Home Garden in the Summer
I wrote a bit about my spring garden back in May and I’m happy to report that it is flourishing so hard! This garden has given me so much life this year, so much to be grateful for and amazing lessons. I am literally growing stuff in my backyard and bringing it to the restaurant and making delicious food with it— that’s pretty fucking cool. Over 80 lbs. worth of food so far this year, and the season is still going, ahhhh! That’s as farm-to-table as it can get in the city!
Back in April, our gardening teacher Dan threw a bunch of seeds and I bought some seedlings at our local nursery, so we really had a good variety of things growing. Tons of greens, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, peas, potatoes, fennel, herbs, carrots… so many that I would not be able to list them for you. Definitely witnessed mixed rates of success, as not everything has grown well and we are still building our soil and the weather has been absolutely cuckoo. But I will make the most of what I can grow here; I love the challenge of cooking with what’s available. So much to be proud of anyway: We harvested enough salad greens to feed all our guests for the entire month of June, which is a big deal when you consider all brunch dishes are offered with a side of greens or potatoes. (Maybe soon they’ll be choosing a side of OUR homegrown potatoes!)
Now that I am re-learning how to grow from seed from Dan, I am opening my mind to so many other things I can grow and keeping my eyes open for seed I can save. Those fancy garrofón beans I like to buy in Spain and are nearly impossible to find here or they’re a million dollars a pound? They’ve just sprouted in my backyard, right in between my rhubarbs. I also saved seed from padrón peppers, which I absolutely adore and can’t buy from any vendors that supply our restaurants. Literally cannot find them anywhere. Same with the good ajicitos that I use for sofrito, which are beautiful in Puerto Rico yet bruised and wilty (if I can find them at all) in New England. Now that I have seeds, I can grow them! I can grow whatever I want to cook with — how liberating! I’m already looking forward to next year’s garden.
One really cool thing about working with Dan is that we have very, very different thinking and working styles and it is great to just trust his vision and go with it. I am very much a planner, a list-maker, structured to the extremes about work; I want to come in and assess the situation, formulate a plan and then dig in. Dan’s approach is so organic, it doesn’t have to be perfect, there’s no list, there are guiding principles and the rest is up to us, we make it up as we go. Sometimes it turns into a little dilly-dallying and we end up pulling weeds and opening a bottle of wine to cool off. But surprisingly, even though there is little structure to our work sessions, I lap up every bit of information Dan shares about gardening and it’s easy to recall it when I’m working the garden without him. He has also pushed us to think a bit outside the box with our gardening and consider taking down our garden boxes for next year. Thinking back, I had this idea that gardening had to be in garden boxes because that is what the internet shows you… And Dan doesn’t do garden boxes for good reason. His garden is so wildly productive because he can build density without having to move around rigid structures. He can carve paths in his garden and plant more and still be able to reach it. I am revisiting what my garden can look like now that I don’t have to stick to a structure.
Unexpectedly, building this garden has been a boon for my mood and a grounding force. As a chef-owner with 2 restaurants and another 2 big projects in the pipeline, I struggle with stress and anxiety that can flare up unexpectedly, and it is hard to unplug at the end of the day/week. This garden is “work” for my job in that I work with the harvest at the restaurant… But it’s also my backyard at home, and it is a space where I can come and literally produce without putting pressure on myself. I get to spend time in the sun, I get to stop and admire things as they grow and I get to visualize a future for this space. I can rock out to Taylor Swift on my headphones while I lay down seed and prune my plants. I can just sit in one of the beds and enjoy a glass of wine and think WOW! Our backyard is now this space in our home where we enjoy spending time, and it has made me love my home more than I already did.
All that to say: I am really grateful that we started working with Dan on our garden. How good is it to be learning something new and creating every day? For me, that is one of the best feelings to tap into.