Growing up with Vegepod’s Simon Holloway

Born and bred in the far North Coast of New South Wales and having spent his childhood on a farm, Simon Holloway was surrounded by sustainable living and the ‘Do It Yourself’ ethos.

Growing up in the outdoors and with parents who were both teachers, the importance of helping others and helping the environment was instilled in him at an early age and has been carried throughout his life.

In 2013, Simon was drawn to the purpose and brilliance of the Vegepod product and started working with Vegepod and together they built the ‘Grow Your Food’ movement in the Northern Beaches.

Here he tells Manly Observer the benefits of growing your own veggies:

Taste. Just the taste alone of homegrown is worth any effort and outweighs the plethora of other benefits such as cost-saving in my view. So many people have only ever eaten the hydroponically grown tomatoes in supermarkets their whole life – literally! The taste is simply not comparable.

Rewarding. Don’t underestimate this. The sense of achievement and the pure joy you feel when growing any plant is really something to behold. But to add to that with an ‘edible’ is even better again. The extra reward of eating or serving up homegrown veg to our loved ones is truly something special.

Health. Certification bodies do a reasonable job to help us identify and keep on top of organic produce. However, the only way you ever know if something is really ‘organic’ is simply to grow it yourself. Take control!

Awareness and understanding. The education you receive from growing veg, be that conscious or sub-conscious, is immense and of great value. Growing Your Own puts you in touch with the seasons and nature as a whole, it gives you a heightened appreciation for where our food comes from and what goes into making it, it teaches you about the cycles of life and the delicate balance in which we all exist. Vegepods do make growing veg almost fail-proof mind you, but the points still remain.

Save Money – The maths is simple really once you start thinking about the exorbitant costs of the second-class herbs and salads you get in supermarkets. One student at the University of Western Sydney did her major study on the cost-benefit analysis of growing your own in a Vegepod and proved that the cost of the Vegepod plus all the materials were earned back within 12 months!