More chefs intent on growing their own way
Get growing for the freshest ingredients
When he was little, Tim Mackiddie spent plenty of time playing in the dirt, growing vegetables with his grandpa and his viticulturist father. So when he grew up to become a chef, it seemed only natural that he’d have his own vegetable garden.
“From a chef’s perspective, there’s something so rewarding about growing your own vegetables,” says Mackiddie, the Ontario-based Jackson-Triggs Estate Winery executive chef. “And the quality is so good.”
Today he has five garden plots right in front of the winery, as well as one at home, where he grows everything from beets and carrots to leafy greens and culinary herbs.
He’s not the only one — far from it. Increasingly, chefs are growing what they cook, whether it’s microgreens in a small incubator or apples, lavender and honeybees in a vast rooftop garden, like the one at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver.
“It gives me a lot of peace when I stand in the herb garden,” says Karan Suri, the Waterfront’s new executive chef. “And, apart from that, I am growing it, so it’s the best quality.”
Inspired by our culinary icons, home cooks are also taking up the trowels and planting produce instead of flowers. Problem is, not all of us know what, exactly, we’re doing out there.
VICTORY OVER THE GARDEN
Experimenting on your own is one way to learn first-hand how invasive mint can be, or whether beefsteak tomatoes can really ripen in rainy North Van. As Lisa Giroday says cheerfully, “Put seeds in the ground. You’ll learn something.” Or you can just call her instead. Giroday is the co-owner of Victory Gardens (victorygardensvancouver.ca), a company that, as she describes it, “helps people grow food.” Inspired by the “victory gardens” citizens were encouraged to plant during the last century’s two world wars, the company is now in its fifth season and is “slammed” with business.
“We have a really diverse group of customers. But generally speaking, our customers are already switched on to the idea of healthy living and healthy lifestyle.”
The reasons why they call her vary. Some don’t have time to tend their own gardens. Others don’t know how to start, and still others have tried and had challenges. But all of them love the idea of growing food.
“In each garden there are so many variables. Our services and education are site specific. We can get really personal,” Giroday says. “And generally, we’re pretty approachable, and take a light and playful approach.”
WHAT TO GROW
Once you’ve decided to plant a chef’s garden, the next question is what to put in it. Giroday has a simple answer for that: “What you eat most of.”
Of course, it’s not really that easy. You may love bananas, but you’re not likely to grow them here. So what she recommends are crops that you enjoy and that grow fast, spoil quickly and are expensive to buy in the grocery store.
“Greens are really great because they are really expensive in the grocery store, and they spoil quickly. Greens are also pretty easy to grow successfully in our climate, and will tolerate as little as four hours of sunshine,” Giroday says. “And culinary herbs as well.”
What doesn’t make sense? Potatoes and zucchini, especially if you have a small space. Also, Giroday says, “Some of the hot crops (such as peppers, eggplants and tomatoes) can be a little more challenging for new growers, crops that need a lot more heat.”
For his part, Mackiddie likes growing root vegetables, which he harvests when they’re still tiny, serving them whole on the plate.
“I think the root vegetables are an easier go; they’re a lot hardier,” he says. “Beets are great, radishes are great, any of the small lettuces are great because they grow so quick.”
Suri, who joined the Fairmont Waterfront in January, is still planning his garden. In addition to culinary herbs, he’s planting squashes, alpine strawberries, garlic and San Marzano tomatoes, which he will serve fresh with burrata.
His favourite, though, is rosemary. “It is the easiest to grow. And it’s such a versatile herb,” he says. “It helps me to calm down. And it smells so great.”
GO ON, GET OUTSIDE
You may be wondering, why bother going through all the hassle? After all, you can get anything at the grocery store pretty much year-round.
Well, for one thing, you’ll know where your food originates, how it’s been grown and how far it’s travelled.
That alone is a big deal. As Mackiddie says, “Our demographic is so much more savvy about where our food is coming from.”
You can choose what you grow, and that can include boutiquey things, like, say, organic baby heirloom carrots.
You can connect with nature. “Trust me, as a chef, you sometimes get so bogged down with paperwork and everything, you get disconnected from where your food comes from. This is a chance to connect again,” Suri says.
You can share the experience with your family, the way Mackiddie did with his grandfather when he was little. “Kids love to get their hands dirty,” he says.
And you can teach others where their food comes from. That’s why Suri and his team are involved with Growing Chefs and Terra Nova Sharing Farm, teaching inner-city children how to grow things, and how to cook what they grow.
“If they can connect with nature, it’s a way of giving back,” he says.
Most of all, though, there is something infinitely satisfying about watching a seed turn into dinner.
As Mackiddie says, “There’s something therapeutic about it.”
Adds Suri: “Just be committed to it. It’s like a relationship you have to honour and value. It takes time and it takes love.”
Just be committed to it. It’s like a relationship you have to honour and value. It takes time and it takes love.