LatinaLista — Latinos have been identified as the largest group, ethnic or otherwise, who suffer from the highest rates of obesity. Part of that problem is due to eating too many unhealthy foods.
Ideally, we should all be eating more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, fruits and vegetables aren’t as affordable as a bag of chips or sugar donuts, and they just aren’t that satisfying as those “other” foods are.
But what if a family grew their own vegetables and fruits? The satisfaction element would be raised ten-fold because the food was home-grown. Yet, too many of la raza don’t know how to create their own home gardens or which foods grow the best for the climate they live in.
It would be ideal if every family had their own personal farmer who could advise them on how to plant, what to plant and when to plant it. Well, there aren’t enough farmers to go around but there is a handy web site with a goal of helping every family create their own home garden, whether they live in an apartment with only a balcony or window ledge or a house with a yard.
It’s called SproutRobot. How it works is you enter your zip code, choose the vegetables and fruits you want to plant and the site creates a personalized planting calendar for you letting you know which foods grow best in your climate.
But that’s not all. For a yearly fee, depending on what size garden you have, the site sends you a reminder of when it’s time to plant PLUS the seeds!
The creators of the site have ambitious plans to make the service available outside the United States, as well as, translate the site into several languages with Spanish being the first language. Yet, they have run out of money and so are looking for donations to help them “grow” the site with a fund set up at Kickstarter.
Everyone can grow a vegetable garden. It’s great for the environment, it saves you money, eating fresh fruits and veggies out of the garden is terrifically healthy. Plus, gardening is fun and cuts stress. — SproutRobot Team
