Homegrown Heroes

Want to get excited? Well there’s nothing quite like seeing your first tomato growing on the vine, digging up your first beetroot, or harvesting your first broccoli.

I’d also like to report my first fig appeared on the tree in our garden this week – take a look! It’s these little moments that make you so much more appreciative of the love and dedication our homegrown heroes, otherwise known as farmers, put into ensuring we have an abundance of salad ingredients at our finger tips.

When you experience the work involved in trying to make your own home somewhat self sufficient, then you can start to understand the commitment producers make to ensure we stay fed.

I battled pests for years to protect my lettuce and spinach from their greedy mouths, but failed miserably. It’s now more than ever consumers want to know how their fresh produce is grown and where it comes from. People want to know how food literally gets from the “paddock to the plate”. And it’s more important than ever that we support our country’s producers to ensure they remain viable, prolific and productive in supplying the nation with fresh food.

An abundance of knowledge and know-how on the way to cultivate our land has been passed down from generation to generation. These skills are irreplaceable and could be lost forever if we ignore where our food comes from and undervalue the effort and expertise that goes into producing it. Support our local farmers by eating locally grown food and let your love affair with fresh produce begin. What achievement have you experienced in the garden of late? Did you harvest your first crop of carrots or pick your first cauliflower?

There’s never been a better time to tell the world than now!

Enjoy your salads! Louise.

Join Louise on a journey through the seasons with salad ingredients, old traditions and popular, exotic or unusual vegetables. From Paddock to Plate founder, author, food writer, radio journalist & yoga teacher.