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Why Organic and Why Grow Your Own?

Go seasonal, go organic , grow your own!

There is currently a strong resurgence towards home grown, seasonal and organic food in the UK .The sale of vegetable seed has now overtaken that of flower seed for the first time since the Second World War.

At Rocket Gardens we combine the philosophy of growing your own, organic production and seasonality into the products we offer our customers. We are growing in accordance with strict organic guidelines set out by the UK Soil Association.

REASONS FOR A RESURGENCE IN GROW YOUR OWN

People are becoming more aware and concerned about what they eat and what they are feeding their children.

There is concern that the domination of the major supermarket chains is creating an unsustainable and detrimental system of food production in the UK and beyond. Food miles are becoming a major reason for public concern: 28 % of road freight in the UK is food or produce; 1.6 billion tons are carried 149 billion ton kilometres. Each person makes on average, 221 shopping trips per year. £2.1 billion could be saved if all food was sourced locally.

People are becoming more aware about food production systems and are beginning to question the safety of modern intensive agricultural practices geared toward the production of supermarket food. The UK government has recently found high levels of pesticide residues in baby food, spinach, dried fruit, bread, apples, celery, and chips. UK tax payers currently fork out £250 million to pay for removing chemicals from drinking water, mainly as a result of the pesticides used in farming.

Taste
There is nothing to compare with eating your own food straight from the garden.

Supermarket bland tasteless uniformed food just doesn’t come close.

Getting kids to eat their greens –this we have found is far easier to encourage when they are helping to grow the food themselves!

Environment
Once the home kitchen garden is established there should be no need to buy pre chlorinated and plastic packed salad and veg from the supermarket so the normal weekly household rubbish bin full of packaging will not be such a problem – a great benefit to Britain’s towering landfill sites! Almost two thirds of each household bin in Britain is made up of packaging – a total weight of 10 million tones per year!

Seasonality and Nature
Grow, cook and eat in harmony with the seasons. This is a fundamental aspect of Rocket Gardens' core beliefs.

For far too long supermarkets have been trying to suppress seasonality by producing product ranges that are a year long display of comfortable repetitiveness. The only way this is possible is by shipping food in from all over the world. Techniques which help this environmentally flawed system to operate include the use of refrigerated transportation systems, the burning of huge amounts of fossil fuels, treating young salad leaves with high levels of chlorine to stop them from wilting, by harvesting produce before it is ripe in an effort to extend shelf life and so on.

Flying little green beans in packs 4,500 miles from Kenya when they will grow perfectly well in our back gardens – why do we do this?

Cost
As produce can be picked directly out of the garden it is amazing how much this can cut down on the weekly food bill often because it means that a trip to the shops has been avoided as has the temptation to buy something you don’t really need!

Satisfaction
Growing a productive kitchen garden is immensely satisfying and creates a great sense of achievement. It is fantastic to sit down for a Sunday roast with the family knowing that most items on the table have been grown just outside in the garden.

Time with family
Developing a productive vegetable garden at home is a great way to spend time outside with the family and having the basis of the garden delivered growing to the front door at your convenience is something that everyone will enjoy and benefit from. A surplus of produce also creates a great way to start bartering with your friends and neighbours!

Buying organically is good but growing your own organically is an even better step in the right direction!

A useful source of further information is: www.whyorganic.org