Want to spice and freshen up those student meals and help save the planet at the same time? Self-sufficient home farming is the way to go.
If you’re a student who’s moved away from home into a res, diggs, or other type of student accommodation, chances are that you are left to your own devices when it comes to cooking. Many of us think we’ve got it covered – how difficult can it be to make a tasty bolognaise sauce, potato salad, or roasted veggies?
Not too difficult, really. But making a meal, and making a delicious meal are two separate things. Due to the common lack of student cooking skills, you are likely to become a victim of bland and flavourless meals. So, it’s time to put an end to cardboard porridge and chicken strips with a personality as dull as Master Detective Droopy.
The secret to turning a simple, boring meal into a king’s feast is to add the right amount of herbs and spices. The beautiful difference some salt and pepper grains, garlic seasoning, basil or chives can make in your life is never, ever to be under appreciated.
But that’s not the only beautiful difference. If you are someone who is passionate about saving the planet, being environmentally friendly, and being in control of what goes into your body, listen up.
While you learn how to cook scrumptious meals by adding herbs and spices to your life, you can also learn how to grow these tasty plants in your own home and embrace a more self-sufficient lifestyle in the way you approach food.
Self-Sufficient Farming for Fresh Nourishment
Self-sufficiency is all about being able to sustain yourself – by yourself. Basically, you are not dependent on anyone else.
When it comes to the way we nourish ourselves, most of us produce pretty much none of what goes into our bodies. We don’t grow, produce, or harvest anything really, apart from the penicillin on the loaf of bread we forget in the back of the cupboard.
When you approach your own food consumption with self-sustenance, you might consider making your own little veggie garden, planting some fruit trees, or keep chickens in the yard that lay daily fresh eggs.
Most student accommodations are of course confined to a room or flat, so a veggie garden isn’t very likely to happen. That is why you can start with growing your own herbs!
With Grain Power Comes Grain Responsibility
You might ask yourself why you should do this at all. Fair enough. It would be a lot easier to just pop into the grocery store and buy a selection of herbs and spices. So why make the effort to be more self-sufficient?
Here are some important reasons why:
- You spare the planet from disposing of your empty glass and plastic containers (this includes the containers for refills).
- You are adding fresher than fresh ingredients to your meal
- You are harvesting your own natural healing army – for example, take mint leaves. You can use them to make a fresh tea that isn’t just tasty, but also helps calm an upset stomach.
- You save money over the long run
- You can decorate your room or flat with beautiful pots and add some green to the place – especially if you are stuck with no view (yebo, that’s a personal oxygen factory right there for your study sessions)
Howdy, Home Farmer!
In order for this dandy way of self-sufficient living and farming to grow into your heart (and in your pots), it’s a good idea to learn a bit about it. It’s extremely useful to know how to maintain your new, delicious kitchen buddies.
Intec College offers a super cool Short Course Certificate on Farming for Smallholders, which is an Agricultural course within the college’s Creative School.
The distance learning course will teach you everything you need to know about soil, watering, using compost, as well as explore other self-sufficient ways of nourishment, like bee-keeping. You’ll even learn the illusive art of keeping an orchid alive.
You have more than a year to complete the course, and once you’ve completed it, Intec will award you with a Certificate (NQF Level 4).
Try it out. If you are passionate about self-sustained living, healthy nutrition, and want to gain a cool extra skill, this is an amazing way to get the best of all worlds. Start growing them greens!
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If you’d like to get some more ideas on how to make your student recipes more interesting, have a look at this article. These meals are tasty, easy, and budget-friendly! You can say goodbye to the daily peanut butter and jam (although that does rock too).
