The Path Home: Consider meeting needs by growing your own food

Aren’t human beings silly? We also tend to be the same way about wills. I talked to my friends who work with wills and estates and they talked about how their business greatly increased due to events like COVID and 9/11. It made people especially aware of the end of life and probably as they helped someone close to them with their estate, it made them think about getting their own estate in order.

With the price of food hitting us between the eyes this last year and inflation surging, I have seen a new-found interest in growing our own food. It is not just for health interest alone, I assure you.

In this past week I have given a tour to two missionaries who are interested in telling their friends what we do at The Path and our growing techniques, which I believe can be used anywhere in the world and it is how my family farmed 100 years ago and is sustainable. I also gave a tour to a gentleman from a church in Dunnellon who has 30 acres and they love the idea of teaching younger people how to grow their own food, as well as help other people in the community with food or start a community farm.

Last, I just got an email from a Rescue Mission in Pennsylvania that is rebuilding its entire mission and they will have 100 acres to farm and will be sending a team to learn about what we do and how we do it.

I do believe many in America would do much better if more of us grew our own food, even if it was a small garden. (Remember victory gardens?) Our store on State Road 44 has started to sell our compost (best in the world!) It is very hard to grow here without supplementing your soil. We have also started to sell our seedlings and I hope much more to come.

DuWayne Sipper is the executive director of The Path of Citrus County, a faith-based homeless shelter. Contact him at 527-6500 or sipperd@pathofcitrus.org.