SANTA ANA, CA — It's nursery day for Santa Ana garden to table landscape designer Ashley Irene. As she makes leafy selections for client kitchen garden refreshes, the woman known as the Heirloom Potager stops to chat with Patch about her Earth Day plans.
Spring is a great time to prep the garden spaces and prepares for the next growing season. In Orange County, that season can last all year long for some plants. This year, on Earth Day, she is mentoring a group of Santa Ana high schoolers about the art of growing fresh herbs for culinary use. Though the class will be socially distant, amid the lengthy coronavirus pandemic, she hopes that each student will emerge with an educated palate and better understanding of fresh ingredients when used in cooking.
"We are gifting 70 students with boxes of herb-kits," she says. Each kit contains both live herbs and starter seeds, as well as soil and instruction for how to grow them.
Each box contains live thyme, oregano, parsley, cilantro, rosemary and sage. They will also get seeds for chives, parsley and cilantro.
"These are students that could leave high school and join the workforce," she says. If they take their culinary skills to a kitchen, one of their first jobs could be signing for deliveries. "They will be able to say they know what these herbs are supposed to look or taste like and whether they are getting what the kitchen needs."
It's important to educate their palates, Irene says, and to educate them on how to identify the importance of growing and using fresh ingredients.
"We will track how well seeds germinate, how long it took for them to pop out of the ground, and how much water and light they need to succeed," Irene says.
Irene is a lover of great food and spending time outside. She rearranged her life and career, buying a unique home in Santa Ana that has become an inspiration to her neighborhood. For her clients, she designs year-round seasonal kitchen gardens for both home cooks and culinary professionals.
"I'm passionate about the grow local movement," she says, on her website.
Using a blend of form and function, she models her personal and professional gardens after the rustic kitchen "potager" (or gardens) of Europe. She calls herself a culinary garden designer, coach, and soil advocate. This year she is teaching a class of Valley High School culinary arts academy students the art of growing and caring for live herbs.
As with the students she is mentoring, she wants her clients and readers to understand that there is far better things you can grow than purchase at the grocery store.
"It's hard to understand the watermelon you buy has been growing for six months before it reaches the produce shelves," she says. Herbs are a natural place to start learning about gardening, especially in the spring.
"Herbs grow quicker, and the students will get the experience of starting seedlings and growing to something harvestable," she says. With the harvest, also comes learning about seasonality.
The life cycle of plants, including starting seedlings, transplanting, pruning, and seed-harvesting, is a microcosm of living. She will teach them about companion plants, sustainable gardening practices, as well as natural ways to repel pests.
"This box of herbs is just the start," she says. "We will be following up with them, helping to answer questions and learn how the plants fared. Did it grow well? did you remember to water it?"
Life lessons can be tough, but rewarding.
"If a plant dies, it's not a failure," she says. "For me it's a safe learning opportunity. These are life lessons where we can talk about what happened and troubleshoot for the future."
Follow the Heirloom Potager for your May planting guide:
Plant: Berries, Beans, Beets, Corn, Cucumber, Eggplant, Leeks, Melons, Onions (short- and medium-day), Peppers, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Radish, Scallions, Malabar Spinach, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Watermelon, Winter Squash
Herbs*: Arugula, Basil (start seeds), Chives, Dill, Fennel, Ginger, Lavender, Mint, Nasturtium, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Seasoning Celery, Summer Savory, Sweet Marjoram, Tarragon, Thyme, Turmeric
Here are a some great companion plants for your May planting list:
Alyssum, Asters, Bachelor Buttons, Borage, Calendula, Cosmos, Echinacea, Hyssop, Marigolds, Nasturtium, Poppies, Salvia, Scabiosas, Stock, Strawflowers, Sunflowers, Zinnias.
*Transplant Seedlings
April 22, 2021 at 07:36AM
https://ift.tt/3tBqiLD
Earth Day Herb Gardens Gifted To OC High School Culinary Students - Patch.com
https://ift.tt/3eCf9lu
Herb
No comments:
Post a Comment