I grew my own food this summer.

In this era of burgeoning economic woe, food security and food safety concerns, the idea of joining the urban agriculture league didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

I may not have mentioned this before, but I spent the first seven years of my life on a farm – or what was supposed to be a farm. In retrospect, I lived in the middle of nowhere while my parents tried to farm. Needless to say, they failed – but it took them seven years to realize that.

As I’ve gotten older, I find that I too, like my parents; sometimes lend myself to grandiose impractical ideas.

Hence, just like my father before me, I decided I was going to grow my own food and live off the earth this summer.

Now remember, I live right smack downtown in a tiny apartment; but I didn’t let that deter me just like lack of basic amenities like electricity and running water didn’t faze my parents.

Being a tad realistic, I decided to start small; back in May I got some planter pots, soil, seeds and a copy of Don’t throw it, Grow it!

I threw some tomatoes, curly parsley and pineapples (those take years to grow) into the pots and lined them up on one side of the balcony. I didn’t’ do much else except water them every so often. Coincidentally, summer was a nice balance of rain and sunshine.

The curly parsley turned an unfamiliar shade of green and I’m doubtful the pineapples will survive the cold months (I should have planted those earlier). It looks like I planted the tomatoes just in time because I harvested the first batch a few weeks ago!

I was so proud of myself – I’d marginally succeeded where my parents couldn’t. I wanted to do something significant with them; like freeze them for eternity, I used them in a pasta dish instead and it was quite tasty.

This winter I want to grow spinach and garlic. (I also want to learn how to sew, but that’s neither here nor there)