Grow Your Own Future – MooseJawToday.com

When the holidays come, it means many different things. The holiday cheer can bring you happiness or very well bring less happiness to your already busy and perhaps stressful life. With each passing year, I find myself caring less about material things and more about the opportunities and experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of.

Years ago we started traveling around the Christmas season and it brought a new and interesting perspective on everything we were used to in life. It was a bit of an eye opener for my kids as they had enjoyed the more material side of Christmas in the past. The religious or religious side of the Christmas season has always been present, but over the years we have begun to put more emphasis on sharing the love, sharing the good and certainly sharing the fellowship of wonderful food and amazing company.

Removing many frivolous parts of the holidays may be an option for you. For us it gave us a chance to learn about other cultures and climates and gave my children a great appreciation for the life we ​​live every day. Living a simpler life is an option out there. Living a life that has less material value also means it’s possible to get off the hamster wheel. Living a life that revolves around producing food, sharing knowledge, and being able to help others is possible. Being able to grow at least some of the food you consume yourself might be part of what you value in life.

I am grateful that my profession is in horticulture. Although none of my children have had a full career in horticulture, all have spent some time in their lives earning a living in the field. I’m sure this reflects the values ​​I grew up with – growing food and making sure we place food by making sure we have quality and quantity of food available year-round. Now that I’m moving on to the next generation, I’m happy to see that my granddaughter also understands the importance of growing food and caring for the land we live on.

On a recent trip to Southeast Asia, I once again saw huge differences between what we consider our “normal” life and how others live in countries that follow an extremely different way of life. I felt very privileged to live in a climate that could literally produce all the fruits I dream of while living in Canada. However, I’ve also had the pleasure of being reminded that, despite living modestly by Canadian standards, my life is far more frivolous than most people I’ve met. Every time I travel I’m grateful to have this opportunity and try to share my gardening knowledge with the people I’m lucky enough to meet.

A key focus of the orchid horticulture non-profit I work for has always been food security and food sovereignty. A radio show I did this week focused on growing food in the winter. Due to our climate we don’t have many alternatives but it showed us once again how important it is to have the skills and knowledge to grow food and thus improve our quality of life. This can also help offset our rising food costs and issues we have with the food supply chain.

Our first paid online course starts on January 14th and is all about growing food indoors in winter. This focus is reflected in many of our presentations on Facebook and Youtube, which we also share regularly. If you are interested, join us to learn more about growing food in one of our outreach sessions.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may you and your loved ones enjoy good health, happiness and copious amounts of the quality food you produce!

Hanbidge is the head gardener at Orchid Horticulture. Find us at www.orchidhort.com; by email to [email protected]; on Facebook @orchidhort and on Instagram at #orchidhort.

Tune in to GROW Live on our Facebook page or visit the GROW Youtube channel.