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With the fruits of the Obama’s White House garden beginning to pour in (73 pounds of lettuce in one harvest!), it brings to mind the pleasures and health benefits of just-picked produce. Most of us are well-aware of the boost fresh fruits and veggies give us health-wise, what with their abundance of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and so forth.
By planting and tending to your garden you gain more control over the way your food is grown, as well as what choices you have – like to try some herbs you had at your favorite Thai restaurant or taste test three different types of strawberries? No problem. Packets of seed usually cost less than a few dollars and will provide more than enough plants for the season. This is especially important for people who don’t live within easy access to grocery stores or farmer’s markets, in the so-called “food deserts” usually located in poorer urban or very rural areas, where choices are slim, prices are high, and poor nutrition is a problem for kids and adults alike. In fact, some folks report having to shop for their produce at convenience stores, where the sad, wilting offerings are uninspiring to even hard-core veggie lovers.
One of the other benefits of garden-fresh food is that it tastes better, making it easier to get picky eaters to enjoy what many a mom (and dad) know is best for them. The taste of a snap pea straight from the plant versus the grocery store is hard to describe, but first-timers usually say, yum, I never had one this good! A home garden is also a great, source of gentle outdoor exercise. Being outside in the cool of the morning, raking, weeding, and harvesting are a pleasant way to be active. Of course, not everyone has space to grow a garden. Community gardens offer people the chance to reap the benefits of a garden even if they live in an apartment or don’t have enough yard space. These plots dotted around Portland and other Oregon cities are available for people who have time but no space. But community gardens offer much more than the chance to grow your own food. They are a way to meet your neighbors and increase social capital, that feeling of belonging and support that the best communities provide. Not only that, community gardens have been shown to increase property values and reduce crime. That’s a lot of benefits for a veggie patch.
Still don’t think you have time to plant? One of the easiest ways to get the very freshest produce are Oregon’s many you-pick farms, which are a great way to see foods being grown on the farm and offer the fun of harvesting without putting in the work of growing. Summer weekends on Sauvie Island are full of families picking first strawberries in June, then the wealth of other Oregon berries, followed by tomatoes, peaches, and loads of other tasty treats all the way to October.
Oregon’s agricultural bounty offers communities so many ways to enjoy inexpensive, fresh food and be active outdoors. Do you participate in a community garden project? Do you wish you could, maybe because you live in one of those food deserts? We’d love to hear your stories in our comments section.
