Trendspotting: Gardens

During World War II, 20 million victory gardens helped feed America. Today's gardeners are in it for the ultrafresh food, of course, but also for the pleasure and health benefits of digging in the dirt. Here, a guide to modern seed-sowing.

Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters

Avocado, Orange and Jicama Salad

Lemon-Rosemary Sun Tea

Going Green:
A Garden History

Edible Gardens

Farm to Bottle

Courtesy of Belvedere

Vodka Belvedere's new Bloody Mary vodka needs nothing more than tomato juice: It's infused with black pepper, horseradish, bell pepper, chiles, lemon and vinegar. $35.

Gin From the Dutch family behind Ketel One vodka, the new, intensely fragrant Nolet's Silver gin is distilled with white peach, Turkish roses and raspberries. $50.

Garden Recipes

Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters
Mario Batali's zucchini fritters include rocambole garlic, a super-pungent hardneck variety.

Avocado, Orange and Jicama Salad
Feta is a fun, briny addition to this salad's Mexican mix of jicama, avocado and cilantro.

Iced Herbal Tea
"I love to make herb water with plants like pineapple sage and rosemary, which can be hard to use up," says blogger Willi Galloway of digginfood.com.

Gardens: Edible Education

Visitors can literally chew the scenery at these vegetable and herb gardens cropping up at botanical gardens across the US.

Atlanta An old parking lot is now a garden with an outdoor kitchen where local chefs teach cooking classes.

Chicago (photo) The Regenstein Garden hosts a chef series with cooking demos by pros like star pastry chefs Mindy Segal and Gale Gand.

New Orleans A new city program educates kids about how to plant and tend a vegetable garden and keeps them happy with vegetable tastings. neworleanscitypark.com.

New York Mario Batali's Edible Garden, at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, is named for two of his restaurants: the Otto Pizza Garden and the Babbo Beets, Garlic and Greens Garden. Cooking demonstrations begin this month, featuring recipes like Batali's fritters with zucchini and rocambole garlic. nybg.org.

San Francisco Arcimboldo's Edible Garden (named for a 16th-century painter) features classes and cooking demos.

Gardens: Can Farms Save the World?

Chef Dan Barber explains the link between good farms, delicious food and a greener planet.

The irony of the environmental movement is that agriculture has long been considered a separate issue. Environmentalism always carried with it the assumption that to use the land was to degrade the land. Of course the idea that land can be kept pure by separating it somehow—nature here, farming there—is foolhardy, at best. We would be better off looking for ways to use the land wisely, toward a kind of agriculture that is both inspired by and inseparable from nature.

Last week I gave a talk, and a surly guy in the back row (I could write a book about surly men who sit in the back row) told me that the food movement—led by people who champion sustainable ingredients—had hit its peak. I told him I thought he was exactly wrong. "We're at the beginning," I said. "The food movement will only grow, because in order to answer the current ecological crises, the way food is produced is going to have to change really dramatically in the next several years."

Which is when he said, "Yeah, well, it's certainly not going to be led by a gourmet chef!" I told him he was probably right—I felt bad for the guy—but I lied. I actually think chefs (and anyone who cares about good food) will continue to lead this growing environmental movement, because, unlike those early eco-puritans, they're motivated by the pursuit of pleasure. Their mission is about being greedy and consuming things that taste good—because foods that truly taste good are, by definition, good for you and for the planet. Chefs are arbiters of taste, and in a world where agribusiness and fast-food behemoths claim the mantle of "farm fresh," our role is not small.

Gardens: Green Cleaners

These herbal-scented sprays and soaps come in eco-friendly bottles.

Kitchen-Friendly
Mrs. Meyer's produces powerful, all-natural cleaners like this spray, which has a subtle rosemary scent and works on all kitchen surfaces. $4; mrsmeyers.com.

All-Purpose
Naturally antiseptic birch bark extract is combined with essential oils of basil and blue sage in Caldrea's earth- friendly, multi-purpose cleanser. $12; caldrea.com.

Super-Eco
The detachable bottom of Replenish cleaner contains enough concentrate for four bottles; just replace an empty soap capsule and add water. $8; myreplenish.com.

Photos (l to r) courtesy of: Mrs. Meyer's, Caldrea, Replenish.

Gardens: New Floral Designs

Courtesy of Kennth Cobonpue

Sweet Seat

Kenneth Cobonpue's flower-inspired Bloom chair is sewn entirely by hand. From $2,285; unicahome.com.

Drink Dispenser

This hand-painted six-gallon cooler is an improvement on the Igloo. $174; eleganttabletop.com.

Courtesy of A+R

Garden Labels

Wooden stakes for identifying different plants in a plot have a cool, minimalist style. $14 for a sheet of 4; aplusrstore.com.

Paper Posies

Beautiful, lifelike paper flowers are low-maintenance—and good for the scent-averse and allergy-prone. From $35; thegreenvase.com.

Gardens: Mikasa Garden Palette Bouquet Plate

Courtesy of Mikasa

Floral Dining

Mikasa's new Garden Palette Bouquet plates look like they were painted with watercolors. $50 for a 4-piece set; mikasa.com.

Gardens: A New Crop of Shops

Dig Weed whackers and wine go hand-in-gardening-glove at places like Santa Cruz, California's Dig, which hosts a weekly pop-up restaurant in its greenhouse. This avocado, orange and jicama salad (left) is from artist MB Boissonnault.

Merrifield Garden Center The Gainesville, Virginia, shop has a new wine store with 400 different bottles. merrifieldgardencenter.com.

Pitchforks & Tablespoons The Austin shop sells everything from gardening tools to wines by the glass.

Trendspotting: Gardens

In this Article:

Going Green:
A Garden History