Hi, my name is Abby, and I’m a self-proclaimed food martyr.

For as long as I can remember, food was front and center in my life. I grew up in New Orleans, a city that Anthony Bourdain described as, “there’s no explaining it, no describing it.” And there really isn’t. Food is at the heart and soul of everything we do there. Showing up to a social event without a dish is unheard of. At every meal, the topic of conversation is none other than what we’ll eat at the next.

My earliest memories in the kitchen were learning how to make scrambled eggs with my Maw Maw (my mom’s mother) as soon as I could reach the stove with the help of a step stool. Cooking food from scratch and using fresh ingredients were always priorities in my family. Heart disease runs in both sides, so we always had to keep an eye on things such as cholesterol, saturated fat content, sodium content, etc. I learned the importance of staying away from processed and packaged ingredients. Most of our meals were a production, as nearly everything had to be made from scratch. My grandfather and my dad kept up a garden in the yard to increase their access to fresh food and to supplement our family’s food budget.

Unsurprisingly, family gatherings always revolved around food. Everyone brought their signature dish, homemade with love, whether it was my aunt’s macaroni and cheese, or my uncle’s oyster dressing, to everything in between. I spent many afternoons after school at my Mimi’s (my dad’s mother), the Food Network on in the background. She’d be in the kitchen whipping up something delicious, whether it was chicken stew or gumbo for dinner, or special shrimp-stuffed mirlitons for a holiday.

Cooking has long been a hobby of mine, but gardening is still relatively new. In 2015, my husband and I moved to New York State, where I worked for a fresh food access nonprofit. One of the cornerstones of their work consists of over 55 community gardens. Anyone with an interest in growing their own food can sign up for one of their 900 plots, so I decided to give it a shot during the 2016 season.

It was then that I realized what a joy and a privilege it is to grow your own food. Growing a garden really is a labor of love. Although it can be an inexpensive hobby, gardening takes time, and the rewards you reap are proportional to the effort you put into the garden. Mother Nature is also often unpredictable and frequently throws challenges our way. These challenges can test even the most experienced gardeners.

That being said, gardening is one of the most rewarding hobbies I’ve ever had. My husband and I are now on our fourth season, and we love it. Each year, we learn new lessons that help us improve and modify our techniques the following season. Our work doesn’t end at the plot. We don’t believe in letting our harvests go to waste, so we learn new ways of preserving our fresh food, whether it’s canning, fermenting, freezing, or drying, allowing us to enjoy our vegetables all year long.

There’s never been a better time to grow your own food! Thank you for joining us here.

What’s your experience with growing your own food? How important is fresh food to you?