In this video, I explore a topic that has very much consumed my recent approach to vegetable gardening, and will be the core element in how I garden this year. With so much focus on growing bigger harvests, I have started asking myself if perhaps we are moving too far away from what I think really matters. Which is taste. And taste is also directly linked to nutrient density. I really hope you enjoy this video and give you some ideas to try in your own kitchen garden this growing season and beyond.
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Huw, you might check out a book called "Nourishment" by Fred Provenza if you have not already. He explores and experiments with the idea that we are wired through our gut/brain connection to translate the body's nutritional needs into cravings for certain flavors. In other words, with the occasional exception of things like sugars, the foods that taste good to us are the ones containing the nutrients we need to be healthy. Fascinating.
Nutrition I think should be the new big goal in gardening community
I don't care about a huge yield of potatoes , because I can buy tasteless potatoes cheaply from the store
Everything about is no relevant for surviving situations
Make sure to read Eating on the Wild side by jo Robinson…its all about the nutrients in our food….and that selecting for flavor can/has been a mistake over time in human history because people usually pick sweet varieties and none bitter varieties etc….but that doesn't necessarily corilate to high nutrition.
Alot of the time the bitterness and astringent flavors of greens and alike are a strong representation of their nutrient content…its the botanical sunscreen they produce that are antioxidants and plant nutrients to us.
Its been the most influential book I've read on farming/nutrition in the last ten years.
Its on Audible and a great Audio read.
nice video huw
Just added Dan Barber's book on my Kindle!
I only have a small growing space so I can't be self sufficient in food. Consequently I try to grow high value crops (herbs, chillies etc). But I always have a potato patch. Spuds are cheap at the grocery store, but the taste of fresh home grown potatoes is so amazing that they earn their space. This goes double for peas. Home grown peas are candy sweet, store bought frozen peas are bleua.
Wow. This makes so much sense!
We are expanding our garden this coming season. It won’t be huge, but it will be a bit bigger, allowing us to try a few more things we hadn’t before. One will be a watermelon radish that can be roasted. It’s a small thing but it is exciting. There are other things too but this will be something with a new look, a new flavour, and a new addition to the kitchen arsenal.
Love this Huw 🙂 it resonates deeply with my own feelings 🙂 If you're growing things you love, then you are automatically infusing them with love joy & excitement from start to finish.
It's the love that goes into planting, harvesting & eating that makes things taste better ~ everything responds to love! 😉
Beautiful, Huw!
My most enjoyable crop last year for the eye and palette was a tiny half row of golden beets, the remnant of a packet of extremely old seeds that I planted out of sheer Gardener's optimism. The resulting roots looked like gems and tasted like heaven.
Golden beets are only available in one store near me and they are quite expensive — guess what seeds I've purchased and what crop I've prioritized this year? I will also grow fennel bulb, another expensive item that I very much enjoy eating, and I'm trying new varieties of squash based exclusively on things I want to eat!
I think I gravitated toward a flavor-forward approach naturally because while I am not producing ALL of my own veg (yet!), I can grow things that give me a great deal of pleasure.
This is why I insist on growing at least a few things that excite and delight me, in addition to the staples which might be considered mundane. It's hard to get out in the garden in July when it's 100+ degrees outside. But, knowing that there are interesting and delicious plants out there that need my attention makes it easier. With just the two of us, yields take a back seat to flavor. Besides, one of us is a picky eater.
Glad you addressed this topic. Like everything on the internet, veggie gardening has become a competition over who can grow the most. How about a shift to who can grow the most delicious? ~ Lisa
Lack of flavor may be the reason many people,especially children, don't eat enough fruit and vegetables.
thanks. pure inspiration
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Where can we buy a watering can like yours?
May I know what is that you eat at 2:20
I have been eating really sweet sugar peas, heavenly kale, delicious long beans and juicy tomatoes for the past month or so. After battling many pests I am so proud of what I have grown, which makes it taste so much better 😛 Oh, and my sweet corn is coming along well.
Great video , I don't have a lot of room here and I always thought of my setup as a bit lacking or tardy but I now realise the emphasis can be on quality not quantity I'm much happier ! Thanks Huw
Well said, Huw!
"From too long vegetable gardening has been obsessed with shape and SIZE. Better that care be lavished from tilt to table on growing TASTY food whose Beauty is a byproduct to be relished." Montagu Don, the Sensuous Gardener
(I jotted this quote in the front of my garden journal, and the following bit about the long of the vital 'relationship between horticulture and gastronomy')
I've taken simple salad from fresh farmers market produce, plus an oil and vinegar dressing with my own herbs to gatherings with friends, and they would rave about the tast. Several had gardens, so this Alessia intrigued me …
It's so interesting that you gave that Dan Barber quote. I remember hearing that on an episode of The Splendid Table several years ago and it stuck with me. I think about it often when shopping for vegetables in stores and it's motivated me to grow more and more of my own food each year.
When your younger cousin is your hero.
I often ask myself why gardeners are so proud of their uge crops, where I find the little ones more tasty, most of the time, as if they were more concentrated in flavours.