Saturday, September 6, 2008

Gardening comes full circle

Over at Food Democracy, there's an interesting article posted on the Burpee seed company.

Burpee seeds have been around for as long as I can remember. According to the article for over 100 years. I remember when I was a little kid my dad buying seeds produced by Brupee. I even thought that the burpless cucumber was called that because it had something to do with the Burpee company, but that's another story...

Burpee had seen a drop over the years in the popularity of it's seeds, which makes sense as gardening had gone out of favor. But now, with fuel and food prices increasing and taking a bigger bite out of the average family's pocket book, gardening is enjoying a resurgence. Burpee's sales are on the rise and hopefully gardening will continue to gain in popularity.

I also have an idea that, in addition to higher fuel and food prices, greater sensitivity to people's 'carbon footprint' (I've never been fond of that phrase), etc., media has something to do with the interest in gardening as well.

With the popularity of Food Network, and shows on cooking broadcast by other networks, I have to believe that people are becoming more interested in cooking with fresh ingredients. Once you find out how easy it is to raise your own produce, and how much better it usually tastes when you pick it fresh off the plant, or dig it fresh out of the ground, if you like food, you'll be hooked for the rest of your life.

Cooking with fresh foods just tastes different, and often times better. It does require some basic cooking skills and these food shows are very good at teaching those skills to people who, perhaps as children and young adults, didn't have the opportunity or inclination to learn them. One of my favorite shows on Food Network is Alton Brown's Good Eats. He makes the process and art of cooking interesting and explains and illustrates cooking techniques and styles in an easy to remember and understand, at least for me, way. He also highlights and demistifies foods from around the country and the world.

Even Iron Chef America, a show that pits professional chefs against one another in culinary battle, offers fodder for the budding cook. Preparing often easily obtained ingredients and presenting them in interesting and innovative ways that make meats, poultry, seafood, vegitables and grains more interesting than your usual fare made from these ingredients. Most of the dishes I've seen prepared on Iron Chef can be easily prepared by the home cook.

For more information on Alton Brown visit his website - AltonBrown.com