Let’s Get Growing: Securing Our Own Food Source

The other day, I sent my husband to our local grocery store. We had been self-isolating for two weeks and were running low on fresh vegetables. To my dismay, he came back without celery, green onions and some of the other items on his list, and that got me thinking. This COVID-19 pandemic is a scary and uncertain time. Despite the fear of not knowing how long it will last, we can actually be confident in knowing we will have enough food by taking its production into our own hands. 

Full disclosure: I grow much of the food we eat, so I have potting soil and seeds on hand. This was an easy solution to starting my own bedding plants. But there are other ways to start growing your own food as well.

For example, I shaved off the butt end of some celery I did have and put it into a jar with 1–2 inches of water, which I placed on the window sill. I did the same with the last of the green onions: I left about 2–3 inches of the white on and immersed the roots into an inch of water. Within a day, leaves and new shoots started to appear in my jars. I let them grow and only cut off what I needed, leaving the rest to continue growing.

Although I haven’t tried this myself, I have also heard about slicing a tomato or a pepper and planting those slices. Another tip I’ve seen is to scrape seeds from cucumbers, squash and fruit (such as watermelon and kiwi) and let those seeds drop into water: if the seeds sink, those are apparently the ones to use.

If containers are a problem…no problem! 

- Start cutting the tops off of eggs (instead of cracking the eggs in the middle) and let the egg slide out. Add some soil into the eggshell and plant corn kernels from a corn cob or lemon seeds directly into it. 

- Cut the top off of a water bottle so the hole is small enough to support a whole bud of garlic. Fill the bottle with water and place the garlic on top so the root system is immersed. It will start to grow roots, and then you can separate the cloves and plant those into the ground.  

- Fill empty ice cream cones with soil and plants seeds. When the plants grow, the whole thing can go right into the ground.  

- Milk cartons and yogurt containers (and even old shoes) all make suitable growing containers.

Fortunately, the garden centres are still open, so now is the time to stock up on seeds and potting soil.  Be sure to include some bedding plants and/or seeds that can be planted right now to yield crops within a month. These include lettuce, peas, Asian greens, green onions, kale, chard, spinach and radishes.

I recall my mother growing sprouts and shoots in glass jars with some gauze adhered to the top with an elastic band. We always had fresh alfalfa and bean sprouts as well as pea shoots for our sandwiches, stir fries and salads. You will need alfalfa and pea seeds as well as mung beans for this and you must rinse the seeds twice a day to avoid rotting, but you could be eating these within the week.

Wildcrafting is a popular past time with many foodies, and spring is a great time to forage for food in the wild. For example, weeds are an under-appreciated food source: harvest the young, tender leaves of dandelions for salads or any dish to which you want to add tons of nutrition. Clover, chickweed, yarrow and fiddleheads are just a few examples of the food we can find in our yards that can be used for soups, teas, pesto or whatever your culinary delight.

There are many reasons why people grow their own food. It is delicious, nutritious and affordable.  It provides a sense of pride and satisfaction to knowing where your food came from, and it is convenient to pick dinner right out of your yard. During this time of self-isolating, growing our own food also gives us comfort knowing we have a secure food source and we can feel we are helping others by leaving food on the store shelves for them.  

Let’s get growing!

Editor's Note:

With regard to sprouting your own seeds in glass jars with gauze, it is important to first sterilize the jars and use special sprouting-specific seeds. Additionally, the seeds will flourish in a warm and damp environment, but that environment also happens to be the perfect condition for the growth of unwanted bacteria. The Government of Canada provides information on safe sprouting practices for commercial purposes that is worth reading for anyone wanting to try their hand at growing sprouts.