EATING from the GARDEN
One Calgary couple, inspired by Arizona’s Biosphere, created their own local food experiment
Eleanor Benterud is a tall, lean woman who looks as though she would be much more comfortable dunking hoops on a basketball court than growing a bounty of goodies in a backyard garden.
“I was always the sports kid growing up and I was never interested in gardening or the culinary stuff,” she says. “I left that up to my mom. She had this massive garden in Glamorgan and she still does.”
But when Benterud moved into her current home in West Springs 10 years ago, she planted her first vegetable garden.
“I was hooked,” she recalls.
Recently, she and her husband Ken have taken their gardening experience to the next level by turning this relaxing summer pastime into an experiment on eating more sustainably.
“We’re calling it the Biosphere 3,” says Benterud, explaining that she and her husband were inspired while on a holiday to Arizona in January 2010.
“We visited the Biosphere 2 experiment in Tucson, and on the ride back to Phoenix the wheels started spinning and we thought to ourselves, could we do that?”
Biosphere 2 is a 3.14-acre steel and glass Earth systems science research facility, designed to represent a closed biosphere modelled on the Earth (or Biosphere 1).
Built in 1986, its original intent was to research and develop self-sustaining space-colonization |technology.
Biosphere 2 had two closure experiments, Missions 1 and 2, during which the structure was sealed. The first mission, with a crew of eight people, ran for two years. During that time, the researchers lived off the closed agriculture system, which produced 83 per cent of their diet.
The Benteruds rose to the challenge and began planning the strategy for Biosphere 3 upon their return from Arizona. The couple’s goal was to eat entirely from their garden for eight days.
“I knew that we might have some nutritional challenges,” says Benterud, who holds a master’s degree in nursing. The highly active couple spends weekends glacier and rock climbing, golfing or playing tennis. In addition, Ken rides his bike to and from his downtown office 365 days a year.
“I was told by dietitians that we needed to watch our muscle mass, as there is no fat or protein in the garden,” says Benterud.
She hands me a glass of iced tea fashioned from two varieties of mint harvested from herb pots on her deck. When I rave about how cool the experience must be, she smiles and lets me know in no uncertain terms that growing a vegetable garden is much, much easier than eating exclusively from one.
“When we first did this three years ago, we thought we were going to die of starvation. You get physically tired and your memory starts to go and it really doesn’t go over well with your boss if you tell him you can’t come in because you are eating out of the garden,” she says with a giggle.
The couple made it through the first experiment. Last year, they went 11 days and this summer, starting Aug. 13, they will be eating mostly from their garden for 14 days. Last year, they took the dietitian’s advice to heart and added a few items to the garden bounty: eggs, lentils, nuts, salt, pepper, a little bit of butter, quinoa, peanut butter and balsamic vinegar for taste. “You have no idea how boring plain lettuce can be,” says Benterud, offering a recipe for stir fried vegetable wraps that she and her husband created during the experiment last year. “Eating them was like a night out,” she recalls.
The Benterud’s garden encompasses about 150 square feet and is fenced to keep out the rabbits. “You don’t need a lot of space,” says Eleanor, who planted this year’s harvest on May 5. “It’s really low maintenance and it is completely organic. When it gets dry, we water it and that is about it.”
In keeping with the move toward sustainability, Eleanor uses rain water collected from the eaves to water the garden.
“One thing that we have noticed with this experiment is how much we as a society waste food. When you are eating out of the garden, you eat everything — the beets and the beet tops — and you preserve things. If a lettuce leaf is bruised, you trim it, you don’t throw it out,” says Benterud, adding that part of the appreciation comes from the fact that eating raw is highly labour intensive.
“We come home from work, pick the produce, wash it multiple times and then prepare it — it can take close to an hour and a half.”
Although she is not sure that the Biosphere 3 experiment is for everyone, Benterud encourages everyone to grow a backyard garden.
“It is such a technological world, and the garden brings you back to the earth. Plus, it is really easy. You don’t need a green thumb. Basically, if you plant it, it will grow.”