Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until September 2021.
What experiences have you had growing plants, vegetables, flowers or fruits? Have you ever grown something in your home or backyard? On a rooftop or a fire escape? Have you contributed to a community garden or a farm at your school, in your neighborhood or in your town?
When you think about the process of digging, planting seeds and watching things grow, what feelings or memories come up for you?
In “A Crop of Kitchen Gardens From Chefs Around the Globe,” Amelia Nierenberg writes about the Kitchen Farming Project:
When the pandemic shuttered restaurants, chefs across the world planted kitchen gardens.
More than 3,600 people joined the Kitchen Farming Project, a loose “recipe” for a garden — conceived by the chef Dan Barber and developed by Jack Algiere, the farm director of Stone Barns Center in the Hudson Valley.
Now, as the chef-gardeners approach the harvest, they know firsthand the sweat and time required to grow each vegetable, and are thinking harder about their role in the food system.
The garden recipe is simple: a 12-by-15-foot plot, broken into six produce families — tomatoes and peppers together in one section, iron-rich greens in another.
But the chefs choose what they plant. Many are growing the foods of their culture, using traditional techniques that work in their particular environment.
The article profiles five chefs who are participating in the project, including Selassie Atadika from Accra, Ghana:
In Ghana, colonialism interrupted a stable food system. Today, imported products line the shelves of chain grocery stores. Some farms sell indigenous crops, but many cater to European and American tastes…
“A lot of the stuff I am looking for is hard to find,” she said. “I’ve always been nervous about planting. The recipe made it so easy.”
For chiles, she turned to local markets, drying the seeds in the sun. For wild and indigenous foods, she has saved seeds and foraged with friends and family. “I just went to some of the aunties,” she said.
Naoyuki Arai, a chef in Sakada, Japan:
“Growing vegetables from seed has allowed me to observe everything about the process,” he said. “I can prepare dishes based on the various stages of ripeness.”
Farmers have cultivated satoimo, a Japanese taro (similar to a potato), for at least 2,000 years. Sweet potatoes and a green tea, Sayama, are local favorites.
“I used to buy vegetables based on my schedule, and I realized that my schedule is not what’s important,” Mr. Arai said. “It’s the vegetables and the soil whose schedule should be respected.”
And Amber Tamm of the Red Shed Community Garden, in Brooklyn, N.Y.:
When Amber Tamm, an urban farmer and food-justice advocate, first heard about the Kitchen Farming Project, she was frustrated that it didn’t include much input from urban farmers of color.
This summer, with two apprentices, she is using urban farming techniques to grow vegetable and flower seedlings donated by Stone Barns Center in plots at the Red Shed Community Garden, in Williamsburg.
“It was like: ‘I understand that your chefs are out of commission and this is a way for them to heal,’” she said. “But this is an opportunity to appoint urban ag leaders that are here to teach them, and talk about what it’s been like for us to farm in this landscape.”
The article concludes:
These chef-gardeners could be stewards of a new phase in the farm-to-table movement, one shaped by the pandemic and global protests for racial justice.
Instead of just working with farmers, they have become farmers, at least for the season. As they start serving what they’ve harvested, their culinary heritage is on the table, too.
“For me,” Crystal Díaz said, “it’s also a sense of belonging, that there are so many other people doing this.”
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
If you could plant a dream garden, what would it look like? What types of fruits, vegetables, flowers and other greenery would you include? What smells, tastes and flavors? Why? In what ways do these choices represent your own interests, culture or family history?
Choose one photograph from the article that feels meaningful to you. What draws you to this image? Does it make you think of a meal you eat at home? Does it feature an ingredient your family uses in special dishes? Does it make you hungry for your favorite food? Tell us about it.
Is gardening or farming important for you or your family and community? Have you ever witnessed people coming together around growing something? How do you think caring for plants can cultivate a sense of belonging and connection?
The coronavirus pandemic has created record levels of food insecurity worldwide. In the United States, Black and Hispanic families are almost twice as likely to experience food insecurity as white families. What connections can you make among gardening, food security and racial justice? In what ways can growing food empower people and communities? In what ways might gardening be exclusionary or inaccessible for some?
Have you gotten more into gardening or growing during the pandemic? Have other people you know? “Victory gardens,” which people planted during World War I and II to build self-sufficiency in the face of potential food shortages, are making a comeback. Why do you think that is?
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Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
