To grow a tomato or a pepper and prepare a meal from your labor and care is primordially satisfying.
The British have such an odd relationship with food - and the land. I want the public and the Soil Association to see that growing things in a garden is no different to growing things in a field.
Some kids have never seen what a real tomato looks like off the vine. They don't know where a cucumber comes from. And that really affects the way they view food. So a garden helps them really get their hands dirty, literally, and understand the whole process of where their food comes from. And I wanted them to see just how challenging and rewarding it is to grow your own food, so that they would better understand what our farmers are doing every single day across this country and have an appreciation for ... that American tradition of growing our own food and feeding ourselves.
If you grow the food you eat, it tastes better. Seasonal vegetables are grown at the right time, and you can make sure everything matures on the plant or on the tree. It's as fresh as you can get.
In Berkeley, we built the garden and a kitchen classroom. We've been working on it for 12 years. We've learned a lot from it. If kids grow it and cook it, they eat it.
First, kids should be involved in the production of their own food. They have to get their hands in the dirt, they have to grow things. They also have to become sensually stimulated, and the way to begin is with a bakery.
I think there is some real therapy in getting your hands in the dirt and working with food.
If kids grow kale, kids eat kale. If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. But when none of this is presented to them, if they're not shown how food affects the mind and the body, they blindly eat whatever you put in front of them.
That's a big goal of mine, to try and grow as much of my own food as possible.
It's really important to teach people how to get food, how to grow it, how to pick it, how to prepare it and what's safe to eat.
Growing things and being able to live off the land has always appealed to me.
It's become more readily apparent that we need to be growing our own food and growing more things organically.
Salad, I can't bear salad. It grows while you're eating it, you know.
If people grow things themselves, their children understand, then schools in the area know that this community's generating something with its own energy, to consume.
I find it so exciting to grow your own food.
We've gotten so far away from our food source. It's been hijacked from us. But if you get soil, plant something in it and water it, you can feed yourself. It's that simple.
I have a garden in my backyard that's completely organic, which I'm very proud of.
