George asks…
Should we be learning to grow more of our own food closer to home?
GardenersCardiff answers:
Much of the food we eat is imported and it would be good to grow a little more at home.
But look at that imported food. Many countries cannot grow enough of a variety of food to feed themselves but can grow one main crop well which they sell and use the money to buy the food they need to live!!
Stop buying from them and they starve and the world has to spend huge sums in humanitarian aid!!
The reason we are all so much healthier and live longer is because of the availability of good food.
So lets save the world!!!
Betty asks…
How many people grow their own food and can the food?
I am just wondering to see if the old ways are coming back more.
GardenersCardiff answers:
We grow,can,freeze or dehydrate most of the food we eat.I don’t know about coming back as I have done it all my life.I hope more young people are getting into gardening.
David asks…
Growing foods?
What foods/ drinks make u grow the most? and does milk make u grow?
GardenersCardiff answers:
MILK! Yes, the milk we buy at the stores today make kids grow fast, it also makes them grow up fast, hence our little girls are hitting puberty before they are 12!
Same with the store bought meats and eggs. It is full of the same growth whore-moans. Yes, I mean to spell that, that way. But, yet, our government finds it un-healthy to sell un-processed milk to the public, or even your friends. You need to have your own cow in the back yard to be able to drink good milk, that is good for you.
The best food to help children grow on is HOME GROWN FOOD, from your garden or neighbors and friends. Second to that would be from the farmer’s market. Yes, it is probably GM ed and ‘enhanced’, but it is far better that what I’ve seen in the grocery stores. Same goes with meat. The best meat come from the animals you know what they ate, how they were kept and how they died. Do you really think those eggs you buy at the grocery store came from happy chickens, like pictured on the carton? Happy chicken product eggs that are 10 times healthier and more nutritious than store bought. Find yourself a hunter and a farmer and a gardener and there you will find the best foods to feed your kids. Good Luck.
Now, lets talk about fresh air and sunshine and working for your food instead of working for money to buy your food. OK, I will wait on that………
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Ruth asks…
how can i grow my own food?
my mom and dad wont let me grow my own food, i want to start eating healthy but no one will listen. i cant even go the shop because its so far away, basically i want to start eating my own foods because i dont trust anything in cans/ boxes . what can i do?
GardenersCardiff answers:
You answered your own question:
“my mom and dad wont let me grow my own food…”
Their house, their rules. Wait until you get older and get your own place, you’ll have all the freedom (and responsibilities) that you can handle.
David asks…
growing food for profit?
i feel confident i could grow food that would meet the standards required, but how easy would it be to find some type of store that would buy locally grown food? how would i go about finding someone to buy it? i can see farmer’s markets as a possible option but i big reason for doing all of this is to be able to work from home, not to stand outside everyday waiting for like 2 people to walk by and buy my stuff. some choices i have in mind are anything from shiitake mushrooms to blueberrys, anything that could be grown indoors really.
GardenersCardiff answers:
Growing for profit means long hours and low pay, few farmers get rich doing this. You may feel confident that you can grow food for market but have you ever grown on at least 1/2 acre (and really 3 acres is the minimum i would suggest in order to grow enough to make money) and are you familiar with succession planting so you have crop to sell for more than say 2 to 3 weeks.
If you want to sell from home know that you will have to do a lot of marketing in order to let people know that you are there. Just because you grow stuff and set up a table does not mean anyone will stop and buy your stuff. Also know that when you are selling direct to the public marketing ought to take up around 60% of your time and growing about 40%.
Farmers markets can be lucrative after you have built up a customer base which takes 1 to 4 years to do. A nice thing about farmers market is they do the advertising for you and pull in hundreds or thousands of people so you have a ready market and they can be a lot of fun.
Selling from home often does mean you will wait around all day for 1 or 2 people to show up and maybe buy something, unless you are spending quite a bit of money advertising your farm stand. You also need to check and see if it is legal to sell from your house, many places will not allow commercial activity such as selling food.
To find a store to sell your stuff first you will need liability coverage. Most places require at least $1,000,000 in coverage before they will buy your stuff. Than it is as simple as going around to stores and talking to produce managers and asking if they will buy your stuff. Do know if you go this rout you will gross about 1/2 what you will gross selling direct as no grocery store is going to pay you full price for your food. What i mean is at a FM you can usually get around $2 for a pound of tomatoes but if you sell to a grocery store they will pay at most $1 for your tomatoes but they will also buy a lot at once.
Locally owned high end restaurants are another possibility for selling produce.
But do know it will take you at least 3 years before you can net more than $5K a year unless you go into this in a gig way but in order to do that you would have to go into debt for say $250K and would have to be netting at least $25K just to not go bankrupt.
Susan asks…
Do you grow you’re own food?
Me and my mum grow vegetables in our vegetable field. Potatoes, beetroot, spinach, lettuce, carrots etc
I think it’s aboslutely sound. 
do you?
( apart from some people who lives in cities )
Thanks Hawkeye85! 
Also, thanks everyone else for taking an interest in this. I had fried potatoes for breakfast last week, ( yes it was our own one’s, hehe )
I reckon that if you want to, you can in the end, I hope all three of you ( so far ) can achieve that
GardenersCardiff answers:
I think it is sound and weel done you, keep it up.
I want to get a croft where one day I will be able to provide good produce and teach people where things come from and maybe how to cook it and grow but that will be way in the future and I am only 23 lol
Fresh is best and you can’t get better than home grown. I hope you continue when you get a place and teach your children in the future. People have no clue about things and it is shameful, they take things for granted.
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Betty asks…
How have you been growing your own food? please read the details…?
what plants are you growing?
do you have cattle?
i’m just curious…because i’m thinking about growing my own food!
GardenersCardiff answers:
I really fell down in the gardening department this year. Other things going on, and for some reason the mosquitoes have been really vicious. But in past years I’ve grown tomatoes (I did manage to get in a few plants), peppers (hot and sweet), green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, corn, melons, broccoli, salad greens, radishes, chard, and various herbs (the herbs are in a separate garden and I did ok there this year). My apples and cherries did ok, but they don’t need any attention. The cherries are too small to do anything with other than eat fresh, but omg the apples. I’ve canned about 20 quarts of spiced apples. Also got peaches from a local farmer’s market and from a couple of friends with peach trees, and canned a bunch of them as well.
I’m also fortunate to have a friend at work who supplies me with eggs. My zoning laws don’t allow chickens, let alone goats or cows.
But even if you can’t grow all, or even a lot, of your own food, whatever you can produce reduces your carbon footprint, not to mention is fresher, and probably more organic, and will taste better.
If you want to grow all your own food, you need to know how to can, and it also helps to have a freezer. It also helps to hunt, or have friends who do that can give you surplus.
To “peaceand”–rabbits taste real good. If you live in a place where you can shoot a gun, go for it and also save your garden! A headshot with a .22 rifle, that’s the ticket.
Mandy asks…
how much $ could you save if you grow your own food?
Is there anyone here who grows over 50% of what they eat? I am wondering if growing my own food would make a significant impact in my grocery budget.
If you do grow your own food, what kindof food do you grow and how much? What kind of foods do you still have to go to the grocery store for?
GardenersCardiff answers:
I believe you have to sink some money into growing your own food, i.e. Land, fertilizer, machinery, etc. So I think that any money that would be saved from spending at the grocery store would be offset by the cost of raising your own.
Richard asks…
What are the Pros and Cons of growing your own food?
vegetables, fruits, and chickens?
GardenersCardiff answers:
Vegetables and fruits
Pros
– you save money
– you have tastier veggies
– you can freeze them and save them for later so you can have fresh veggies later in the year.
– you know what is going on them, you know how they are grown and what chemicals that you used if any. And you also know who is handling them. Just think about how one works at a job they don’t LOVE… Do you think they wash their hands? Who knows but we eat it anyway.
Cons –
– it’s a lot of work to grow them, daily watering and checking for bugs, harvesting its time consuming and a lot of bending up and down. (for some weird reason i find this fun tho)
– you could not have a green thumb and kill your plants leaving back to the start but your only out a few dollars over a freezer full of burnt veggies.
I do know the fruits are a bit better home grown. They just taste that much better. And it’s the stuff you like so your growing stuff you like.
Chickens – never messed with those. I had a bird once and they are a lot of upkeep. But i’m sure the eggs would be wonderful but I don’t know the first thing about. The work of a bird as a pet/farm animal just seems more work than what I can take on at the moment but I’m very drawn to this if i lose my job.
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