India: Growing your own food in lockdown
“Kitchen gardening is not just therapeutic, but it makes you conscious about the labour that goes into producing your food and respecting those who cultivate yours,” said Aditi.
By Niyati Parikh
Times of India
Dec 7, 2020
Excerpt:
For instance, Nishi Dave, an entrepreneur, who lives in an apartment began kitchen-gardening more passionately since the lockdown. “I had read a lot about microgreens and their nutritional value and always wanted to try them. During the lockdown I experimented with certain vegetables and yielded a good harvest. For instance, radish isn’t available before winters but I was thrilled to be able to cultivate through micro-greens at home,” said Dave, who grows parsley, coriander, lemon grass, spinach and chillies in pots of various sizes in her apartment balcony.
At a time when urban farming is a fast-catching trend, many feel there is a growing need for community- and kitchen-gardens. Those with a vision took lockdown as an opportunity to pursue it. A case in point is of Ahmedabad-based architect and interior designer, Saloni Gajjar, who has been kitchen gardening for a long time; microgreens caught her last year, so much so that she also took up a course in Permaculture design which focusses on sustainable agriculture methods.
“I wanted to pursue this at a scale, collaborating with farmers but thanks to the lockdown, the project got halted. That is when I decided to experiment based on my learnings in my own kitchen garden,” said Saloni, who cultivated cherry tomatoes, spinach, okra, fenugreek, among others at home.
“I tried growing what is used and consumed in the house and began relying on in-house harvest as much as possible. I didn’t necessarily need to go buy seeds from outside and rather I could utilize the vegetables I have at home to separate the seeds, sow and let them germinate,” said she further added.
