How I spend my weekends

I am volunteer for the Grow Your Food Project (gyfProject) and since last week, I've had the most fulfilling weekends ever because of this association. gyfProject has taken up a stall at Farmers market and it gives us an opportunity to promote the cause of reducing the urban food load by encouraging urban dwellers to grow a part of their own food. Growing your own food is about getting directly involved in the basics of life, i.e. food, apart from generating oxygen and upcycling plastic bottles by using them to grow vegetables. It is extremely satisfying because it directly tackles several environmental and social issues at the same time.

But even more satisfying is the action involved in this project as a volunteer. Typically volunteers grow some plants (that which can be used as food) and give some of these plants for sale. A part of my volunteering role is to make these plants easy to upkeep and make them look attractive. Last weekend we sold 9 planters of Basil and Green Chilly. This Sunday (2nd December, 2012) we propose to have about 20 planters of Basil, Green Chilly, Curry leaf plant and Lemon grass and getting these ready kept me busy till late Friday night.



But that's not all, we also have a gyfProject Organic Food Counter, one that serves 'cultural' food, made from authentic recipes handed down through generations. Volunteers prepare these dishes and its even more exciting for me as I volunteer my kitchen's use for preparing these dishes. Till late into Saturday night  there's about 50 cold-meals being prepared. 5 am Sunday morning, another 50 hot-meals are readied, all set to leave for the Farmer's Market stall by 8 am.

From 10 am to 3 pm, we promote gyfProject counter at the market by selling food, encouraging visitors to buy plants and discuss their different challenges in growing food in their urban homes. This Sunday, our target is to double the collections, all of which goes back into promoting the gyfProject causes.

My weekends have completely changed since I started volunteering. If you're interested in giving your time or space to this project (only in Mumbai currently), please call or sms (with name, age, interest) Saurabh on +91-9930331488. 

Starting steps to grow your food

Its the start of a wonderful Saturday morning and in case you're wondering what you ought to be doing this weekend, I suggest you try your hand at beginning to grow your food. No better day than today and all it takes is some seed/plant, water, earth and sunshine. However, though we are almost always eager to start off, we sometimes stop because we don't know where to get the seed or the earth/mud or how/what to grow plants. This blog-piece will try to show you easy ways to start off.

It may surprise you to know that every city has more than enough seed-shops/nurseries where you can all kinds of seeds, plant growing aids and other implements. The best place to start searching is obviously on the internet and you'll find plenty of places to choose from ( one simple search pulled up over 100 places for me http://www.asklaila.com/search/Mumbai/-/plant%20seeds/10?searchNearby=false&v=listing).

What you may see in a seed shop

Visiting the shortlisted seed-shop/nursery can be an exciting start as you will be able to see the variety and possibilities of your food growing journey. The minimum you need for starting is a few seed varieties and some soil-compost mix, The rest of what you buy depends on how much you yield in to temptation.



What to plant: If you're on the first attempt on the GYF journey, then I recommend you start with the easy-to-grow variety of plants. Herbs are a good pick as they many of them grow easily and within just a couple of weeks of tending you'll be able to relish the 'fruits' of your food project. Basil is great to start of as it is easy to grow, sturdy and can be used in a wide variety of salads, continental dishes and dips. The other advantage of Basil is that with every pluck, it grows prolifically giving you the opportunity to gift cupfuls of fresh basil to your family or friends (this act of gifting homegrown food is a wonderful way to spread interest in growing food at home). The other vegetable that grows really easily at home are radishes. Of this, there are over 200 varieties so you can take your pick - white, scarlet, red, red-long among many others. You can easily have your first harvest within just 25 days of seed planting. The radish is also a great vegetable to grow at home since you can use every part of it as food (the leaves can be had cooked and are a great salad accompaniment). Both of them need plenty of sunshine and good moist, fertile soil to grow.


How to plant: For germinating the basil seeds take a shallow pot or plastic cup with about 3 to 4 inches of soil-compost mix. For the radishes, use a deeper container/pot they need the depth to grow long - a typical 10-12 inch deep dish should do fine.

For both, dip holes approximately half inch deep and about 4-5 inches apart, drop one seed per hole and cover with soil.Wet this with water and be careful not to drown the seeds. Spray or sprinkle water twice a day till the seeds germinate. Keep in a warm and dark place till the seeds germinate (the top of the fridge works perfectly).

But feel free to experiment and remember that everything you do will not be perfect at first. But as you go along, you'll get the hang of it and you, your friends and family will enjoy both the process and the product immensely. When you finish this article, I suggest you search for seed stores/nurseries around your area - its the first step necessary to start.

All the best!