Local Legends Farmer D and Souper Jenny’s Jenny Levison Grow an Organic Garden

Editor’s note: There’s an increasing awareness of the power of locally-grown foods—even the White House has launched its own organic garden. In turn, the slow food and the farm-to-table movements have gained momentum in recent years. As a result, we’ve asked Jenny Levison, a star on the local culinary scene with her restaurant, Souper Jenny, to keep a journal of her seasonal garden. Throughout the summer, she’ll be sharing her triumphs and tribulations of home gardening. We hope it inspires you to partake of summer’s organic bounty…or try your hand at growing your own

Oy, I am three weeks into my new 100 percent organic vegetable garden and my five-year-old and I are on the same page. What are we doing?! I am a first-time, novice gardener and laugh every day when I walk around my newly raised beds, wondering if I have killed anything yet! Lo and behold, Farmer D, the local organic farming expert who stopped by to help me on my quest, was right! All it takes is water and a snip here and there and these things actually grow!

Farmer D gives me the rundown on what it takes to grow a successful organic garden.

I allowed Farmer D to choose what would grow best so we have three plots full of all different kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplant, beans, watermelon, peppers from poblano to Jalapeno, radishes, beets and a huge variety of herbs. After three weeks and all this rain it’s been a snap!

The two of us get to work, surrounding each small planting with soft earth.

Me getting the hang of it. It's easy!

The crops from seeds are sprouting and starting to look like something and the tomato plants are growing on their trellis. I do confess that I have called Farmer D and bribed him with dinner if he will come by and make sure everything looks OK and give us a little gardening 101. I think he is wondering why I don’t know anything about this, but then again, can he make My Dad’s Turkey Chili?