A garden doesn’t have to be a plot of ground out back. We can grow a few things in deck boxes, in patio pots, or in a square of a community garden. We can pick our fresh produce from local farmers’ markets and roadside farm stands. We can join a Community Supported Agriculture (Csa) program to have a farm box of local fare delivered to our door each week. We can accept an armload of produce handed across the fence from a generous neighbor. Even supermarkets sometimes feature locally grown food. With all these options, it’s possible for many of us to eat from a bountiful garden
without having to personally grow that garden. The common thread among all these defnitions of “garden” is that the food is local and seasonal, two ideas as old as the ages in southern cooking.
Our good cooking always began with good growing. Garden food is obviously local, because there is no place more local than our own backyards, farmers’ markets, and Csas. Left to her own devices,
Mother Nature insists that garden fare be seasonal because things can grow only when they are supposed to. There is no better time to eat a food than when it is ready, in the place it is ready. Each season, even each week within a season, brings something new. The appearance of a certain food on the table can be as true a mark of a season as the position of the sun in the sky. There are certain everyday smells in the kitchen, but there are others that turn the page of the calendar, telling us that a new season is beginning and another is closing until next year, when it all comes around again.
It is estimated that the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles. That’s far from fresh. Local and regional produce enjoyed at the height of its natural season delivers better value and can cost less than when it is shipped across the globe year-round. A three-dollar basket of luscious, local, sun-ripened strawberries enjoyed on the same warm spring day as they are picked is a better value than a three-dollar basket of hard, bland, gassed berries shipped across many time zones in the dead of winter. Perfectly ripe berries picked from homegrown perennial plants cost pennies. When it comes to
flavor, freshness trumps, and it shows on our plates. Gardens, farmers’ markets, and Csas offer us variety that most supermarkets and mega-marts cannot. Large markets must focus on produce that meets requirements for shipability, uniformity, and shelf life—regardless of season or flavor. In contrast, local food outlets can reflect local tastes and preferences, giving us more variety in our familiar favorites and introducing us to new things along the way. Local food can bridge the gap between producers and consumers, letting us know exactly where our food comes from, who grew it, and how. Home gardening closes that gap altogether. That is one of the reasons that, for
the frst time in decades, the popularity of home gardening and cooking is sharply on the rise. Farmers’ markets and Csa subscriptions are experiencing similar growth. Gardeners, conscientious shoppers, and discerning eaters are realizing that turning a blind eye to food production and distancing ourselves from our food supply isn’t wise or sustainable. There are plenty of economic and environmental reasons to eat local, seasonal food, but it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s
scalable and flexible, depending on what’s available and what’s practical. We don’t have to give up everything that comes from around the world. Embracing the glory of a homegrown tomato doesn’t mean that we should no longer buy bananas for our pudding. But when it comes down to choosing between produce grown and picked as close as possible to when and where we eat it
versus a long-hauled, flimsy knockoff of the same thing, local and seasonal make sense.
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