Do you watch The Food Network? Are you a fan of Alton Brown, Giada de Laurentiis, Ina Garten? I love watching a great chef perform culinary magic with a basket full of beautiful produce, don't you? I also admit that I have become a complete food-blog groupie, living vicariously through the culinary adventures of bloggers in New York, Paris, and San Francisco. Of course it's no surprise that my obsession with cooking and fresh ingredients is what drives my passion for vegetable gardening. We all love to eat!
Gourmet restaurants may be a luxury for most of us these days, but for the home cook, a luxurious meal may be as close as the backyard. Fresh herbs; heirloom tomatoes; cipollini onions; purple, pink, and yellow potatoes; lemon cucumbers; alpine strawberries; the list of possibilities goes on and on. Specialty and heirloom seed companies have caught on to the gourmet vegetable trend, and the choicest varieties may be easily found on their websites and ordered with the click of a button. I don't know about you, but all of the catalogues jamming my mailbox are making me hungry! My potager plan gets larger and larger with each passing week. I can hardly wait for spring.
A bowl full of colorful, ripe vegetables may be a work of art to behold, but growing great produce is all about science. Whether you are planning to plant your first vegetable garden this year, or you have been tending a potager for decades, it helps to review the basics of garden science. Soil testing, crop rotation, composting, fertilizing, disease and pest management are all important skills for vegetable gardening success. When I'm working with new gardeners, I usually recommend that they pick up a copy of Edward C. Smith's The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. Easy to read and down to earth, this book details all of the topics I cover when helping to get new gardeners started.
When first-time gardeners start tasting the sweet rewards of success, they quickly become hooked on homegrown produce. Usually, creative kitchen adventures begin after the first few harvests. As for me? Well, I may not be Giada de Laurentiis, but with fresh, gourmet-quality ingredients, even I can put together a knock-out meal. Oven roasted roma tomatoes and cipollini onions, anyone? How about a delicious bowl of potato-leek soup?
I know some of you must have some signature garden-fresh dishes. What do you like to grow? Do you experiment with new vegetables every year, or do you like to stick with the tried-and-true?
Michaela grew up gardening, studying plants, and picking organic produce on the family farm. When she isn't spreading compost or pruning shrubs, she can usually be found writing articles or giving seminars on all things gardening. Michaela has worked as a gardening professional for 15 years and is author of the popular blog, The Gardener’s Eden.
