Sami Grover
DCL
We're big fans of homegrown, sustainable, DIY food here at Planet Green. From Kelly's home pickled sweet peppers to grow your own pico de gallo, by planting up some fruits and vegetables you can save on the packaging, waste and transportation emissions associated with your food. After all, a homegrown tomato will have traveled a few feet from plant to table, whereas a store-bought variety may have been shipped across the country, or even have been flown in from abroad.
But I think focusing solely on how homegrown ingredients can replace store bought ones like-for-like sells the gardener short. Sure—a side of spinach from your own raised beds will be way less polluting than a blister-pack from the local megamart. But it's about more than that—I'd argue that homegrown produce is so much fresher, tastier and downright satisfying, that you can make do with less—or at least make do with simpler meals. And as Matt argued earlier this week—simple living is green living.
Consider the meal pictured above. Quite simply, new potatoes thinly sliced, sauteed in olive oil with some onion, garlic, sweet peppers, hot peppers, marjoram and salt and pepper. It was probably my favorite meal of the week. And with the exception of the salt, pepper, olive oil and onion (onions are just one of my garden failures this year!), everything came from my garden.
Now I could have tried the same with store-bought produce, but something tells me it would be a pale imitation, and I suspect I'd have been craving a steak to go with it.
So why not try it for yourself? Once you have a garden going—you could limit yourself to one meal a week from garden-only ingredients. Or to make it simpler—only fresh ingredients that come from the garden? You'll be surprised how good the simplest of dishes can be.
A word on psychology: I made this very same argument to a friend once, over (store-bought) beer. He argued that it was probably all in the mind. My response? So what. Taste is ultimately all in the mind —if the exceptional flavors of my own potatoes are solely down to the work I have invested in them, or my grandiose and egotistical beliefs in my own gardening prowess, so be it. I still get to make a gourmet supper out of little more than some potatoes and a few random veggies!
Salivating over sustainable eats? Learn how to make your own with help from Emeril Lagasse in Planet Green TV's organic cooking show, Emeril Green.
