Growing Your Own — Even If You Have No Garden
When I first started growing my own food I had a big garden and the space to do it properly. But over the years I've lived in flats, in touring buses, in city apartments, and I've always found a way to grow something. Because even something small connects you to your food in a way that nothing else does.
If you have a windowsill, you can grow herbs. Basil, mint, rosemary, chives, flat-leaf parsley. These are the things I use constantly when I cook and having them fresh rather than from a plastic packet makes an enormous difference to the flavour. They're also very easy. A pot, some organic compost, a bit of light and water.
If you have a balcony or a small outdoor space, you can grow salad leaves, radishes, cherry tomatoes, courgettes. Cherry tomatoes on a balcony in summer are one of life's simple pleasures, they grow very willingly and they taste completely different to anything you buy in a shop.
The other thing I'd encourage is microgreens if you have no outdoor space at all. You grow them in a small tray on a windowsill, they're ready in about a week, and they're extraordinarily nutritious, far more concentrated than the full-grown plant. Sunflower shoots, radish, broccoli microgreens. You can add them to everything.
Start with one pot of something. The act of growing even a small thing shifts the way you think about food. You become more interested in where it comes from, more grateful for it, more attentive to what you put in your body. It's a quiet but powerful change.
