Bushnell Gardens Nursery, Home & Garden Shop

If every U.S. cit­i­zen ate just one meal a week (any meal) com­posed of locally and organ­i­cally raised meats and pro­duce, we would reduce our country’s oil con­sump­tion by over 1.1 mil­lion bar­rels of oil every week. That’s not gal­lons, but bar­rels.   ~from Oily Food, by Steven Hopp

I grew up with a  great big veg­etable gar­den in our back yard. My Mom had me work­ing it reli­giously dur­ing the sum­mer, as we grew copi­ous amounts of cucum­bers, toma­toes, squash, corn, rasp­ber­ries, zuc­chini and green beans. Late Sum­mer & Fall our kitchen would turn into a fac­tory of sugar, pectin, salt, vine­gar, steam, bot­tles, and boxes. Our pantry cup­boards were full of pre­served food and I grew up think­ing every­one lived the same way.  I was wrong.

So, my hered­i­tary excite­ment of our April 14th Veg­etable Work­shop should come as no sur­prise. We’ll be learn­ing how to select the best, most juicy tomato to serve from your family’s din­ner table, along with all the pos­si­bil­i­ties for the best squash, onions, cucum­bers and more in any type or size gar­den space.

Beyond my excite­ment for this FREE work­shop, there are a few extra things that strengthen the ben­e­fits of grow­ing your own food, or pur­chas­ing locally grown food.

SAFETY.  Every day we hear still another story about con­t­a­m­i­nated food. Sal­mo­nella, melamine, E. Coli, Lis­te­ria, Cyclospera.   Ick.  Then, accord­ing to the EPA, over one-billion tons of pes­ti­cides are used on food crops every year! Isn’t it about time we begin to take mat­ters into our own backyards?

SAVE MONEY.  A packet of seeds is less than two dol­lars.  From that packet you can pro­duce more food than you can pos­si­bly eat. When (and IF) you get tired of eat­ing fresh veg­eta­bles from your gar­den you can pre­serve or freeze the rest for the winter.

HEALTH.  The food you will grow in your own gar­den will be far health­ier and packed with more nutri­tion than any­thing you could buy in the store.

EXERCISE.  Stud­ies show gar­den­ing for one hour can burn upwards of 400 calo­ries. Try that out at the gym! Gar­den­ing involves walk­ing, stretch­ing, lift­ing and bending.

BEAUTY. Veg­etable gar­dens are a beau­ti­ful thing. A veg­etable gar­den will add color, tex­ture, smell and life to your yard or balcony.

MENTAL HEALTH.  There is some­thing about gaz­ing on a beau­ti­ful and boun­ti­ful gar­den. The activ­ity of work­ing the gar­den can be immensely calm­ing while the splen­dor you have cre­ated can lift the spirit. A veg­etable gar­den can also lend a more spir­i­tual link to life itself. Not only are you par­tic­i­pat­ing in the mir­a­cle of growth and the chang­ing of the sea­sons, you will also become inti­mately linked to the process of nur­tur­ing your own life.

LEARN. The more you know, the more you want to know. While fun, gar­den­ing can also be quite chal­leng­ing. Insects or dis­eases in your plants will drive you to find out how to keep your gar­den healthy. Research on wind and sun pat­terns, grow­ing con­di­tions, suit­able plants and veg­eta­bles you might never have heard of will drive you to fill your head with new knowledge.

Have fun!

Addi­tional Local Resources:
Foothills Farm­ers’ Mar­ket & Placer County Farmer’s Mar­ket Schedules

Placer County Real Food Cook­book: how to eat locally 52 weeks of the year

Plac­er­GROWN: advo­cat­ing and pro­mot­ing local agri­cul­ture pro­duc­ers & products