Musings

Common Sense Reasons to Grow Your Own Food

Welcome to Common Sense Seeds! We are so happy you are here. Thank you for stopping by. We are excited to tell you about our seeds and share a few stories and gardening ideas with you. If you have stopped by we are thinking you love growing things, nurturing seeds, planning your garden and finding joy in your harvest. Us too. Or maybe you are new to gardening. It has certainly been exciting to see more and more people taking up gardening. Every year gardening is a new experience so it’s never too late to learn how to grow a few plants and veggies. And having the ability to grow your own nutrient-rich food, to become producers, rather than consumers, is just good plain common sense (the thinking behind our name). No matter how easy it is to go to the supermarket, it makes sense to grow some of your own veggies. And even if you don’t grow all of your own calories (food security) you can make a big contribution to your nutrition security by gardening (e.g. growing the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients you need).

In this musing we want to focus on three nutrient-rich plants that you can easily grow in your garden—and the corroborating nutritional research (we like to have our ducks in line). See what you think and check out our seed descriptions for more plant nutrient details.

Lettuce

The humble lettuce is actually a nutritional powerhouse. Flying under the radar of public perception, nutritional data from an increasing number of studies suggests that lettuce can provide a significant amount of healthy nutrients. These studies (see papers below) confirm that lettuce has Antioxidant, Antibacterial and even Antiviral effects. A recent study confirmed that eating just one cup of green leafy veg a day can lower your risk of heart disease (Bondonno et al 2021). Why is lettuce so good for us? Likely because lettuce is a surprisingly good source of flavonoids, in particular Quercetin (see paper #1), and vitamins, such as Vitamin A, Vitamin K (helps reduce bone loss) and Folate (see papers #2 and #3). Quercetin is a ‘strong antioxidant agent’ known for its protective effects and health benefits–including its renowned Antiviral effects. The contributions of lettuce to our micronutrient levels and our health “are of public interest” write Yang and colleagues (see paper #3). We couldn’t agree more: knowledge is empowering. The more you know how good lettuce is for you, we hope it will inspire you to eat more lettuce. And when you have a row of lettuce in your backyard, or a few pots on your balcony, that makes it all the easier.

Our go-to resources on this topic are:

Paper #1: di Petrillo et al (2023). Quercetin and its derivatives as antiviral potentials: a comprehensive review. Phytotherapy Review: 36: 266-278.

Paper #2: Shi et al (2022). Phytochemicals, nutrition, metabolism, bioavailability and health benefits in lettuce—a comprehensive review. Antioxidants. 11(6)

Paper #3: Yang et al (2021). Bioactive compounds in lettuce: Highlighting the benefits to human health and impacts of preharvest and postharvest practices. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. 21: 4-45.

Tomatoes

We really, really like tomatoes. We enjoy growing them, learning about their seed histories, eating them fresh out of the garden and cooking with them. We also like that they offer so many health benefits. Here is how Chandhary and colleagues (2018) start off their important research paper on tomatoes, titled ‘Bioactivities of phytochemicals present in tomato‘:

“Tomato is a wonder fruit fortified with health promoting phytochemicals that are beneficial in preventing important chronic degenerative disorders.”

A growing body of research (see papers #1 and #2) suggests that tomatoes:

Have cardioprotective effects
Are protective against neurodegenerative diseases
Are protective against diabetes
Have anticancer properties
Boost the immune system

These supportive and protective features are the result of tomatoes being a good source of antioxidants such as lycopene and some flavonoids (e.g. Quercetin), as well as being a rich source of nutrients such as Vitamin C, beta-carotene (Vitamin A), folate and potassium. Let’s just focus on lycopene, a major carotenoid responsible for the red colour in tomatoes and antioxidant activities. Lycopene is associated with several health benefits, such as reducing the risk of heart disease. In a review of the health impacts of tomatoes, Collins and colleagues (2022) write:

A tomato-rich diet has been linked to a reduction in the risk of heart disease. Song et al reviewed 14 eligible studies and found a significant inverse association between lycopene intake and coronary heart disease. Another meta-analysis reviewed 25 studies and reported that high lycopene consumption and lycopene serum concentrate reduced overall mortality by 37%, cardiovascular disease by 14% and stroke by 23%.

This is what nutrition security looks like: a home-grown tomato! For all of these reasons, we grow a lot of different kinds of tomatoes, such as:

New, blue anthocyanin-rich tomatoes
High-lycopene tomatoes from the old-school Canadian breeding programs of the 1950s-1980s
Landrace, heirloom and wild tomatoes from the ‘global center of tomato diversity’ (Mesoamerica and the Andes)
Longkeepers (‘tomatoes at Christmas’) that extend the growing season, to name just a few

It has been exciting to track down these hard-to-find tomatoes and make them more accessible to home gardeners.

Our go-to resources on this topic are:

Paper #1: Collins et al (2022). Tomatoes: an extensive review of the associated health impacts of tomatoes and factors that can affect their cultivation. Biology. 11 (239)

Paper #2: Chaundhary et al (2018). Bioactivities of phytochemicals present in tomatoes. Journal of Food Science and Technology. 55(8): 2833-2849.

Flowers

Your patio flowers are nature’s secret nutritional storehouse. It was a joy to discover scientific papers on edible flowers. This research bridges the gap between ‘hard’ science and ‘soft’ gardening. Indeed, more and more scientific research (see papers below) are finding that edible ornamental flowers are good for your health. Why would that be? Well, flowers are rich in phytonutrients, such as Anthocyanins, a powerful flavonoid and antioxidant that is very good for us. Anthocyanins are the blue, red, or purple pigments found in plants, especially flowers, fruits, and tubers. The word, Anthocyanin, is from the Greek words: anthos = flower and kyáneos = blue.

In a review about the health benefits of Anthocyanins published in the Journal of Food and Nutrition Research (2017), researchers found that Anthocyanins:

Have anti-inflammatory benefits
Are protective against diabetes
Are protective against cancer
Are protective against heart disease
Have antimicrobial properties
Have antibacterial properties

When we consume flowers, we benefit from the supportive and protective features of the Anthocyanins. But for most of us, edible flowers are an unfamiliar food group; so how do we go about eating flowers? A few ideas (from the scientists! see the papers below):

Edible flowers can be eaten straight from the plant or sprinkled on salad (think violas/pansies and lemon gem marigolds)
They can be infused in tea (chamomile)
One of our all-time favourite scientific papers, titled Non‑Traditional Muesli Mixtures Supplemented by Edible Flowers (see paper #2 cited below), has some unique ideas about creating non-traditional muesli mixes with dried edible flowers. In this paper, the authors write: “These results indicate that non-traditional muesli with edible flowers containing a high amount of nutrients and bioactive substances have the potential to enhance a nutritionally balanced diet.” In other words, edible flowers can make an important contribution to our diet and health.

A little goes a long way. Think of edible flowers as concentrated packets of phytonutrients. And 1-2 flower heads/per use is plenty.

That’s how easy nutrition security can be – as easy as picking flowers from your garden. How perfect is that.

Our go-to resources on this topic are:

Paper #1: Lysiak, G.P. (2022). Ornamental Flowers Grown in Human Surroundings as a Source of Anthocyanins with High Anti-Inflammatory Properties. Foods. 11(7)

Paper #2: Mrázková et al (2021). Non‑Traditional Muesli Mixtures Supplemented by Edible Flowers: Analysis of Nutritional Composition, Phenolic acids, Flavonoids and Anthocyanins. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition (2021) 76:371–376