Grow What You Love To Eat

I doubt that I ever realised how much of our food used to come from our garden as a kid. My Dad used to grow us lots of things from potatoes to peas and runner beans to radishes as well as many things in between.

He started me on the growing bug young too, and I’ve done so most of my life. Having an allotment for nearly a third of my life and now with a garden of a similar size to that growing space much of our food comes from there.

We’ve had a bit of a break during the period upto and after moving house when we were winding down one space and not yet getting the new space ready.

Just before I came in to write these words, I was transplanting cabbage plants from their seed tray out into the garden proper and into the soil.

I’ve also just been thinking about our grocery list and what we don’t need to buy from the store this week because we have lettuce and a few other things.

The impact on the grocery bill is a visible one though, even if it is a bit of an illusion. The price of our grocery shop might be lower this week than normal, but I have had to buy seed and compost and many other things. Some of this is spread over the years or acquired at low or zero cost, but ultimately there are associated costs with growing your own food. Probably it is cheaper than just buying from the store but there are other things to think about and the fact that prices in supermarkets are probably artificially low when thinking about what the actual cost to farmers and growers is, so maybe if the true price were paid there would be a greater saving.

I guess as a kid my concept of exactly where different things came from was pretty limited, and certainly I had no sense of the cost of things. There was always something to eat, even if sometimes it was something that I’d profess to not liking. My sense though is that the differential in price was probably greater and the savings value of home grown food was greater.

Finally there is one other thing that is great about home grown food and that is the taste. It will always been fresher and tastier than anything that you can buy anywhere else.

Thanks for reading.

The last few weeks I’ve been in and out of hospital as a visitor. If you’ve had any recent experience yourself you’ll know that they are busy places. The corridors are a flowing mass of people moving from one point to another. The last time I had any experience was when I was visiting my Dad in hospital in 2016 and even my daily visits then the place seemed much quieter than it does today.

Go back even further I remember when hospitals were very different to how they are today. Big long open wards with rows of beds either side, the only privacy you were offered were curtains that could be pulled around the bed or mobile screens moved into place to give you a sense of being hidden from view. Very different to the smaller rooms of today.

At various times as a child I’d accompany a parent to visit a sick relative in hospital. In some ways I remember them as being quite solemn occasions, even when the relative in question was in for something quite routine. “Visiting hours” were much more of a thing then than they are today and observed to the minute by the ward sisters or matron. Tones of conversation were often hushed so as not to disturb other patients, although in reality with the numbers of patients per ward and visitors I suspect it was more to not collectively be a racket.

I remember one exception when we were visiting on a Saturday and it was coincidentally the same day as the local football team had made it through to the self-final of the FA Cup. Televisions had been placed strategically on the ward so that all the patients and their visitors had sight of a screen. All were tuned to whatever channel was showing the match and the usual silence was broken by more oohs and aahs as the team did their best to make it all the way to the final. I don’t think they did on that occasion, despite having done so before but as this was a mens ward I think the televisions lifted most spirits that afternoon. Patients and staff.

Skip forward to today and there aren’t really “visiting hours” anymore. You might be asked to leave for a bit when the doctors are speaking to their patients but otherwise it seems. coming for a visit can happen when convenient. Every bed has a tv, although there’s a limited selection unless you’re prepared to pay upfront (I guess they don’t want to send you a bill at the end of your stay just in case you don’t actually leave).

But it is the busyness that strikes me the most. The staff seem very dedicated, but just always busy. The changes over the last few years are really noticeable. What will it be like in a few years more? I don’t know but it doesn’t seem to be sustainable at that rate of growth. I can see the system collapsing if there is more strain placed upon it.

I fully support the NHS as free at the point of use, but it does need more support to be able to tackle the challenges ahead. Whatever political party I don’t hear a coherent plan at present as to what the policy should be, and I wonder if they actually get it. Perhaps they actually need to visit without the fanfare of a media circus with them so that can actually see what it’s like?

Thanks for reading.