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I haven't been schooled in farming, but my understanding of food has greatly increased since we started growing our own vegetables.

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Yes, but that still has little bearing on actual cooking skills, no?

Knowing how to go from whatever is fresh today in the garden to a meal is a cooking skill, yes. And how to preserve gluts of fruit, also a skill.

I mean, if I grow my garden and just provide you with the vegetables,

does that affect your cooking skills in any way?

In fact, if you divide your time between growing your own produce AND honing your cooking, both of those skills may suffer

compared to devoting your time to just focusing on one ability.

Otherwise if you try to do everything you'll never be as good as a full-time farmer or a full-time chef.

or how about another analogy:

Say one day your idea for a dish requires softer or sweeter carrots, etc, but oops you spent the last season only growing crunchier and mellower carrots, what're you gonna do now? With external suppliers you always have a wider choice of ingredients better suited to the end product you want at any given time.

Constraints are a good thing. I'll get creative with what I have, instead of having to rely on a supply chain that makes everything available to everybody all the time. I don't have to have apples grown on the other side of the planet.

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