A few weeks ago I had dinner with good friends. It was the end of summer and the evening was warm and we ate outside, in the garden.

To the sound of birds getting ready for bed, evening scents of jasmine and lavender hanging in the air, we dined on lentil salad with tomatoes they had grown themselves, grilled fish with lemon and wonderfully-perfumed basil from their herb garden, stuffed zucchini flowers from the plants which sprawled half-way across the veggie patch and finished up with figs and apricots, plucked fresh from the tree that afternoon.

It was a feast!

We had a delightful evening, sitting under the stars in their productive and gorgeous garden, enjoying the fruits (and veggies) of their labour, sharing our news, the funny and perplexing anecdotes of our lives.

And it made me think. It reminded me of Epicurus and his property in Athens which he shared with friends and grew fruits and vegetables which appeared on their dining table.

We are so distanced from the origins of our food. We go to the supermarket and buy things in packets, open them and zap them in the microwave and eat them from plastic trays. Well, sometimes we do. They’re called convenience foods and while they may be convenient, I wonder whether they are actually food.

Oh sure, tinned foods and frozen foods are handy and I can understand why you’d have them in the pantry. I used to have many more than I do now because having adopted the Mediterranean Diet several years ago, I know it actually doesn’t take that long to prepare meals from real, raw foods. After all, people have been doing it all the way back to Epicurus’ time. It does, however, require a commitment to preparation…

But getting back to the origins of our food - hunting and gathering and farming – these are time-consuming tasks but can you imagine the joy of finally eating a juicy steak of whatever it was you caught or sinking your teeth into the first apples of the season?

Do you eat mindfully? I never did, not years ago. I would eat on the run, often in my car, or at my desk. I was already thinking about the next thing I had to do. Sometimes I couldn’t even remember what I’d eaten that day.

How sad, when eating is one of the great pleasures of life.

I bet when the wild boar is roasting on the open fire at the hunter’s camp or the chicken is coming out of the oven in the farmer’s kitchen, there is a real sense of anticipation.

Why? Because so much effort has gone into catching or raising that food.

There’s something visceral about connecting with your food. Burying the seed in the earth, watering it, watching and waiting for the seedlings to appear. Searching the sky for rain, nurturing the young plants and finally harvesting. It’s work that connects us with the earth and the food it produces.

It’s slow work, farming. There are no instant results. You have to watch over the plants and the animals, ensuring they get what they need to stay healthy. Weeks or months (sometimes even years) later, the harvest is brought in or the animals are taken to market.

Growing your own food, even creating a small herb garden, can be a real mood-lifter in a number of ways. It is a gentle way of focussing on life, in the midst of sadness, or grief.

First, it is a mindful task that requires your attention. While your attention is focussed on your plants, it gives the mind a break from the worries that can often take over. Working on your garden means there is no space for rumination. Focus on the earth in your hands, look at it, feel it, smell it.

Shut your eyes and meditate mindfully for a few moments on the experience of being in the garden.

What can you feel? Is it a warm day, a windy day? Are you sitting on grass or crouching over the path? How does that feel in your legs, your knees?

What can you smell? Are there fragrant flowers? Something earthy in the compost? Something a bit unpleasant coming from the rubbish bin? Don’t make any judgements about it. Just focus on the smells.

What can you hear? Are there birds in the trees around you? The rustle of the breeze in the leaves of the trees? Cars on the nearby roads? Children shouting or laughing? An argument at the neighbours? Again, just sit with the sounds, letting all worrying thoughts pass by.

Now open your eyes and finish your gardening. Have you watered your plants? Pruned any dead bits away? Put a little mulch through?

If it’s the right time of year, choose something to eat today, from your garden.

It’s very satisfying to cook with your own produce.

I don’t have a garden, but I have a small courtyard and in that courtyard I have a little herb garden: basil, coriander, mint, parsley and rosemary. I hope to add others very soon. I’m planning to try my hand at strawberries and chillies and perhaps even a tiny lime tree.

I love going to my little herb garden and choosing some leaves to add to a salad or soup. It feels really good.

All over the city community gardens have popped up. People who live in apartments without much space for growing their own produce can now rent or purchase a couple of plots. There’s one right in the heart of my city, over a carpark, near the main train station. A little oasis of green in the concrete jungle.

Nowadays, fruits and vegetables are available all year round. I think that’s a bit sad because we’ve lost the thrill of ‘nectarine season’ or ‘avocado season’. Produce is kept in cold storage or flown in from overseas. Does anyone preserve, bottle or dry foods any more?

Yes, I’m sure they do. But not as often as in our grandmother’s generation. Imagine opening a bottle of preserved tomato sauce or summer fruits in the middle of winter! Today we expect everything to be available all the time.

No wonder the slow food movement is so popular. Many people have grown tired of the instant, 3 minute, fast food lifestyle.

Why is cooking with your own produce, or at least, seasonal, well-cared-for produce better for your health and emotional well-being?

Omega 3 for one thing.

And other nutrients.

When hunters bring home the wild bacon, it’s been feasting on wild grasses and plants, not force-fed grains. Wild plants contain Omega 3 fatty acids, which are important for brain health. Many meat animals today do not roam freely across the plains enjoying a healthy supply of wild-grown plant foods, so their meat does not give us the nutrients it would have supplied to our hunting forebears.

Fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables and fruits are available at regular farmer’s markets throughout my city. Look for them in yours too.

Enjoying a Mediterranean Diet, ingredients for which you can grow yourself, can really help when you’re feeling a bit down.  Even if you don’t feel like eating much, one good meal a day can go a long way to helping you feel brighter. Snack on yoghurt, dried fruits and nuts and wholegrain bread if you don’t feel like cooking often.

You can grow all sorts of fruits, veggies and herbs which are consumed in high quantities in the Mediterranean Diet.