For me, to grow your own vegetables is one of those great childhood memories.
Getting your hands dirty and your knees covered in soil, but man oh man does that garden look snazzy! It’s time to return the favour and get our kids to grown their own herbs and vegetables.
Starting a vegetable garden in the tropics does know a few more challenges than the ‘ordinary’ veggie patch in Europe. Where in Europe you’d be fighting off snails, here in the tropics we deal with a rather larger greener long lost cousin of the snail: the iguana (and his many other long lost cousins).
Besides the fauna challenges there are a few more: water, sun, shade, wind, soil, plants, and birds, just to name a few.
So all these challenges are enough reasons for mom & dad not to venture into too many gardening projects at home as, believe it or not, mom & dad also have their own challenges to face on a daily basis.
Thank heavens for farmers and their land, and of course their willingness to share their land with happy gardeners like myself. Hofi Cas Cora is more than happy to welcome us on their land and start our very own Grow Your Own vegetable garden project. How cool is that?
During this project we want the kids to build their own vegetable patch, by up cycling old materials. The kids get to decorate their garden, place the soil and plant the seeds or seedlings for the garden and create that ultra-cool defence mechanism to ward off the lizards and their long lost cousins.
After a few hours of hard labour and dirty paws, it’s time for a hearty bite and a cool drink made with mostly local ingredients grown on the farms of the island.
While the Grow your Own gardeners are attending to their other priorities such as school and sports, the farmer will keep an eye out on the growing of the plants and the kids can follow their progression through my Facebook page.
Every month (or 2 weeks, depending on the growing power of the plants) we will get together and care for our garden, learn some more about the crops grown on the fields and as always cook up a yummy bite to eat, always exploring the local goodness.
Got your green fingers itching for more? Be sure to register for the start up of the project! As many have done so before you, we’re fully booked for the Wednesday, so we’ve planned another workshop for Thursday 31st March at Hofi Cas Cora from 9 – 12:00.