Weekend activity- Organic Garden

It wasn’t without a great sense of irony that I went to gardening club. Though I grew up in a family of farmers and my childhood back yard was filled by a vegetable garden, I know nothing about gardening. When I was in growing up, daily weeding, watering, and wading in dirt seemed like a lot of work just for the reward of having to eat zucchini everyday for two months. Of course, now that I am into sustainable, seasonal, and organic foods, I deeply regret not spending more time following my dad around with a wheelbarrow.

Three thousand miles away from the garden that I religiously avoided, I willing showed up to weed and plant the plot behind the Vineyard Lodge. I felt a little awkward as I needed to be told which plants were weeds and how to transplant the mizuna and pak choi. Thankfully, those there that were more knowledgeable were patient and willing to show me what to do.

After mucking around in the dirt, we sampled some of the garden’s many heirloom tomato varieties. We found grass, carrot, citrus, and even sausage notes in some of the tomatoes. While taste sampling, we also tested for sugar content. Dr. Chris Loss, the consummate food scientist, brought out his refractometer and we used it to measure brix.

It was only a couple hours, but, in that time, we managed to span the spectrum of hands-on to fairly scientific applications. I think I’m going to learn a lot in the garden – most importantly, that working with plants isn’t always a chore and that gardening can indeed be fun.