“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” ― Abraham Lincoln
I grew up in the countryside of Romania, in the ‘90 and middle of the 2000 years. If you don’t know, rural Romania it’s poor compared with the urban area. Even in 2017 many people are still living on subsistence farming, meaning that they eat what they grow.
Growing up in this kind of environment, where if you don’t grow your own food you don’t have what to eat had a big impact on my life. Because you learn that you need to work hard to put food on the table.
Farming and agriculture was a big thing for our ancestors. Agrarian revolution ended the nomadic ways of humans and they began to settle and form cities and civilization. And humanity became prosperous.
But nowadays, there are many people that don’t even know how to plant a tree or how to take care of a plant. We got used to going into markets and pick up the food from there, without caring how it was grown and who did it.
Because of the immense growth of population in the past 100 years food is becoming an issue. There are people that are starving in some corners of the world and while others are literally throwing food out of the window,
We got used to find food “at a market near you” and don’t ever think about the need of growing the food by ourself. What if something it will happen and you will have to do it. Do you know at least the basics?
This is why I find it important to know at least the basics of farming. You never know when you might need it.
Where to start and how to do it?
Well, we are on the internet so start googling about it.
But I will give some piece of advice too. Start by buying a plant. Learn how to take care of a plant first.
Do you live in the house and have some space in your backyard? Buy some seeds and plant them in the ground. Try growing something easy and really good to eat. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, etc. They are really easy to take care off and you can even sell them to your friends to make some money.
Do you live in the city? Maybe you have a balcony. Find some plants easy to grow in your house. Make yourself an apartment garden. You can grow herbs and even some carrots, tomatoes, strawberries.
A simple google search will help you find anything you need to start your own garden and help you grow your own food. Start learning and you will love to eat something that you’ve seen grow from a seed.
In a busy world like ours, working in your garden could be an oasis of peace and joy.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” ― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
Image source: Pixabay
This is Day 10 of the 30 days writing challenge during January 2017 launched by @dragosroua. If you want to join the challenge, here's the introductory article.
Essential skills in life is a series of articles regarding skills that I consider everyone should try to develop them. Some of them I have, some of them I'm working on. Please follow me @sstefan if you want to check the next post of the series.