need your help might well benefit, and would appreciate the thought - estimates are that as many as 1 in 7 folks live in food insecure households.  The food insecure are often faced with the dilemma of either choosing to spend money on nutritious food or necessities such as utilities, transportation, and medical services. The result: people often (up to 80%...) see no choice but to buy inexpensive foods that are high in calories but low in nutrition.

So, go on, get out there and do some gardening (and help others in the process!)  - it is definitely the good life ;)

Btw, Guosto is a great concept, you select meals on their website and fresh produce are delivered to your house (in cooled boxes that can be left outside all day if you're not in) with all the ingredients you need for the meal, with absolutely no waste, and easy to follow recipe cards.  The meals are simple to prepare, quick and delicious.  It was in selecting meals that we went crazy as, rather than just ordering meat-centred choices, we went for vegetarian choices as well - mad for someone who didn't  like vegetables huh?  But wow, the great thing about a good vegetarian meal is that they are visually stimulating if you have the right produce, the smells from all the spices are wonderful and they taste delicious; and, no more ghastly salad cream in sight!  After this, I was hooked and tried more and more different types of vegetables and found there wasn't very much I didn't like - although cucumber remains very firmly off limits and I realised I don't like cold vegetables (only room temperature or above).