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“Plant carrots in January and you’ll never have to eat carrots.” ~Author Unknown

When you start to look at common thought on organic produce, one argument repeats itself over and over again:

“I’d love to buy organic, but I can’t afford it.”

I obviously don’t know everyone’s circumstances, so I am sure that this is true for some. But I would argue that in general if you shop wisely, prioritize your money toward being mindful of the power of food as a means of preventative health care, and don’t buy a lot of processed, prepackaged foods (especially boxes of foods labeled “organic” or “heart healthy”), it can be done on the important things.

As I mentioned in the last article on the subject of organic vs. conventional produce, it is a matter of the choices you make, and in particular where you feel the risks of life are greater. Eat organic apples because you don’t trust big industry with what you feed your kids? Or buy a car with a higher payment because it has better side impact ratings? Ultimately, it’s up to you.

Of the same stock

All that said, I think there is something that a lot of us forget about the history of the culture in which we live (speaking of Western cultures in particular). I have a friend, B., who is a writer, a runner, and a confirmed historical romantic, and is passionate in all aspects of life. In particular, B. often waxes poetic on the “Greatest Generation” – the people who rallied together during World War II to defeat a threat of evil unlike the world had ever seen. He often points out that they were made of a different stock than we are today. That we’ve gone soft in our modern convenience. That the generations of today have no idea of what sacrifice really means.

In many ways, he’s absolutely right.

However, I would argue that we today are of the same stock, as a culture (and I would suggest, globally); we just forget it every once in a while, sometimes for years on end. So how does this relate to organic produce?

Low income does not equal junk food

Prior to the proliferation of billion-dollar ad campaigns and abundant well-lit Dollar menus that have convinced us otherwise, the poor folk of this country did not resort to junk food as a means of saving money; the truth is, they simply couldn’t afford to buy that Costco-sized bag of Doritos or the 24-pack of Coca Cola that the kids would rip through in a few short minutes. In fact, for those who remember, it was quite the opposite. If you had a family to feed and you didn’t have “two dimes to rub together” you did one thing: You got creative.

My wife’s mother, C., is a perfect example. My wife eats (and likes) more vegetables than anyone I know, partly out of choice, and partly because of her upbringing around these kinds of Real Foods, which I believe set the stage for a lifetime of healthy cravings. How did this happen? What were her Mother’s circumstances that allowed such a thing?

C. raised a family of 8 children. At times she had a man in her life, and at other times not. She worked full time in lower paying jobs, and was the sole provider for her kids for many years. Of course, she was part of that Greatest Generation my friend B. talks about, which may explain it in part, but I like to think that it was out of her own ingenuity that arose creative solutions to feeding her family well. So how did she do it? Did the kids eat government cheese?

C. decided that if she couldn’t always afford good food, she would find a way to feed her kids well without the extra cash. She bartered when she could; she found local resources for things that might be more expensive in their prepackaged form; and she made big trade-offs on conveniences and niceties. but her biggest asset was probably one thing: Her Garden.

She grew tons of vegetables, fruits, and berries, and trained her kids to not only eat them, but to enjoy them. In fact, where many family traditions of food surround a box of Lucky Charms and some two-liter bottles of soda, my wife’s family traditions include foods like a shared artichoke with some mayonnaise or her mother’s delicious cooked chard. When my wife’s youngest brother Z. brings back wild mushrooms from the woods surrounding his Mom’s house, for the family it is cause for celebration. Fried green tomatoes? Yes. Okra? You bet. Fish caught from the river near her house? Absolutely.

C. was able to raise 8 children on next to nothing by growing her own food, teaching her children the skills of the land, and devoting time to the preparation of meals. And it bears repeating: This incredible woman had 8 children and a full time job with little help. Did she have lots of spare time on her hands? You do the math.

When it came to her garden, “Organic” really wasn’t a term that was used the way it is today, but her garden truly was organic in its most pure form: She buried the right kitchen scraps straight in the garden and let the earth do the rest. No need for just the right balance of chemicals to keep the FDA off her back; when she had eggs, she buried the shells, which enriched the soil, and ultimately led to healthier, better tasting produce in the coming seasons.

To me, it sounds an awful lot like a natural cycle and healthful relationship with food that most of us today have forgotten.

The Gardener Cometh

In that spirit, The Metroknow household has decided to try our own experiment: What would it be like to grow our own organic produce?

To be fair, this project actually started a couple of months ago, when after reading Michael Pollan’s latest book, In Defense of Food, among others, it became clear that if we wanted to eat well and still save some money for that ever-expanding college bill, we would need to get creative ourselves. And we have.

Over the summer, I’ll be sharing updates on our little experiment as the season progresses. We’ve sectioned off a large piece of our yard that is now dedicated to growing our own produce, and have planted the organic seeds and starts that sound good to us. As you can see from the photographs, we’re using raised beds and fresh soil. And so far, we’ve already got more spinach than we can eat, without chemical residues or a lot of plastic packaging headed for the landfill.

Organic aside, there are two BIG reasons why this is important

Beyond organic this and frugal that, by trying this experiment we are accomplishing, I hope, one critical thing: We are passing on to our son and daughter a sense of what it means to be closer to the food you eat. We are hoping that they will develop an appreciation for what it means to be part of this most natural and essential process. And we are hoping that we are helping them to make wise choices by nature, rather than by later “retraining” as I am doing now.

In fact, we are hoping that by training them now, we are ultimately contributing to the next generation of great stock.

And one last thing: we cannot wait to show the garden to April’s Mother.

More to come.

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Related posts:

1. Real Food Recipe: Green Corn Tamales
2. 44 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting in 2009
3. 2010: Setting Them Up and Knocking Them Down

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