The challenge grower likes obscure or rare things that may not produce the best eating fruit and can be hard to grow with associated problems…but they like the challenge.
Those that grow for food, like less hassles. We may not be broke and don’t grow strictly because we have to. But we don’t want finicky trees / bushes just for bragging rights…we want the food as easy as we can get it!
Where do you fit in?
I’d like to say I grow for food, but back when I started gardening I spent $40 to ship a pomegranate tree across the country and plant it in what is probably the most hostile climate it could possibly survive in. Seven years later it’s still alive and I’ve harvested a grand total of 0 pomegranates. Now If I can just get a couple dozen more I might break even on my initial investment. 
Very confusing wording … a mix of both I guess? I grow obscure rare things but I grow them for food rather than challenge. To give you a random example - no matter how much money I am willing to throw at it, there is one and only one type of strawberry available for purchase and it tastes like I am chewing a piece of plastic.
To hell with challenges, I have once upon a time when I was younger but I’m all about the abundance of the most, best tasting food I can harvest less any pesticides forever now.
If it tastes bad in the store, I grow for food. If I can’t find it in the store I’m adventuring. Won’t catch me growing a potato, but I have watermelon. My garden is split between cold hardy stuff and sub-tropicals (Guava in Ohio!!). I started all this because store bought strawberries were moldy the next day I bought them. Time and time again.
If it is a challenge It doesn’t get planted here. I only grow the easies and most productive fruits even if they are just average tasting.
For food and because I really enjoy it.
It is right in there with fishing and hunting in my list of things I really enjoy.
TNHunter
all my garden is for food, even the rare impossible things. 90% of things here are low maintenance, suited to the region, producing without extra efforts, etc. 10% of my things are wild dreams and stubborn attempts at the implausible or impossible, which take up far too much time and effort and don’t make the food I am trying to get them to make.
I don’t grow anything that doesn’t make food, save the few drought flower patches in the devil strip and out in the front by the sidewalk, which I grow in hope that passerby can pick flowers as they go, and that horrid skeleton rushweed will not take over those areas in summer
The challenge that intrigued me the first 40 years of growing was to produce the highest quality fruit. It took all of 40 years to achieve that. Now I’m growing more for healthy lower sugar fruits and reduced pesticide use.
I reject the false dichotomy of the thread title question.
I grow to get food better than the grocery store or not available, but also don’t want hassles or finicky trees.
Guava in Ohio?? And how is it going? (I am also in OH…)
Grow for food. Don’t want trouble or challenges
Very doable. I have a strawberry guava. Tolerant to basically above frost. It caught a leaf spot virus from somewhere and is in recovery. Managed to overwinter it sharing a 100w grow light with other plants. You could also do pineapple guava. Gonna start growing your own? Also have a Papaya growing in the same room, not to be confused with Paw paw.
Honestly growing things for food is a challenge in itself, especially if you’re just starting out. I started growing plants for fun and curiosity but now it is more of a ‘’ how many different plants can I keep alive and get food from’’ type thing.
I grow for flavor and I like it to be relatively easy. I’m all organic and don’t use any chemicals.
I also have no attachment to any plant. If it doesn’t taste great after a few years of solidly trying, I have no problem giving it away or tossing it in my compost pile.
I have many (30+) varieties of some fruits, but my goal is to only keep the best of the best after a few years.
I wouldn’t say I grow for the challenge, but I definitely get stuff to collect or because they are rare. I prefer it when the rare stuff is easy to grow and tastes good, but that usually isn’t the case. Even if is rare though, my end goal is always to eat it, so saying I’m not growing for food is a little erroneous.
I am also in this perfect little climate zone where its too cold for tropicals, not chilly enough for stone fruits, too hot for annuals, too wet for Mediterranean plants and too dry for marsh plants, plus tree killing pests for the fruits that do actually grow well here. So theres always at least a little challenge.
It seems my reason for growing has slowly become to give my kids something to do all summer, it’s my accidental purpose. Have you ever sent out a pile of kids to search for ripe fruit? Hours of fun daily all summer.
I grow strawberries, blueberrie, honeyberries, apples peaches, pears, plumbs, gooseberries, cherries, figs, sweet lemons, kumquats. I only seem to get food from my sweet lemons, figs, and kumquats reliably both in volume and flavor.
I grow for the joy of it. But also for better tasting and better quality fruits & veggies, and the convenience of herbs always at hand.