A passionate allotment neighbour of mine once told me that her family strived to eat something from the allotment every day, not a whole meal, just 'something', a spoonful of jam, a carrot, a potato, a squirt of ketchup. If this was my objective I'd struggle to motivate myself to garden.

We've realised over the years that there are two things we need to do to make it all worthwhile.

The salad mixes for the week, for Debbie and I

The first is to orient our diet around the wonderful seasonal harvest that we bring in. I used to eat three meals a day, that were dominated by home grown produce: a big morning smoothie, a huge bowl of salad for lunch and a large serving of veg with my evening meal. That was motivating, but I realised that this was probably too much veg and that I needed more diversity in my diet.

Smoothie's are now seasonal for me. I still have the mega salad and the cooked veg meals, but in summer I will have a home grown big berry salad (with cream) for supper and in Winter I will have a smoothie when I'm in a rush. The rest of the year I will buy extra fruit. I now average 9 servings of home grown food a day in summer/autumn and 6 for the rest of the year.

This places home grown food firmly at the heart of my diet, it dominates my fresh food intake.

The weekly harvest table during May

We've also realised that it's important for us to share our gardening passion with our kids. They regularly help out and the grandkids particularly delight in the kitchen garden. They know gardening is important to us, but we like to make it important to them too, so they understand what drives us, share the passion and the rewards.

The harvest table in August

As a result we grow an intentional surplus, so that we can feed the family. Not everything they eat, but we really try to make sure we provide the healthiest and tastiest veg to them, week in, week out, all year round. They can rely on it arriving, so they never have to buy it.

The harvest table in December

Laying out a harvest table every week and packing the boxes for the kids is a real delight and collection time is a family event.

it's this combination of food for our table, food for our families table and the joy of sharing that all combine to make it all worthwhile. We also share a lot of fruit and veg with our allotment neighbours and that has it's own rewards: free eggs, a helping hand, an opportunity to chat and a gift in return when they have a glut are like the icing on the cake of our self-sufficient lives.