eat: how the homegrown food revolution can help you to thrive with jojo hartley
You finish work, run to the supermarket and grab dinner for the evening. Wrapped in plastic, filled with convenience and without much thought about how it’s been grown or where in the world it has come from. We are a disposable generation. Ordering things online that arrive at our door the following day or in to our inbox instantly. Simple daily habits that so many of us follow yet our planet is suffering because of it. Rewind to when our Grandparents were growing up. They only used what they needed and most of the food that they ate came from local farms or was grown in their back garden. They ate in season and in balance.
Having met talented make up artist and nutrition queen JoJo Hartley on a photo shoot last year, I started to follow her adventures on Instagram. Watching her children helping to grow fruit and vegetables in the garden and then taking them in to the kitchen and creating culinary masterpieces. Having always been passionate about cooking, her kitchen is her haven. A creative space where she spends hours playing with ingredients and experimenting with flavours and sharing the enjoyment of food with the people she loves. Spending time in the kitchen with her Mum from a young age, she watched on as everything was made from scratch. Taking those memories, she has passed on the same experiences to her own family. Putting together colourful and nutritionally rich recipes and experimenting with the ever changing produce that is grown in her own back yard.
Been living for your Instagram recipes over the last few months. Tell us about your journey in to nutrition…
I’ve always loved to cook, as a child I remember helping my mum chop the veg for dinner and make the Yorkshire puds to go with our Sunday roast. I would happily spend hours looking through my mums recipe books and planning what I wanted to try making next.
Now i’m older I see the kitchen as my creative space, where I can play with ingredients and create some delicious feasts for my family and friends. Theres no better feeling than sitting round the table and sharing the enjoyment of food with my favourite people.
My interest in nutrition came more recently. I have two young children who I want to see thrive and be at their healthiest. I began to realise alot of us are blissfully unaware we may be unknowingly harming our children’s health by feeding them the wrong kinds of food. I’ve learnt the answer to a good diet is easy, if it's from the ground it’s good. Eating food in its entirety is the best and highly proceed foods stripped from its natural form is the worst.
You have been spending a lot of time in the garden growing your own fruit and veg, how did you start and why?
Me and my family moved into an old farm house which had a space that once was a vegetable garden, my Husband and I both wanted to bring it to life again. Without a clue on how to grow a thing we threw a few seeds down and decided we’d learn as we grew. It’s a great space for my family to be outside and learn all about nature and the process of how food gets to be on our plate. If we time our seed sowing just right, we can have delicious organic nutrient rich food all year round which saves us a small fortune on our supermarket shops.
For anyone who is looking to create their own vegetable patch, what do you need and how do start?
Anyone can start growing food. You don’t even need garden space to grow veg, you can do it from a pot on your patio, straight from the compost bag or even on your kitchen windowsill. If you’re wanting to give it a go, buy a pot, fill it with compost and start growing salad leaves. It’s so easy, you pick as you need them and they keep coming back, the benefits of eating home grown organic greens are simply amazing. You’ll be saving money and helping our planet by reducing plastic waste and the carbon foot print of your plate.
What are the benefits?
There are so many benefits of growing your own fruit and veg, too many to list. The biggest ones for me:
The abundant supply of vitamins and minerals that organically homegrown food come with. For example, it is said that the vitamin C content in a non organic tomato could have as little as a fifth of the amount an organically grown tomato has.
The taste, if you’ve never tasted homegrown corn on the cob you are missing out my friend.
The satisfaction! You reach a whole new level of appreciation for your food, it’s incredible to watch the seeds you planted develop to what you put on your plate.
On top of all of this, gardening and getting your hands dirty is great for our mental health. There is a bacteria in soil called Vaci that when comes in contact with our skin, signals the brain to release endorphins which is the hormone that makes us feel happy - how incredible!
Is there anything you wish someone had told you at the start that may have helped you?
I just wish I was inspired to start earlier!
For anyone that may be finding this time difficult, how do you believe that what you eat can help to support your wellbeing?
Everything you put into your body will effect you entirely, the reason we eat is to ultimately nourish our body and the quality of the food will have us feeling either incredible or lousy. The best tip I can give if you want to improve how you eat is just to add in the good stuff, get in as much good stuff as possible. This is fruit, veg, beans, nuts, lentils, wholegrain rice and anything that has grown from the ground in its entire form. You’ll find you’ll be filling up more and more of the food that is good for you that there won’t be as much room for the bad stuff.
There is a lot to be said about the connection to baking and mindfulness. When I’m in the kitchen, chopping, baking, creating, my concentration is on what I’m doing in ‘that’ moment - it has a very calming effect on me. I would encourage anyone who’s having a bad day or is overwhelmed by the current situation or life in general, to get out the mixing bowl and get creating.
What is a stand out recipe you have created recently?
I love seasonal cooking and making the most of what nature has to offer us at that time of year. Im really into my soups right now and if I had to pick a fave it would be my butternut squash and apple recipe. For a sweet treat, a super easy cherry clafoutis is always a winner. Both recipes can be found on my instagram @jojo_hartley_
connect with jojo and find out more…
visit her website: https://www.jojohartley.co.uk
follow her on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jojo_hartley_
