One of the lessons that a chef learns, perhaps the absolute most important one, is to choose the best quality ingredients. No one can make an unforgettable dish from second rate produce, it's just not possible. For sure there are tricks that cooks pick up in order to make the best out of what is available, no matter what, but those tricks only go so far. If you have to spend time and effort into covering up flaws, you can only hope to make something "good enough", not great. Many times in the restaurant industry, this can take the form of expensive, rare, or otherwise "fancy" ingredients. Over time and with experience all chefs realize that freshness is the most important thing. A freshly caught trout from the same day is a more fantastic fish experience than sushi grade bluefin tuna that has been flown from Japan. It is for this reason that we suggest anyone that can should grow and maintain a chef's garden.
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The Culinary Connection?
When we advocate for culinary gardening, there are many excuses given as to why people aren't doing it. It's too much work, we don't have enough time, we don't have enough space, we're no good at growing things, why bother, and it's too expensive are the most common ones. I'd like to take a few moments to break down exactly why I refer to those as excuses, and then to explain a little further what amazing benefits can be wrought from exploring this culinary connection with mother earth.
Newest Recipe!
Roasted Asparagus & Fennel Salad with Golden Beets
The earthy flavors of sweet golden beets, paired with crisp fresh fennel, roasted asparagus, toasted almonds, and creamy goat cheese is the perfect way to celebrate the best of Spring flavors!
It's too Much Work
This is the most common thing that everyone believes about maintaining a chef's garden. Working the soil, planting, weeding, pest control, the weather, it does all seem like an awful lot, I concur. The simple truth of it is, you only have to do the amount of work that you are willing and able to do! We grow a lot of different things, to varying degrees of success, but we didn't start that way. Starting with just growing herbs, and over time we have started to grow lots of vegetables, flowers, and fruit. We only moved into doing all of that because we caught the bug once we realized the benefits and fulfillment that we get from it. Planting and growing a few of the herbs that you know you use commonly only really takes minutes. Purchasing a bundle of green onions and propagating them to continue to grow is really simple, and you'll practically never need to buy any again!
We Don't Have Enough Time
I get it, with work, house hold chores, errands, and any other activities that we all have in our busy modern lives, who has time for a small scale farm? I think just about anyone will agree though, that we make time for the things that we enjoy and truly find fulfilling. Once again, just find the time to plant something that you know you will enjoy, commit to giving it your best shot, and see what happens. I'd be willing to bet that once you succeed in growing something, you'll be able to make the time to do it again, and most likely to try something else, too!
We Don't Have Enough Space
If you live in a rental space or an apartment, you probably land in this demographic. There is almost always a sunny window sill that can be utilized for an herb garden that will change the quality of your cooking vastly right away. If that is still not possible, there are many home products on the market that utilize grow lamps and indoor horticulture solutions. These vary in size and commitment levels from small herb gardens, to full blown tomato or pepper plots. If none of this appeals to you, most cities and towns nowadays have community plots that can be applied for either for free, or really inexpensively. These plots also have the advantage of being cooperative, so you can interact with and learn from the other people using the space.
We're No Good At Growing Things
I will be very brief when it comes to this topic. None of us are good at anything that we don't put any effort into learning how to do. Putting this excuse in your way is an easy way to ensure that you will never succeed. Just stop it and try. The very fact that you're reading this indicates that you are interested.
It's Too Expensive
How much money do we spend on things that do nothing but entertain us? how much did your tv cost, or your fancier than necessary cell phone? I know that we could make the argument that these things help us recreate, and therefore enrich our lives. I would debate that growing things does the same thing, but also has the benefit of pleasing our palates, stomachs, and even our overall health! You don't have to spend hardly anything to get a chef's garden started, and in every case that I've come across, the price of growing edible plants is always less expensive than having someone else do it for you.
Why Bother?
I love to answer this question. Once you have grown something, anything, and then used it in your kitchen, you will never feel the need to ask this question again.
Let's think about the local supermarket produce section for a minute. Have you ever really pondered about how that veritable cornucopia of vegetables and fruit got there? It has to be harvested at a farm, processed and packaged, loaded onto trucks, trains, or planes, shipped to a warehouse, shipped again from that warehouse to the store, unpacked, and placed on the shelves before you even get to see it. The absolute most fresh item in the local produce department is going to be 5 days old at best, usually more like 7 or 10. This system that we have developed in order to accomplish this feat is remarkable, don't get me wrong. We all are able to depend on it to the point that we take it for granted.
Now picture being able to take a short stroll through your chef's garden, and pick vegetables from the source, bring them into your kitchen, cook them and eat them all within the space of a couple of hours. It's a scientific fact that all food starts to lose nutritional value the minute it's picked. Remember the point I was making about freshness earlier?
There are way more varieties of produce available to a gardener than in any store. Mass producing all of the heirloom and specialty varieties of vegetables, fruit, and herbs is just not feasible. That's where a small garden has the advantage. You can choose if you would like to grow giant dark purple tomatoes, yellow zucchini, or lemon cucumbers, instead of just what is at the store!
Due to the freshness and unique nature of garden produce, the flavors are incredible. You have never had great vegetables until you've grown and picked them yourself. I'm a natural born skeptic, so don't think that I bought into this easily. I can tell you, even if this is just placebo effect speaking, it's still astounding.
Research Your Garden Plan
Yes, like all worthwhile things in life, there is some work and effort involved,. The more you put in, the more you'll get out. Just like cooking, though, it's only challenging to learn it at first. Once you start to see and taste success, even the beginner's guide becomes a labor of love, maybe even fun!
First you need to assess what you're able to do within the constraints of your environment and schedule. If you're retired and live on more than an acre of good soil, than you can grow a small scale farm and probably feed your neighbors. If you work 60+ hours a week and live in a high rise apartment downtown, you'll probably be looking into growing a windowsill sized herb garden. The climate is also a consideration. If you live in Alaska, the growing season is short, and you'll want to rely on colder weather crops, and/or investing in a greenhouse. Make sure that you look up all of these things, and grow according to them. You're guaranteed to have a hard time if you're trying to grow pineapples in Vermont.
Once you've figured out what you can grow in your area, the real fun begins. Now you get to choose what you want to grow in your own garden. Looking through seed catalogs can be so much fun, as seeing the variety of things that are able to be grown from tiny little seed packets is astounding.
Planning and Planting your Chef's Garden
Once you've done some research, now it's time to leap into action, right? Not so fast, there's still some planning and decision making to be done. If you know something needs a lot of direct sun, watch how the sun moves through your space throughout the day, and place it where there is the most direct sunlight. Make sure that the plots that you would like to establish are accessible, even when the plants start growing. Some crops may compete with each other, so that is something to consider also.
There are more variables to think of than we can possibly print here, the best plan of all is to give it your best shot. Don't get too discouraged if everything doesn't work out perfectly at first, just try to learn from it and move forward. Failures are just a part of the road to success. It's taken us years of practice and learning to get our garden as beautiful as the pictures here show, but it's always been fun and rewarding along the way.
Final Suggestions and References
I would like to use this last little bit of this page to re-iterate our strong suggestion to at least look at growing some fresh herbs. The flavor impact in all of your cooking cannot be over stated, and the savings versus the exorbitant prices in the stores is enormous. Most commonly used herbs are perennials, meaning that once you get them established, they will grow back every spring, usually bigger also. We've gotten to where most of our herbs grow enough to enable us to dry quite a bit of them to use throughout the colder months. As previously stated, you can also grow varieties that simply can't be found in the store, opening up all kinds of new and creative possibilities.
Common Herbs
This being a food and cooking blog, we're not even going to pretend to be authorities on the subject of growing a garden. We only want to inspire as many people as possible to take this step into greater quality and freshness in their kitchens, via a chef's garden.
Gardening Help Links
For further advice and help with successful gardening, we trust and endorse the following sites:
Jason Miller says
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Jason Miller says
Give growing some food a try.