The next obvious step once you're eating healthy plant foods is growing them! I have always loved gardening but never had much luck before. My hectic schedule, the hot and humid Florida weather and all those very hungry bugs seemed to conspire against me at every turn.

That's all changed! What finally pushed me to get productive was all the fresh herbs I needed for my cooking class homework. Buying them at the market was kind of a pain and getting expensive so, very slyly, I gave my son a garden planning guide for Christmas and with some help from my industrious family, I now have four beautiful raised garden beds. It was surprisingly easy (trust me, master carpenters we are NOT) and now I can just pop outside whenever I need a bunch of parsley or a sprig of thyme.

Napa cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, mustard greens and kale are growing happily in their raised beds.