Healthy Living DIY

Here's the basic idea. It's generally accepted nowdays that produce is good for us. Beyond that, though, politics, science, and common sense all have a hand in suggesting where that food should come from. How it should have been grown. And so on.

The choices:

1. Conventionally grown (with pesticides), shipped in from wherever
2. Organically grown (without pesticides), shipped in from wherever
3. Locally grown conventional produce (with pesticides)
4. Locally grown pesticide-free (may or may not not be labelled "Certified Organic"), including foods merchandised through your local grocer, farmers markets, or as part of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program
5. Grow & preserve your own

It's a dizzying array of choices, considering we're supposed to find it so simple and convenient to just go down to the local supermarket and pick up the first thing we come to. Look at all we've got to factor in:

• Health (is organic food healthier than conventionally grown?)
• Environment (have we really saved anything if we ship organic food 2000 miles from its origin to put it on a shelf somewhere?)
• Freshness
• Flavor
• Chi (some people feel that the "chi" of the food is more important than where or how it's grown; does where and how it's grown, plus freshness, create that Chi???)
• Cost
• Satisfaction (to both your stomach and your values system)
• Convenience and practicality

When you factor in health, freshness, flavor, and environmental sensitivity, some people might conclude that "grow your own" is the best way to go. Yet here we are in the middle of a society that's nearly perfected mass food production. In some ways, of course, this is a really good thing! It frees us non-farmers up to do other things!

Seems like we're coming full circle, doesn't it? From a culture where you once had to grow your own, we've come around to a culture where having the time and space to grow your own is one of the "new" ultimate luxuries.

For me, the combination approach works best. I love fresh veggies from the garden. (Even tried my hand at a little canning last fall!) I've been soaking up as much information as I can about creating healthy soil and organic gardening practices. And I'm growing what I can.

Yet I'm not about to plant a field of wheat and mill it myself. Got no room for a cow in town. And frankly, I have no desire to raise chickens. A person has to draw the line somewhere!

For me, food selection is a compromise about making the best choices from what's available. And, of course, continuing to learn as much as possible with the goal of creating better choices tomorrow than I had yesterday.

So what about you? I know we have some foodies and gardeners reading this blog ... What do you think? What works for you? Which do you find the most satisfying? Where do you pick that perfect produce?

P.S. Let's save the GMO conversation for another day, OK?