Growing your own food is a way to keep yourself and your environment healthy. However, getting started on growing food can seem daunting. Thankfully, there is a world of home gardening hacks out there, like this one for growing unlimited salads.
The scoop
In a TikTok video from The Cottage Peach (@thecottagepeach), we are taught about the numerous benefits of growing your own lettuce, as well as how easy it is to keep the lettuce coming over the years.
@thecottagepeach Why does homegrown lettuce from the garden ALWAYS taste better? It turns out, there's a very good reason and thankfully growing lettuce at home is super easy 🥬 are you growing lettuce? #growyourownveggies #growfood #gardenlover #gardeningideas #urbangardener #backyardgardener ♬ Countryside - Andrew Joy
The Cottage Peach began their video providing us with some very interesting information. She noted that most store-bought lettuce has already traveled over 1,500 miles, is seven to 10 days old, and has lost up to 70% of its nutrients. This is backed by a research report from the University of Reading in the U.K., which highlights how most produce will lose up to half of its nutritional value a couple of days after being harvested.
The Cottage Peach shows that by harvesting your own lettuce with specific seed varieties, you can have fresh leaves on-demand and continue to "harvest them over and over again" in a season. "[It's] kind of like an unlimited lettuce hack," she concluded.
How it works
Growing your own food, besides ensuring you get the most nutrition from your produce, saves people a great deal of money while simultaneously reducing negative environmental impacts from waste and shipping.
For example, one package of organic romaine lettuce seeds will cost you about $3, which is around the same price as a single head of organic romaine lettuce. However, by using certain harvesting techniques explained by Gardenary, you'll be able to harvest lettuce from seeds three to four times in one season, meaning you are paying a third to a quarter of the price for each head, and getting more nutritional benefits.
Growing your own food not only means less packaging waste from grocery stores, but also the dirty pollution from driving to grocery stores, and from the shipping of produce all over the world.
What people are saying
Commenters on the TikTok video were impressed.
"Same with spinach! It's crazy," added one user in relation to how much lettuce can be harvested in one season.
🗣️ What is the biggest reason you don't grow food at home?
🔘 Not enough time ⏳
🔘 Not enough space 🤏
🔘 It seems too hard 😬
🔘 I have a garden already 😎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
"So much tastier," commented another user.
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