Once we moved to US, along with the health insurance hokums, another arduous challenge that gradually dawned onto me was to find natural food not necessarily extremely healthy food. It was tougher than I thought; it’s  ineffable to put those thoughts, especially, in the initial first year. 

I had discussions at length with a good friend of mine, who still thinks super foods is the only solution to cater to this growing population. This more so when we consider that the actual amount of agricultural land is decreasing and the consuming population is ever increasing. And, according to him, that’s how the future existence will be. Whilst I am preparing myself to not get distressed seeing posterity taking a pill of super foods for their meals, my husband dug a small portion of the limestone-rich backyard to make a fertile vegetable bed for us. The main aim is to grow organic vegetables and fruits. Land is abundant in Texas and so is the sun; a perfect recipe for cultivation!

And thus started our foray into backyard ‘organic cultivation’.

With the initial frost in the late spring that affected the corn, choosing wrong varieties of seeds for the squash has costed us this year just hard work and low-yield. But, this journey makes us, especially the kids, realise the value of food. a farmer’s true difficulties, and to invest time to not go for foppish but inculcate love for natural food. 

Lush green fields that please your eyes hiding, well-camouflaged, yet unwelcome guests: pests!

• Mealy bugs
• Garden snail
• Carolina sphinx
• Tiger crane fly

The word organic that I took for granted while I was growing up in India, and used fashionably in UK has made me very finicky about natural, organic food. Added to these, adulterated food is now coagulated into our systems beyond our measure or control. As they say, organic cultivation is the future of our agriculture. Perhaps, it is high time we should seriously consider thinking about the source of food we eat. Growing it yourself could be one way of knowing what we eat.