Home Farming: Plant a Seed ---Grow a Movement

Growing up in rural Northeastern Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to reap the fruits (and vegetables) of hard labor --- planting a summer garden with my Poppy Gregory. Just the other day I was reminiscing with my mom, how much I loved picking rocks (sense the sarcasm) at the beginning of the planting season. Actually, this was the only part of the gardening process that I dreaded --- an acre of rocks...they just kept "growing" as I used to say...my poppy would laugh and tell my sister and I to "keep picking"! Once we were done picking rocks, it was time to plant seeds. After some weeks of patiently waiting, my sister and I along with my poppy would pick our fruits and veggies.

One wax bean would go in the bushel bucket and two would get eaten. We would only ever get scolded if we were caught.There were so many fond memories made on that acre of land. Oh, how I miss those days. Now that I am out on my own, and am finally not living in a complex, I started dabbling in gardening --- not fruits and vegetables, but flowers. They have grown beautifully, thanks to the green thumb and wisdom of flower gardening that I learned from my other grandfather, Pappy Faux.

Since my window boxes have been planted, they continue to grow and are vibrantly colored. I hope that one day when I have a vegetable garden of my own, my green thumb for flowers will transfer over to my vegetable and herb plants. Which brings me to the whole purpose of this blog. While grocery shopping today, I picked up a box of Triscuits and the box was not the typical yellow box with blue writing and a picture of the weaved wheat snack --- the box looked like this...

I was very intrigued with the saying on the front "PLANT a SEED GROW a MOVEMENT" and this logo...






I flipped the box over to the back and there was this seed card. You can only see part of it, as the whole card is glued inside the box. In my box of Triscuits is a Dill seed card. The box briefly explains the Home Farming Movement and mentions Urban Farming, a non-profit organization, but I needed to know more information. As soon as I got home from the grocery store, I logged on to the world wide web and googled "Triscuit - plant a seed" and found this website: http://www.homefarming.com/. It is full of information. This site provides users with a variety of tools, resources, recipes, and networking. The Home Farming Movement encourages individuals whether they live in an apartment with a balcony or have a back yard with raised beds to grow their own vegetables and herbs.

The start your own farm feature on this website is incredible --- it takes you step by step: 1) your location 2)the size of your garden and whether it will be inside or out  and 3) a home farm recommendation which includes plants that would work best in the areas you've selected. The website is easily manipulated and a great tool for all those wanting to plant a garden no matter the space you have!

To get consumers involved in the movement, Triscuit has included cards in over eight million packages and of course has created the home farming resources that can be found online. I can not wait to plant the dill seed card. Hopefully, as the Triscuit box says, "in no time, [I] will discover the joy of planting, growing, harvesting, and sharing fresh food from [my] very own home farm".