Most farming techniques used in North West Europe since the withdrawal of the last ice cap some thirteen thousand years ago have exhausted habitats and soils. An exception is the kitchen garden. Their yields were what often actually fed the peasant family, as most of the grains from the fields went off as taxes to land lords and kings for the maintenance of military apparatuses. Thus, from history we can learn that there is a tangible connection between farming, habitat exhaustion, and war. In addition, the kitchen gardens have mainly been managed by women and children, which adds the dimensions of gender and power to the enquiry.