Monthly Archives: July 2011

Each time I do something related to Operation Kitchen Garden it is a really positive experience … and my visit to Kit Briner’s garden was no exception.

The reason I use the word “kinship” in the title of this blog is because of the ties that bind Kit to his family through his garden.

In particular, are stories surrounding his day lilies and the edible weeds he introduced me to during my visit.

Let’s start with the day lilies. This is such a great story.

Kit’s father lived in Indiana and part of what he grew (and apparently he had a very green thumb) was day lilies. Kit decided to bring some of his father’s flowers back to Connecticut to plant in his own garden.

He made a few trips, transporting the hearty plants in boxes by car and by plane.

In March, 1998, Kit brought back a unique type of day lily that blooms twice a year.

That year, Kit’s father passed away three months later on Father’s Day. And the transplanted day lilies chose that same day (an unusual time of year for them) to have blossoms.

Since then, Kit has found that they blossom during significant events at odd times. When something big happens in Kit’s life, chances are the unique day lilies that were transplanted from his father’s garden in Indiana will bloom. By the way, they also bloomed on Father’s Day this year.

Another tidbit about Kit’s connection to his father through gardening has to do with edible weeds.

I have been contending for a while now that weeds get a bad rep. We need weeds. Some of them are very important for honeybees and others, apparently – as Kit has taught me – are edible.

According to Kit, purslane is the bane of every gardener’s existence, but also a succulent treat.

In fact, I did some Googling of the green and found that there are recipes for and fans of purslane. We are lucky that something considered so high in nutrients grows wild for our enjoyment.

Actually, according to Kit, his father had a strong disdain for the weed until Kit pointed out that you can eat it. After that, it became one of his favorite foods.

I got a taste at Kit’s garden and thought it was delicious!

Other edible weeds include -

Wild Sorrel
Goosefoot

Kit's granddaughter, Annabelle, gifted the garden with this caterpillar.

Kit also mentioned to me that clover is a gardener’s friend and full of nutrients for the ground and other plants. In particular, because it is rich in nitrogen, which helps things grow.

The weeds attracting honeybees encourage cross pollination of plants, which is a good thing for your garden.

Edible and nutritious weeds can also crowd out the harmful ones and discourage growth of things like mold.

And I actually think many of them are soft and cushiony for walking.

Here are some more photos – and a few thoughts – from Kit’s garden … sit back and enjoy …

Below, the wide shot of the garden … Standing there since the ’90s, Kit chose the spot, built the approximately 22′ X 22′ structure and then brought in some top soil to improve the quality of the land.

I like that Kit made parts of the sides of his garden into trellis’ for his vegetables…..

Baby cucumber ….

Kit says that cucumbers start losing their flavor as soon as they are picked. So, he likes to keep them close by to pick when he’s ready to eat!

And here are some tomatillos on the fence ….

It’s time for your close-up, little tomatillo ….

Kit peruses ….

Another view from the inside ….

Kit loves tomatoes and has many types in his garden.  He grows red, yellow and an “extremely sweet grape type.”

He believes that the best way to eat them is fresh and so he grows his own.

Another component of Kit’s food (he’s a vegetarian, by the way) is lettuce. He was on his second planting of the (long lettuce) season when I was there last week. He plants them to be shaded by the day lilies ….

Let’s take a look around Kit and his wife, Geri’s, yard…. Their self-built stone path encircles their home.

One last look back ….

How nice to have a pond!

And two tiny baby flamingos?

Kit keeping an eye on those feisty young flamingos from the safety of his self-built deck ….

Good signage ….

Peaceful setting ….

I like the bridge and stone walls. Very New Englandy (I just made up that word.) ….

Cheerful chimes ….

…. And a nice place to sit in the shade and visit ….

Thanks for sharing your garden with my blog, Kit!

One of the things which really struck me during my visit with Kiko Teed last week was how much she likes to be outdoors. She told me she needs to feel the outside air on her face each and every day, no matter how hot or cold it is that day.

Kiko and canine family member present their herb and greens garden.

In the summer, she will roam her gardens and pull out weeds without even thinking about it. To her, the gardens and chickens and being outside is a lifestyle. Or, perhaps, second nature.

It was really great visiting her as my first stop for Operation Kitchen Garden. I saw in her characteristics that I imagine will be common threads – to one degree or another – among my other victims….er, subjects … in this exploration I am doing.

There is a self-sustaining attitude, or theme, that is present in Kiko’s life.

I initially met her about three or four years ago when I was writing for the local newspaper and doing stories on issues like getting better food into the schools and recyclable plates for children’s parties at school. She went above and beyond trying to make a difference for her kids and the other children.

To her, it was not about filling time or fitting in. It was just who she is. Someone who cares about the planet – because she has always lived connected to her environment.

A firepit to gather round in the outdoor living room. In winter, Kiko maintains an ice rink in her backyard.

During my visit, we mused about this past – brutal – winter. And how we were both out there shoveling snow and prowling about as much as we could. She was even up on her roof getting rid of the massive amounts of snow.

I could totally relate to her feeling of accomplishment and remember how it made me feel like a pioneer woman when I used the pool skimmer to move snow off the mansard part of my roof.

But now it is summer and Kiko’s outside space is even more of a fun zone…

I loved how much there is to do in Kiko’s yard. She has a trampoline, tree house, two gardens, blueberry bushes frame the sides of the path leading to her front door, there’s a chicken coop, three dogs, and a fire pit (I now need to have one of those).

The other thing which got a visceral response from me at her house was the way that Kiko reminded me that food is not just a commodity. It is not just something we exchange money for and it is a way to nurture.

Another one of Kiko's gardens.

One of the best parts of growing food is giving it away. I know this will sound corny, but that’s kind of like love. Don’t they say that love isn’t love until you give it away.

Nothing is more nurturing than good, healthy food. It can build bonds. Eating together is a deeply-engrained part of our society. A way to be sure to connect with one another.

Kiko growing the food her family likes most. But, then, maybe some of her food-growing neighbors and friends like to grow other food. She will swap with them. And that is a really nice way to interact with the people around you.

It brings the world together in your own backyard.

Keep going for some more photos I took and quotes and inspiration from Kiko and daughter, Caroline, 9….

“Gardening *is* hard work but I think it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do, on a primal level. … It’s a lifestyle thing. If you’re not passionate about it I don’t think it’s going to last very long.” ~ Kiko

Kiko spent a lot of time planning her garden. She watches the area where she wants to plant to see where exactly gets the most sun.

Young blueberry bushes.

Kiko grew up with a vegetable garden, but also with chickens, “so feeding them every day in winter is just something I do.”

Her family has fresh eggs all-year-long!

When Kiko put up the fencing for her gardens she also lay some on the ground – about two feet out – with staples. This keeps the burrowing animals out (I almost typed “borrowing” ha!).

Grass has now grown to cover the fencing that Kiko laid on the ground but it still keeps the animals from digging.

Here is Kiko showing my blog readers what the staples she used look like…

There are three canine members of Kiko’s family. Here, one found a nice, shady spot on a hot summer’s day….

While, of course, there is always time to play …

Kiko has a place to relax in the shade among her vegetables …

But there is no rest for the mind of this gardener. She is always trying to improve things. “To figure out ways to be more efficient. It’s like a puzzle.”

The puzzle includes string beans, snow peas, tomatoes, asparagus, squash, blueberries, raspberries, wineberries, strawberries, herbs and lettuce – and she was growing the lettuce last season until late in the year.

“We were eating lettuce until mid-December,” she remembers.

Kiko covered her lettuce with a dome and the crop required very little else to remain hearty in the cold.

“If you stuck your hand inside the little tent you could feel the heat the plants were generating.”

It also contained moisture so there was very little watering necessary.

Following in her mom’s footsteps is daughter, Caroline. She is out there picking raspberries twice a day.

“Once I had a whole shirtful of raspberries,” reports Caroline.

Caroline with a bounty of raspberries!

The hardest part, she says, is keeping away the Japanese beetles, dogs and chickens.

But, there are many advantages of growing your own food, according to the young gardener.

“You don’t have to go to the store and waste money to buy food. All I have to do is go outside and get food.”

And, there’s more…

“Another good reason [to have a garden] is you can just invite your friends over to pick food to take home with them.”

And on that note, I will leave you with some more images of the food Kiko and her family are growing….

Caroline and twin brother, Carson, with their raspberry plants ….

The season’s first cucumber! …

Kiko’s husband, Geoff, makes the dirt each year for the raised beds. Here is this year’s string bean crop …

Summer is being very generous with its bounty this year. And so is Kiko. She gave me a giant zucchini and let me pick some string beans and snow peas to take with me. Thanks for a great visit, Kiko!!

Today I went on my first visit to a home vegetable and fruit garden as part of Operation Kitchen Garden.

It was really fun and I can’t wait to share Kiko Teed’s story. I will have it posted in the next couple of days.  She is right up there in the self-sustaining category. And I have always  liked her as a person, too.

Kiko and her wineberries.

A couple of thoughts on why it is important to look at growing some of our own food as part of a move back towards a simpler and healthier way of living.

If you are reading this blog you probably already understand that farms are important. And that’s great. But they are not the entire picture. It is not just the small, family farms that matter (although they do matter a lot) … it’s a whole way of living and thinking about the world around us.

We have been stuck in artificiality. There is nothing really genuine about the way food has been presented to us in recent years. And I believe that being involved in growing at least some of our own food returns us to an understanding we have known all along. A knowing that has been clouded over. Something that has been inside of us but we have not been manifesting in our daily lives.

I believe that on an intuitive level we have a primal impulse to be involved in our food.

Becoming connected again makes us stronger in mind and spirit because we actualize what we know on that intuitive level.

I am looking forward to sharing the stories of the people I visit during Operation Kitchen Garden!