Mealtime at its Prime

There are countless things that you can do to become more self-sustainable. At Nazareth Farm, we did things everyday to reduce waste and reuse things around the farm. Mealtime was a prime example of what it means to be sustainable.

The food we ate on a daily basis was mostly grown on the farm. Everyday, volunteers and staff care for the vegetables during morning chores and throughout the day. These vegetables, unlike most of the vegetables that you can buy at the store, are pesticide and chemical free. Planting a garden, no matter how small, during the growing months of the year can help you become more sustainable. Plants like kale and chard are relatively easy to grow, based on the type of soil you are gardening in, and can be used to make things ranging from simple salads to pesto sauce! The second step to becoming more sustainable at mealtime is to compost. Composting means taking leftover scraps of food and putting them somewhere that they can decompose and be reused to fertilize your garden. This leftover food,as it is decomposing, creates nitrogen and other nutrients that can help create future vegetables. Whether you live in the city or the country, there are ways to compost. Here are some tips to composting in populated areas. Remember: Before you compost, do some research! There are different strategies for composting vegetables than there are for composting meats. Composting is not as smelly and gross as it seems. Here are some rules for what should and should not compost. If you already compost,here are some tips for how you can improve your process. Composting and gardening are just two of the many ways of attaining sustainability that I will mention through these blogs. In addition to being good for your environment, gardening and composting can be good for your health. By using compost, instead of chemicals, to give your vegetables the nutrients that they need, you are lessening the amount of toxins that enter your body. Also, when gardening, there are ways to prevent pests without the use of pesticides. For example, if you plant Marigolds in your garden, many types of insects are disinclined to bother your vegetables! With a little research, you can grow food organically as you lessen both the amount of food you waste and chemicals that you ingest. These tips are just a few ways that you can live a simpler life in the 21st Century.