SWIHA Blog

Urban Farming encompasses a vast array of interests: growing produce for personal consumption, involvement in a community garden or even with the intention of selling product at a local farmer's market. You may have a modest dream of a salsa garden on your patio, or loftier aspirations of creating a homestead with multiple plots. Whatever your ‘green goals’ may be, Urban Farming connects you back to the basics and gives you an enhanced appreciation of the magic of nature and how food is grown.

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Humans have been consciously farming the earth for around 12,000 years. That may seem like a very long period of time, but if all our planets history took place in the course of a single day, we started our agriculture practices at 11:59:59 PM! In that 'one second', we have created a surplus of food and--unfortunately--contributed to a major imbalance of chemicals in our air, water and soil.

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Eat Local. Shop at a Farmers’ Market. Buy a CSA. Enjoy a Simple Roasted Roots Recipe

In Arizona where the Southwest Institute of Healing Art (SWIHA) campus is located and where I live, many of the local farmers’ markets will be re-opening for the season after our “dry heat, hot summer”. Fortunately, we do have a few farmers whose produce is available during the summer, so I’ve been having fun shopping from a few farmers for our Whole Foods Cooking Classes at SWIHA this summer.

4 Great Reasons to Eat Local

• Locally grown produce is fresher, tastes better and lasts longer.. Most produce in conventional grocer stores is picked well before it's ready to be picked. Some of the methods used to ripen the food in warehouses and in trucks include methane gas. Food that is allowed to ripen on the vine absorbs many of the flavors and nutrients they are intended to. Local produce shortens the path traditionally traveled from farm to table and the result is better tasting more nutrient dense food.

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