At Lettuce Patch Gardens, we take our commitment to the environment very seriously. We recycle all packaging, paper, garden waste and kitchen scraps. We also seek outside sources for our compost. Leaves, cardboard and un-salable produce that would otherwise end up in a landfill go into our compost piles. We are a member of Colorado Springs green power. This is a program that allows utility customers to purchase wind power in place of dirtier coal power.

As growers of sustainably grown, organic produce, we consider ourselves to be stewards of the environment, and would never knowingly do anything to harm our air, water or soil.

The very act of growing and selling local produce is environmentally friendly.

Our produce never travels more than 10-20 minutes to get to you. This not only allows you to buy very fresh vegetables, but it saves tremendous amounts of fuel as well. As Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life noted, a calorie is a unit of energy. It takes 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry from California to New York. Since strawberries are about 90% water, this is a pretty careless waste of a precious resource. When you think about it, all fruits and vegetables are mostly made up of water.

Ultimately, our nation uses a lot of fuel to transport water from one place to another. Locally produced food significantly reduces the use of fossil fuels in our food system.

We also contribute a portion of our profits to organizations that support local, organic and sustainable agricultural practices:

	Organic Consumers Association- The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability.
	Seed Savers Exchange-is a non-profit organization of gardeners who save and share heirloom seed. Since 1975, our members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners.
	New Farm-works with people worldwide to achieve a regenerative food system that renews and improves environmental and human health, working with the philosophy that "Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People.”

One is constantly reminded of the infinite lavishness and fertility of Nature--inexhaustible abundance amid what seems enormous waste.

And yet when we look into any of her operations that lie within the reach of our minds, we learn that no particle of her material is wasted or worn out.

It is eternally flowing from use to use, beauty to yet higher beauty; and we soon cease to lament waste and death, and rather rejoice and exult in the imperishable, unspendable wealth of the universe, and faithfully watch and wait the reappearance of everything that melts and fades and dies about us, feeling sure that its next appearance will be better and more beautiful than the last.

~ John Muir

Lettuce Patch Gardens, Inc.

The best of local food and gardening on the web

Cheryl Spencer, Owner & Gardener
Colorado Springs, Colorado

^© 2004-2009