Growing your own food could help keep the grocery bills down

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -If you are looking to save a few bucks at the grocery store, you might want to think about growing your own fruits and vegetables in your own backyard.

With spring right around the corner, now would be a good time to start your garden. According to experts, it’s best to grow things in pots or a raised garden bed in our area, because the soil here lacks some essential nutrients for many fruits and vegetables.

We are told that some of the things you could grow in our climate this time of year include, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and the list goes on.

Also, besides the lower grocery bill, there are a few other benefits.

“The taste, the taste is so much different. So if you get something from the store that could have been harvested about a week or so before it was actually ripe by the time it comes from California to Florida. It looks ripe but you are eating it at a pre-ripe state so you are not getting the same taste that you would if you were just growing it yourself,” Sam Mello with the Living Healthy Simplified non-profit said.

Mello runs a local non-profit that takes care of the C.M. Kidd Community Food Forest, thanks to a partnership with Panama City.

The group works together to plan, plant, and harvest fruits and vegetables. Mello asks that if you would like to be a part of the group reach out to them on Facebook. However, Mello said you are not allowed to go to the food forest and plant want you want to. She said the garden is a group effort.

Every Monday they have a community picnic to learn more click here.

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