Owning and using a greenhouse to raise your own food is the best way you can ensure the safety of the foods you eat, reduce your carbon footprint (which means eat local foods that don't have to be trucked in from far away as much as possible), enjoy a sense of well being and accomplishment from growing it yourself, and you can have a lot of fun while you do it.

Our most basic need for life is eating. We have made cooking into an art, gardening into an art, it is now time we made eating into an art form. What do we eat, why do we eat it, do we like it, where does it come from? All these factors should be considered before we insert anything into our mouths. The 'Health Food' movement has come and stayed, with an emphasis on supplements and healthy choices, etc. We need to look again at just what is the best way to stay healthy. In spite of the fact that we live in the age of communication, much is not seen, some is out dated, and some things are ignored. And look at us. We sit indoors all day, eat from vendors, drink sugar & caffeine, and wonder why we are obese. That is a broad sweeping statement that only applies to about one third of the 'developed' world. If, hopefully, you are not content with that status quo, you are already on the track to a better lifestyle, and let it start with EATING healthy.

I think it is appropriate to start out by looking at the fact that our bodies are made to operate on good food. In one of the sequels to Star Wars, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker are stranded on a strange planet with a damaged ship. The only thing they have to eat is their emergency rations, which consist of capsules of nutrition to keep them alive. They swallow a couple of these, but I did wonder, when I read this book, about how well their systems worked on such a meal with no roughage in it. That's sci-fi for you - it always leaves out the logical.

Fortunately, we live on a very logical earth planet with seasons to plant, seasons to grow, seasons to harvest and a season to preserve what will keep us alive. At the same time, we also live in a time when there is a college degree given for food production that has nothing to do with real food, rather it is for how to develop a 'food-like product' that will taste good enough that people will eat it. No matter that it is a combination of artificial flavors, fiber, and conditioners. The artificial flavors, like artificial vanilla, taste very much like the real thing, which can be anything, chicken, mushrooms, crab, beef, vegetables, etc. The fiber can come from many sources. It used to be ground up wood fibers that were added to products like bread. It's very cheap.

Today, they are much more imaginative with the labeling of fiber, applying it to stuff you ordinarily would not eat. And then there are 'conditioners'. This is the stuff that makes artificial chicken feel like chicken (sorta) in the mouth. It usually lends a rubbery, chewy sensation. Frankly, I do not know the makeup of conditioners, but I am already so far past wanting to ingest something like this, it does not matter, the first two are bad enough.

Then there is real food that has been prepared for you - but... Pre-made salads will only last so long without a preservative sprayed on them. If McDonalds makes up a bunch of pre-made salads and loses them all to browning of the edges, they would not be able to stay in business. Occasionally I become desperate for some food and will eat out at dubious places. Last month I ordered a burger that tasted like cardboard. It also had chunks of gristle in it (that must be the fiber). Who knows what goes into preformed burger patties!

Since we have to eat, let us eat well. We are smart enough to make something taste like food when it is not food, we are smart enough to figure out how to preserve food for when its not growing. Are we smart enough to go one step further and grow our own food for as long as possible and eat the right things to maintain our health? By Golly! I think we are. We are able to benefit from the collective creativity of many people who have gone before us that developed the ideas of gardening, greenhousing, and hydroponics. We can benefit from knowledge taught to us by J.I.Rodale, who founded the organic gardening and farming movement. We can check up on the truth of what others have to offer, to say, to teach. We can question everything and make the best choices for well being based on what we learn.

I hope you will continue to explore the benefits of growing your own food and owning a greenhouse to be able to do it year round.