Julie Chai et al. - Sunset Magazine: Easy Edible Gardening

CHAPTER 1

Inspiration

Real-life lessons from home gardeners with a passion for growing food

The Entertainer

For one Santa Barbara gardener, the opportunity to grow and cook never ends. Here are secrets from her ever-changing edible backyard.

Valerie Rice reaches for green beans. The garden is the starting point for almost every meal, she says, whether for 100 people or just my family.

WHEN VALERIE RICE WAS GROWING UP, for all she knew carrots and broccoli sprouted from supermarket shelves. I thought all food came from Ralphs, says Valerie, whose family lived in a planned community in Newport Beach, California. Then, as a fifth grader, she visited her grandmother in Belgium. Digging potatoes and greens in her grandmas gardenand feasting on dishes like potato-leek soup and braised endive wrapped in hamwas a revelation. Thats when the seed was planted for my future garden, says Valerie. I wanted that life.

Back in California, Valerie cooked up a storm throughout her childhood. In her postcollege apartment, she dabbled in container gardening. When she moved into her house outside Santa Barbara more than 10 years ago, Valerie planted her first edible garden. At the beginning, it was far from the Eden she had imaginedshe had picked a spot that was too shady, for onebut through trial and error, and by tapping farmers at local markets for gardening advice, she learned.

Today, the 14- by 29-foot walled garden explodes with edibles all year. Unlike many vegetable gardens, Valeries yard is designed for year-round good looks as well as abundant production. Bamboo trellises turn bean vines into architecture, and apple trees are espaliered near the back wall. In summer, the beds spill with sweet corn, red-speckled beans, lemon cucumbers, and Padrn peppersthings I cant find in markets, she says. In fall, Romanesco broccoli, watermelon radishes, and greens take over.

The garden takes the guesswork out of menu planning, says Valerie, who feeds her family of four (she and her husband have two daughters, ages 8 and 10) almost entirely from the garden. It also serves as the starting point for frequent dinner parties. I grab a notebook and head outside a couple of days ahead of time to see what will be ready to harvest. When guests arrive, everyone wants to see whats growing, says Valerie. We tour the garden, glasses of wine in hand, nibbling as we go.

When friends began asking Valerie to share her recipes several years ago, she launched a garden-food blog, eat-drink-garden.com . The blog, which now has a following well beyond her Santa Barbara community, has pushed me to be a more creative cook and gardener, she says. But like her grandmother, Valerie takes a simple, unfussy approach to cooking. Her motto? Pick. Mix. Serve.

A stylish assortment of useful tools.

Summer crops, from basil to sunflowers, fill three raised beds.

A rainbow harvest.

Valerie (bottom photo) seeks out special varieties to grow in her garden, including striped Green Zebra tomatoes (above) and bright orange Aji Amarillo peppers (below). Growing her own food offers much more diverse (and tasty) produce than she can find in any grocery store.

GROW

Valeries tricks to raising edibles

EASY RAISED BEDS

Valerie built her 4- by 8-foot raised beds from kits and lined them with wire mesh to deter gophers. They accommodate an ever-changing cast of edibles, planted in rowslowest crops in front and tallest in backso sunlight reaches them all.

GOURMET SOIL

Valerie mixes potting soil with sand, compost, and an organic amendment containing bat guano and worm castings (G&B Organics; kellogggarden.com ). After planting, she dusts soil with cottonseed meal or kelp meal. I always want to rush the planting stage, but hard prep work pays off.

EXTRA BEDS

Near the main garden, Valerie created a veggie oasis by turning wooden tree boxes into raised beds. (You can buy them at many nurseries, though theyre not always clearly for sale.)

DIY TRELLISES

To support fava beans, Valerie ties together bamboo stakes with twine. For staking tomatoes, she makes tipis of fruit tree prunings. Vining crops stay tidy in tomato cages; Valerie turns the cages upside down and gathers ends in a finial.

SPRING

SUMMER

HARVEST

How she makes the most of her bounty

STICKING TO A SCHEDULE

Valerie tackles pruning and weeding on Tuesdays and harvesting on Fridays to replenish the food supply for the weekend. She frequently replants bare spots with new crops. Keeping at it keeps it easy, she says.

EXTENDING THE SEASON

Valerie preserves anything she doesnt use immediately. She dries apple, chile, squash, and peach slices in a dehydrator. Fruits get pured and turned into fruit leathers; fresh tomatoes, broccoli, and green beans are put in resealable plastic bags and frozen.

MAKING USE OF EVERYTHING

When harvesting, Valerie never overlooks crops that appear a little overripe. String beans are so tender when I first harvest them, she says. Left on the vine, they toughen up, so I parboil them in salty water, then braise them with cherry tomatoes and sherry. Ive opened up my cooking repertoire by using veggies in all stages. She also finds uses for every last bit of her crops, tossing broccoli leaves and flowers into salads, and tucking tomatillo clippings into bouquets.

The Accidental Farmers

Mulberries may be elusive, but their flavor is extraordinary, as discovered by this family of backyard growers.