For artist Joshua Miles, the pleasure you find in growing your own food is something money can't buy and the gratitude you'll feel from doing so is the biggest gift of all.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00From when I was very young, I've always wanted to be an artist.
00:13I lived in London for about three years and traveled Europe.
00:19There was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to come back.
00:23I've always been very fond of small towns, very fond of small places.
00:33I live in a very small town called Bartski Adrspos, which I won't explain the meaning
00:40of.
00:41We're probably about 80 people that live in this town.
00:45A sure sign of the size was the second day after we moved here.
00:52There was a knock on the door and a little boy came and told me there's telephone for
00:57me.
00:58I didn't understand and he explained that there was telephone for me at the phone booth
01:05at the shop.
01:08Sure enough, I ran there and the person was still on the other side of the line.
01:16With my passion for art, I've always had a passion for gardening.
01:19It was important for me to not be locked in the system.
01:26So I had to find some way of dealing with the world, but be separate from it.
01:41It's fantastic to be able to just walk into your garden.
01:45It's much better than shopping, much better than being in the supermarket.
01:55The freshness of the vegetables is incredible.
01:58These carrots are out of the ground five minutes.
02:04You can actually hear them.
02:05I mean, that's incredible.
02:06I think the reason I actually started with vegetables is to teach my son.
02:22So it's fantastic to send him out there into the garden and he knows that's where it comes
02:28from.
02:29He doesn't think it comes from the shop.
02:34When Fred was young, I could get him to eat carrots from the garden, but I couldn't get
02:37him to eat carrots from the shop.
02:40So it definitely made it even more worthwhile growing things.
02:51You know, life is about so many other things.
02:56The time spent here is meditation.
02:59This feeling and this pleasure is not something you can buy.
03:04The whole relationship we should have with nature and not have our feet in shoes and
03:11on cement all the time and get your fingers stuck into the soil and actually, you know,
03:18get earthed.
03:30We do a lot of preserving from the garden as well for the winter season when there isn't
03:34anything in the garden.
03:49This is last year's, last summer's onions.
03:52We still have quite a few strands and we've got some extra, so I'm going to make some
03:57onion marmalade.
03:58It all tends to come at once, so you have to preserve it some kind.
04:06And then when you go and visit friends, you go for a meal.
04:11How wonderful is it to take something really special with something you made and something
04:16that they can't buy in a shop.
04:20Most of this is from last year.
04:22We've got quite a bit.
04:27The tomatoes are fantastic.
04:28It's a canning process.
04:31You boil them in the pot and they say it lasts indefinitely.
04:34I mean, I wouldn't eat it after ten years, I'm sure, but...
04:47A lot of things I've learned through experience, but there is a lot of books out there or the
04:53internet.
04:54I think for a lot of people, they think it's really hard to grow anything, and it really
05:19isn't.
05:20I believe everyone can.
05:23When I was in London, I grew all my salad and all my small vegetables, like tomatoes
05:30in pots on a balcony the size of a door.
05:34I just have this passion, I can't stop myself.
05:37I wish that it was a green infection that would take everyone by surprise and not let
05:46them go.
05:52Getting a few seeds, getting a cutting from someone, sticking it in the ground and using
05:57your waste water even to grow it.
06:01It's just that little bit of consciousness.
06:04That's all that's needed.
06:15I think there is no other option.
06:17It's the only direction to go into for people to live more off the grid and grow their own
06:24food.
06:25It's going to happen naturally.
06:26I'm not even worried.
06:29And I really believe that there is a revolution coming.
06:33The young people are going to grab hold of it.
06:35It's going to be the new cool.
06:47We all need to find that thing in us that makes us smile.
06:56My art, my family, my plants.
07:03Every day there's so much, there's so much that makes me smile.