5 a day + grow your own: Is it possible?

STOP PRESS: Shiney is the Five Times a Day man

Mind you ... that was then ... probably takes him all night to do what he used to do all night now

 

I guess the slugs and snails have an excellent, healthy diet then!

 

Can I remind all that fruit and vegetables actually come from growing them and not from seed sown at the supermarket?

 

That's a relief, I was worried you were going to upload a photo

 

I'd love to try to be self sufficient with a 5 a day diet from the garden. My biggest obstacle (not the best wording) would be Mrs. Frost moaning that I spend too much time in the garden!

 

I'm reminded of something I saw or heard on telly some while ago. A bloke bought his dad a ride on lawn mower/mini tractor for his birthday, figuring his dad was getting old and finding it increasingly difficult and time consuming to look after their sizeable garden.

The man was shocked when his dad went ballistic and demanded that the son get rid of it before his mother sees it. Shocked, the son asks why. The dad simply explains that the key to the many years of blissful married life for him and the lad's mother, is that the mother stays indoors in her spare time, and the dad spends all his time outdoors. With labour saving machinery he'd have to spend more time with the lad's mother.

 

There's truth in that!

 

I’m sure it’s possible. But, it would take a massive investment of time plus of course land space. Once upon a time we were about 50% to 75% self-sufficient for fruit and veg but increasing professional workloads resulted in us having less time available for food production and preservation. In our case the main problem was that the Autumnal harvest, bottling, pickling, freezing happened when we’d very little time free to do it.

If you have unlimited time, a big freezer or two, a dehydrator, plenty of storage space, greenhouse and polytunnel/s then go for it. Otherwise just grow what you can comfortably manage to grow and store and enjoy the fruits of your labour.