One of the hardest things about growing your own food is realizing that you can't just decide you want something and have it tomorrow.
If you want tomatoes in the summer, you have to start planning long before you're ready to eat them. If you want a garden full of vegetables through the winter, you have to get those plants established while everybody else is still thinking about summer.
And if you miss that window, you don't get to just make up for lost time.
You have to wait.
Nature doesn't operate on our schedule. We have to learn to operate on hers.
Because at the end of the day, we're all concerned about what's being sprayed on our food, what's being added to it, and whether what we're feeding our families is actually good for us.
Everybody's downloading the Yuka app, reading ingredient labels, counting calories, and trying to figure out which foods they should or shouldn't eat.
And I think it's worth asking ourselves how we got here.
There was a time when more families grew at least some of their own food, knew the people producing the rest, and didn't have to rely entirely on grocery store shelves to feed themselves.
Today, we've traded much of that connection for convenience.
And don't get me wrong, convenience is a wonderful thing. But somewhere along the way, we became so dependent on it that we forgot how much work goes into producing food in the first place.
Now we're spending our time scanning barcodes, researching ingredients, and wondering whether we can trust what's on our plates.
The convenience has caught up with us, and now it's time to pay the man.
But here's the thing.
We don't have to keep paying for it with our dependence.
We can start learning to grow some of our own food. We can build relationships with farmers in our communities. And we can start passing that knowledge along to the next generation.
None of that is going to happen overnight.
Which is exactly why we need to start now.
The Best Time to Start Was Before You Needed It
I think one of the biggest adjustments people have to make when they start growing food is learning to think ahead.
We're so used to being able to go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want, whenever we want, that we've almost completely lost our connection to the seasons.
Want tomatoes in January? They're at the store.
Want strawberries in October? You can probably find those too.
But when you start growing your own food, you realize there's an entire process that has to happen before any of that food ever reaches your plate.
You have to prepare the soil, choose the right plants, plant them at the right time, keep them alive, and then wait for them to produce.
Sometimes you do everything right and still don't get the harvest you were hoping for.
That's gardening.
And that's exactly why I think more people need to start doing it.
I'm Still Figuring This Out Myself
Something I've struggled with as I've started sharing more about gardening, farming, and rebuilding our local food system is the feeling that I should have everything figured out before I start teaching other people.
Maybe I should have a fully functioning farm first.
Maybe I should have years of successful harvests behind me.
Maybe I should wait until I've got everything running perfectly before I start telling people what they ought to be doing.
But here's the problem with that.
If I wait five or ten years until I've built the farm I envision, that's five or ten years that somebody else could have spent learning to grow their own food.
That's five or ten growing seasons they could have been experimenting, making mistakes, improving their soil, figuring out what works in their backyard, and encouraging others to start.
And for what?
So I could feel a little more qualified to tell them that summer crops need to be planted for summer production and cool-season crops need to be planted when the weather is right for them?
You don't need to own a hundred acres or have a PhD to understand that.
You just need to get started.
I'm Not Standing on a Pedestal
I want to make something clear.
When I talk about growing your own food, supporting local farmers, or changing the way we produce food in this country, I'm not speaking from some pedestal like I've already accomplished everything I'm telling other people to do.
I'm still learning.
I'm still making mistakes.
There are plenty of things I want to do that I haven't figured out how to do yet.
I'm not standing at the finish line telling everybody else to catch up. I'm running toward it myself, and I'm trying to drag as many people along with me as I can.
Because the truth is, I don't have enough time to figure all of this out by myself.
And neither do you.
But if I can share something I've learned that saves you a growing season of frustration, and you can share something you've learned that saves somebody else a year of mistakes, we all start making progress a whole lot faster.
That's how knowledge used to move through communities.
People learned from one another.
They shared seeds, traded plants, helped their neighbors, and passed down what worked.
Nobody had to know everything.
They just had to be willing to help.
We Don't Have to Wait for Somebody Else to Fix It
I talk a lot about rebuilding our local food system, but I don't think that's something one farmer, one business, or one person can accomplish.
It's going to take people growing food in their backyards.
It's going to take farmers finding better ways to produce food and connect with their communities.
And it's going to take families making the decision to buy more of their food from people close to home.
None of that happens overnight.
A garden takes time to grow. Soil takes time to improve. A farm takes years to build. Relationships between farmers and families take time to develop.
But all of those things have something in common.
The longer we wait to start, the longer we wait to benefit.
And that's why I'm sharing what I'm learning now instead of waiting until I've built everything I want to build.
Because somebody reading this might decide to plant their first garden this season.
A year from now, they might be growing more food than I am.
And that's exactly what I want.
Plant Something
You don't have to quit your job, buy a farm, or become completely self-sufficient.
Start with a raised bed.
Or a few containers.
Or just one plant you've never grown before.
Learn when it needs to be planted, what kind of soil it likes, and how to keep it alive.
If it works, do it again.
If it doesn't, figure out why and try something different.
And when you learn something useful, tell somebody.
Because the goal isn't for me to become the guy everybody depends on for food or gardening advice.
The goal is for more people to know how to grow food, more farmers to be able to make a living producing it, and more families to have access to good food close to home.
We aren't going to get there by waiting for somebody to have all the answers.
We're going to get there by getting started, learning as we go, and helping each other along the way.
You can't harvest what you haven't planted.
And there's no better time to start learning than now.
Ready to Grow Something?
If you've been wanting to start a garden but don't know where to begin, I've put together resources to help you get started without having to figure everything out on your own.
Whether you're starting with your first raised bed or trying to improve a garden you've already got, I'd be happy to help.