Healthy Living- Growing Your Own

One of the best ways to eat healthy is to grow your own food.  If you grow it yourself you know what is in it, what it was "treated" with, and how it was preserved/prepared. 
Like I have mentioned several times before, start small.  Till up a small space in your yard and start with a few vegetables that your family likes to eat.  Green beans, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash are easy to grow and will provide you a nice variety all summer long.  Make it bigger the next year and add some more vegetables.  The better you get at taking care of your garden, the more you will learn about growing, preparing, and preserving the things you grow, and the more you will be able to do.  Eventually you could even grow and dry your own herbs.  You may want to consider building/buying some cold frames to extend your growing season.  Of course, you can always put up a greenhouse to really extend the season.  You can buy small stand-alone greenhouses for as little as $50 or you can build something bigger - the possibilities are endless.  Growing your own vegetables allows you to control where your food comes from, what chemicals are used on them, and to enjoy the taste of FRESH vegetables.
If you have the space and the ambition, you can also raise your own meat.  This takes a little more time, money & space, but is well worth it.  Chickens are easy to raise, very affordable, and easy to dress for the freezer.  I have also canned chicken meat for easy use later.  Most other meat will need to be processed by a meat locker, but don't let that deter you!  You can raise a pig and/or a lamb in a small area - you can even raise them together and they will do great.  All you need is grass and a little grain.  Pigs & lambs only take the summer to be ready to butcher so you won't have to worry about shelter for the winter.  A beef is probably the most intensive and costly to raise, but still beats the price and taste at the local grocery store.  It takes about 18 months to raise a beef from a calf to butchering size.   You will need a grass and/or hay and grain.  If you are raising it on grass/hay only, it will take longer, but will be worth the wait.  You will need to consider how you are going to water and shelter a beef calf through the winter.  One other great way to obtain meat for your freezer is by hunting.  You can get deer, turkey, dove, duck, goose, etc from someone who hunts (or shoot it yourself).  These meats are easy to freeze and are affordable to obtain.
The one other thing I would highly suggest growing your own (again if you have space & time) is milk.  You could also look into getting these products from a local raw dairy (if available in your state).  There is a lot of controversy over the quality and safety of raw milk, but I am definitely a proponent FOR raw milk.  I have done lots of research and have personally experienced the difference.  Raw milk is packed full of great minerals & vitamins.  Store milk is filled with hormones and many of its vitamins have been killed during the pasteurization process.  Milking your own cow or goat will provide you with milk, cream, butter, buttermilk, cheeses, whey, and more!  You will have "leftovers" to feed your pig, calves, sheep, and chickens! 
While growing all of your own food may not be feasible for you, you can start small.  You can grow a tomato plant in a pot on your apartment balcony or under a grow light.  You can use a small area in your yard to put in a cucumber plant and make your own pickles!  You can build a cold frame and grow your own lettuce.  I enjoy growing much of my family's food and am thankful for the health benefits it provides.  Not to mention the fabulous taste of fresh food I grew myself!