Food prices are on the rise. In 2007, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of food rose 4 percent, the
highest single-year increase in two decades, and it looks like food
costs will go up another 4 percent in 2008. The prices for corn
and soybeans are skyrocketing because of the increasing demand of crops
for fuels such as ethanol. In addition, with higher
transportation costs, it is costing more each day to ship food across
the country and around the world.

Increasing food costs are affecting local food producers as
well. Prices for basic ingredients such as wheat and sugar used
in breads and baked goods are spiraling upwards. Farmers are
being hit with increasing costs of grain to feed their animals and
higher fuel costs to run their equipment. It is likely that we
will see higher prices at the Farmers’ Markets when they open in May
for the summer season.

There is one thing that we ALL can do to hedge against these rising food costs: we can all grow some of our own food.

Aaron Locker, an insightful commercial vegetable farmer and
recent Vermont transplant explained to me the practical economics of
commercial vs. home vegetable and fruit production. Commercial
farmers need a lot of land because they have to grow a lot of food to
have a financially viable farm; they need expensive equipment in order
to efficiently plant, harvest, and wash their produce; they need an
infrastructure for selling their products; they have to deal with
perishable products that are only good for the compost heap if they
don’t get sold.

By contrast, home gardeners need only a small piece of land to
grow a good portion of their own food. The pragmatic and
self-proclaimed “Contrary Farmer,” Gene Logsdon, claims that a family
of four can produce three-fourths of its annual supply of fruits and
vegetables on one-fifth of an acre of land. In addition, because
of the small scale of a home garden, tilling, weeding and harvesting
can be done by hand without the need for expensive gas-guzzling
equipment.

It just makes practical and economical sense that if Vermont is
going to be able to truly feed itself, we all need to grow at least
some of our own food. A great place to start is to grow a
vegetable that you eat a lot of and that is relatively expensive to
buy. For most people, this would be tomatoes. If you are
not excited about the idea of digging an in-ground garden, well-known
Vermont gardener Ed Smith wrote an entire book on how to grow
vegetables of all types in self-watering containers right on your front
porch. Ed claims that he can grow more tomatoes at his Cabot,
Vermont, homestead in pots than are produced from the same variety of
plants in the ground.

After tomatoes, if you are up for growing a little more of your
own food, consider adding salad greens to your home garden.
Gourmet mesclun mixes are expensive to buy, but are easy to grow either
in pots or in a small raised bed. Do succession seedings every
three weeks or so and you will have the freshest greens you have ever
tasted all summer long.

After the first successful year of growing tomatoes and salad
greens the next logical step toward growing your own food is root
vegetables. Carrots, beets and potatoes all grow really well in
Vermont and take little attention once they are planted. These
vegetables also all store well in make-shift root cellars, so not only
will you be feeding yourself in the summer, but you will be able to eat
your own home-grown food in the winter as well.

I am not suggesting that we all grow all of our own food and
leave the farmers high and dry. Instead, if more Vermonters
started thinking about supplementing what they buy from local farmers
with a few selected home-grown items, it could significantly reduce the
weekly grocery bill and make citizens of the Green Mountain State less
dependant on food producers outside of the state.

Robin McDermott is a co-founder of the Mad River Valley Localvore Project. She and her
husband, Ray, operate their business, QualityTrainingPortal, from their
home in Waitsfield, where they also grow much of their own food.