You’re Picking More Than Veggies - Harvesting The Kitchen Garden

Welcome to the Grow youw Self podcast. Surprising stories about the food we eat and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to live the whole and happy life we're all craving. I'm Nicole Johnsey Burke, your host and the owner of Rooted Garden and Gardenary Incorporated and author of Kitchen Garden Revival. Is it obvious yet? I'm kind of obsessed with the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden may just be the answer that you've been looking for on your own journey to health and wholeness in this podcast. It's gonna inspire and enable you to make garden magic right in your very own space. If you're someone who wants to eat more good food that's actually good for you, fill your day with great stories you want to text to a friend. If you wanna hear more about inspiring people and do a little bit each day better than the way you did it, The Grow Yourself is what your ears have been waiting for. You won't just learn about gardening here, you'll learn how to make growing as a person a big part of your everyday life. And your life, your community. And your garden, of course, will be all the better for it. So put in your headphones, turn up the volume, and let's take a walk, go on a drive, or just hang out in the kitchen garden together. Welcome to Grow Yourself. What was that you said you thought that the kitchen garden was only about picking vegetables? Oh, my friend, you are picking so much more than that. Today we're going to talk all about harvesting from the kitchen garden. It is chapter eight of the Kitchen Garden Revival Book Club and I cannot wait to dive into the final chapter, the last pages of my book as we close up Kitchen Garden Revival Book Club. Today's episode, episode number 39 is brought to you by Garden Coach Society. The Garden Coach Society is the place where I certify gardeners from all over to start and grow their own Garden Coach business. And it all starts by taking the five day free Garden Coach Challenge. And guess what? We've got a new one coming up on October 5th. So go to gardenary.com challenge. If you're a gardener and you're interested in starting your own garden business, why wouldn't you be? Right? So go sign up for the challenge@gardenary.com challenge and I will see you on the inside. Now let's dive in to this fun episode all about the fact that you, my friend, have been picking way more than just veggies. I can't wait to dive into chapter eight with you of Kitchen Garden Revival. Let's do it. Welcome back to the Grow youw Self Podcast. Welcome to Chapter eight of the Kitchen Garden Revival Book Club. If you have missed any of the episodes as we dived dove, I'm not sure which verb is right to say. We have gone deep into each chapter, including the introduction and the preface of my book, Kitchen Garden Revival, all the last eight weeks. And if you've missed any of the episodes, well, just hit that back play after you finish today's episode and work your way through the book. It has been such a treat to dive into each of the chapters with you over the last eight weeks and so fun to go a little bit deeper here on the podcast. I hope you've enjoyed them and I cannot wait to see the kitchen gardens that you've created and hear more about your story. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask a huge favor of you. We are going to be doing a special episode called your Kitchen Garden Revival and we're going to be sharing little snippets of your your stories. So what I have to ask of you is that you would record yourself. You can record a video or just an audio. So if you're doing a video, I would love it. If your video could be in your garden. You can have it with your book if you have it with you and just tell a little bit about what the Kitchen Garden Revival has meant to you and how it has affected you or helped you grow or enjoy your garden more this year. You can do it just audio if you don't feel comfortable being on video. If you just make a little voice recording on your phone and then you can send both the video and the audio whichever one you took to helloardenary.com we're compiling all your stories to create a super special Grow Yourself episode telling your stories. So we're going to combine our favorite snippets from your stories and just fill a whole episode up with your particular experiences of the Kitchen Garden revival. So don't forget you can submit Those stories to helloardenary.com Feel free to include whatever you want, photos, video, audio, any way that you can share it with us. And for the podcast we will just be cutting out the audio and putting it right here on the podcast. If you can share in your story your name, you don't have to share your last name, but at least your first name and where you are from. That would be so incredible to get to hear and see where all these new kitchen gardens or bigger kitchen gardens or better kitchen gardens have grown this year. So thanks so much for all your support for Kitchen Garden revival. We will be selecting a grand prize winner of all the entries with a super special announcement we will make on that episode. So please participate. I would love you for it. You can enter all your information@helloardenary.com just send us an email and we will confirm with you that we got your details. Okie dokie. Let's talk about chapter eight. We're at the very end of the book, you guys. This is all about harvest. And I have to say a good bit of this chapter got cut in the editing portion of the the book process. So it was kind of a bummer. We did this super big fun party. Well, it was like a one family kind of party when we were finishing up the the book. So Eric Kelly, my photographer, came to the house here in Chicago and we did two full days of photographing and took this crazy video. I've shared it a lot of times on IGTV this year where I harvested a ton of things out of the garden. We took lots of beautiful harvest photos and. And then we actually spent the next day he came. Can't remember what day of the week it was, but he came. We, we took like full garden photos, then did tons of harvesting. And then the next day, my girls and I, I have three daughters, we spent the entire day cooking things. So we literally took all the things I had harvested the night before. We made like roasted potatoes, Swiss chard, lasagna oven roasted cherry tomatoes. We made like little teas and herb sauces. We had this incredible dinner and I had bought all these special things for our deck, which is not in the best of shape, but we put together a harvest table. So we set it all pretty. The girls helped me. We made a big flower arrangement for the table and we all sat down for a harvest dinner and Eric took photos. And I had all these plans for this to be a really big part of the book, but honestly, by the time it made it to editing and they were cutting a good bit of those for photos and things to do with the harvest got cut. So that's kind of sad. So I'll try to share some of those over the next few weeks on the blog@gardenary.com blog and especially in the show notes for this episode. All that to say harvesting is one of the neatest, most fun, thrilling things of the kitchen garden. But the truth is you're actually picking a lot more than just vegetables. And that is what we're going to talk about today, how there's so much more Going on when you step out to pull a few things from the garden to enjoy in your kitchen, to share with a friend or to add to a meal, I have to tell you just quickly, before we dive in, that the truth of the matter is, the reality is that harvest dinner that we took all those photos, literally, we sat down and began to eat. And within, say, five minutes of taking the photo, I had to get up and rush and take my son to taekwondo. And then I came back and we ate a little more. And then I think Jason had to get up and he took Carolyn to soccer. And then we came back and then we ate a little more and. And then we had to clean up. And so it's funny because, you know, you do have these nice moments where you're like this picturesque, right? Ideal. And then you have your reality, which is, you know, kind of chaos and crazy. And I'm just celebrating that whole thing and making that normal, right? That it's totally okay to have something super beautiful and aspirational, but also kind of crazy and wild and realistic in that, you know, you literally sat down to enjoy this gorgeous meal for all of five minutes. So if you can relate to me in that reality, then, you know, don't feel strange. So I'll start by reading the intro to chapter eight. And this is actually a true story about me cooking too. Chapter 8. Enjoy the kitchen garden growth. It was the first spring after I started Rooted Garden, and two of my wonderful new clients offered to throw a party to spread the word. I'm tossing out ideas for the party and trying to sound like I know what I'm doing. I don't. I mentioned a garden to table event where we could serve just pick foods and talk about the value of eating locally and seasonally. The clients, now friends, love the idea. Great. Let's call it a rooted garden to table brunch. They invite their friends and nearly 30 sign up. Wonderful. I call my mom. Yep, 26 are coming. Isn't that incredible? Mom? Silence. Me. Mom, won't it be neat to share my business with that many women? Mom? Silence. Mom, you still there? Yes, I am still here. But I'm just a little worried for you. You barely cook for your own family. How in the world are you going to cook for 30 women? You've never met me. Silence. There's a reason that they say mom is always right, because she usually is. It's true. I'm a gardener, not a cook. But what mom didn't know was that I wasn't relying on my culinary skills to pull this thing off. I had a secret that would make it successful, but don't think that I was too proud to ask my mom for help. So we did in fact end up pulling off my rooted garden to table brunch. It was a huge success and honestly, a huge push for my business. It was such a gift. So thank you. If you're listening, Julie and Jenny, my two amazing friends, first clients who helped me throw that party, what we did there, that was March or April of 2016, and we did a variety of things. So we harvested some things from my own garden and from my client Julie's garden. And then I also purchased Just Harvest Things from Plant It Forward, which is actually a wonderful farming company and business based in Houston that trains refugees to become farmers and then runs a CSA and farmer stand from their produce. It is such an amazing business model. So we served the coolest thing. We made beet greens frittata, kale, and beet greens frittata. I did some braised arugula. We had oven roasted beets, and then we had sweet potato waffles for an appetizer and. And then for dessert, I made rosemary shortbread and lavender shortbread. So literally, I tried to make it as garden to table as possible. And all of the vegetables that I used in the meal were straight from the gardener, were all locally sourced. So I am no cook. And if you follow me on Instagram and see my stories, you know that I like to do pretend cooking. So my forte is definitely more in the dirt than with the pots and things, the pans. But what was so fun at that meal, and I share about this in the chapter in the book, is that so many of these women, many, most of whom I had never met before, were like, wow, this, these carrots are so deli. Oh, we also had carrots. These carrots are so delicious. Or the beets are so good. The frittata is amazing. How did you cook them? And I found myself sounding like a broken record because, honestly, almost everything was cooked very similarly. I mentioned in the book that I love using the salt fat acid heat theory, which I didn't even know of that book when I was cooking this way, but I love her theory so much. I'll link to her book in our show notes. But Chow Semen, I hope I'm saying her name right. It's not Chow, but she's amazing. If you don't follow her, you should check her out. But she, she has this theory that basically you just cook everything with a little bit of Salt, a little bit of fat, a little bit of acid, and some heat. And that's absolutely the way that I roast and cook vegetables from the kitchen garden. So it was so fun to basically have the same kind of answer for almost every question that someone asked me at the brunch. Mostly, like, well, I used some vinegar and some salt and some olive oil, or I used some grapeseed oil and some this and some that. And it was always the salt, fat, acid, and heat. And what I pointed out, as they asked me, is, like, it's not actually the method I use for. For cooking. It's actually more about the source of the food that you're eating that makes it taste so good. So it's not that. It's not what I did with the carrots, you know, that turned them to be so delicious. It's the fact that they were so delicious to begin with because they were fresh and just picked, and they literally came from your very own city. Alice Waters teaches this thought. She has a wonderful class that I've taken inside a masterclass. But I followed her for years. My dear friend Joyce, who introduced me to all kinds of neat things in the kitchen. She's an incredible cook who is kind of like my mentor slash godmother, adopted godmother. She introduced me to Alice Waters. And Alice speaks so much about the fact that the source of the food is really what matters the most. And she prides herself on sourcing great food at Chez Panisse. And in her edible Schoolyard, she teaches children about growing great food right where they live. And that is something I've seen to be so true in my own kitchen. And then also, I've heard so many clients say the same thing. I remember the first spring when we started growing greens for our clients in Houston. One of my clients said, oh, my gosh, Nicole, I hate you. And I was like, oh, no. What did I do? And she said, I cannot. You've absolutely ruined me on grocery store life. Lettuce. Like, I literally can't buy it anymore. And I was like, why? She's like, it tastes so bad compared to what I've been growing in my garden. So now if I'm not growing it, it's like, I can't hardly eat it because I just. I miss the flavor and the taste of the garden stuff so much that I can't stand the grocery stuff. I'm like, yep, I'm there, too. So that really was so fun to discover, or not just discover, discover, but to see that play out in reality in the brunch. Even though it was a little overwhelming to cook for 30 people, my mom, don't worry, did come to the rescue and we prepared all the meal in my wonderful client Julie's home. It was so fun, such a treat. And she brought in help too, so it wasn't a one woman show. I will see if I can pull photos from that brunch up to share with you because it was such a magical moment. But yeah, all bad cooking aside, what I do want to talk about in the remaining part of this episode is the fact that we really are harvesting so much more than vegetables. Let's first talk about what you can expect to harvest from your kitchen garden on a regular basis. And then I want to talk about four other things you're actually picking even though you didn't know it. So I'm going to swing all the way back to the beginning of the book for this little section and talk about I think it was in the preface or the introduction where I'm saying why you should Kitchen garden. And this is the promise I make in terms of quantity for your harvest. At the very least, kitchen gardens can provide all the herbs you'll need year round, either cut fresh or dried and stored. Beyond that, kitchen gardens can yield most of the grains you and your family eat. And greater still, kitchen gardens can provide large amounts of beans, peppers, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes and other fresh vegetables in the height of their season as well. And you'll also have opportunity for preserved foods for even the coldest winters. The dictionary has its own definition of kitchen garden, but after years of working in my garden and with hundreds of clients and students, here's mine. A kitchen garden is the missing piece in the pursuit of a whole and happy life. So in my book and with our clients we talk about basically these are the things you can anticipate plant harvesting from your kitchen garden on a regular basis. Now, this is only if you follow the other parts of the gardenary methodology. So intensive planting, mixing your plants and using the way we we do our planting plans inside of gardenary, so planting perennial herbs, planting loads of greens, and interplanting your beds so that you have a mix of fruiting plants, medium sized plants, and then herbs and greens as well. So what I found over the years is that for the most part in a very small space you really can grow enough herbs to not really have to buy any herbs from the grocery. So in the height of summer and the height of the growing season, this will be seen by you just being able to Harvest these herbs and bring them in and use them fresh. But then toward the end of the season, and this is really where I am right now, it's the middle of September, end of September here in Chicago is we'll be harvesting loads of herbs to save, to preserve, to dry and then to use throughout the winter. So this is the time when I'm gathering loads of oregano and rosemary, sage, tons of mint, lots of thyme and did I say. And even basil to dry and preserve, to use during the winter. So even in a small space, I really don't grow herbs in that much space. In my, in my kitchen garden, I'm still able to grow enough herbs to really supply me year round. And I would say even if you're only growing in say, 24 to 48 square feet of kitchen garden, you can do that as well. Now, beyond herbs, I like to say that with your greens, you're going to be able to pick enough greens to have for about six months out of the year. Now, these six months may not be all in a row, but you can have a six month period of growth pretty much wherever you live. I usually like to stay in really temperate climates. That's going to be from October, October to March. Places like Houston, where Rooted Garden is based, and then in places like Chicago, where I am now, that's going to be mostly from March to October. So I've been on a six months of salad garden challenge myself where I'm able to harvest greens every day for six months. Now, those change over the six months. So I was harvesting sweet lettuces and greens in the spring, and then throughout the summer I was harvesting mustards and kales and Swiss chard. And then I'll move back to the sweet lettuces starting now all the way through November. So you can really harvest greens for at least three, six months. Really, no matter where you live, it just will be a different time of six months. And then again, there are ways to even preserve those greens. So I've frozen spinach for smoothies and kale for smoothies. One of our great garden coaches, Candace Cullen, has taught me how to take my greens and dehydrate them to turn into greens powder. So there's so many ways to take the excess of greens that you're harvesting and to keep them long term so you can use them again and again in your kitchen, even when they're not growing outdoors. Now, beyond the herbs and the greens, you can also be harvesting root vegetables and fruit for certain periods of the year. So most of those plants are going to take more like 60 days to 90 days, sometimes even up to 120 days to finish their life cycle and to produce all that they're going to give you. So what happens instead of you pulling them regularly and eating off them, say daily, you wait for a period, say two months, maybe even three months before you start to harvest and then you're harvesting large amounts all at once. So that's why I say in the book, during the height of their season, you can really say goodbye and skip past those things at the grocery store. So when tomatoes are growing or peppers are growing, there is a season season where you're not touching any of those things at the grocery. And then if you get so many, you can start to preserve some so that you will buy less during the colder months. Now, you guys know me. I'm no homesteader, so I'm not talking about like putting up tons of things in cans and sauces and all that kind of stuff. You totally could do that if you are next level. I am not there yet, but I do harvest enough, say to do some dehydrated, like some sun dried tomatoes kind of thing, or maybe put up a couple of jars of salsa that I might keep at the back of the fridge and use throughout, say the first three or so months of winter. So that's what our picture looks like. If you could imagine a harvest basket coming out of the kitchen garden every single week over say a six month period of time. What you're going to picture in the early stages is tons of greens. So lots of lettuces and herbs and green things, right? Lots of leaves. And then about say 30, 40 days in maybe even 50 or 60, you'll start to see some roots come up with your greens. So most of your harvest basket will continue to be greens, but you'll have some radishes in there and some baby carrots, maybe even some small beets. You'll Also maybe around 60 days, you'll start to harvest things in the legume family like peas and beans. Then you move on from say 60 to 90 days and your harvest basket is still going to be really full of all those greens. So those greens will be at the base of your harvest basket. Then you'll have some roots on one side, so some lettuce, I mean some carrots and radishes and beets. Maybe the radishes might be done by then, but longer carrots, bigger carrots and bigger beets. And then on the other side, you're going to start to trickle in some fruits, so little cherry tomatoes and some of your first peppers, maybe some first cucumbers. And then as you push on over the next few weeks, the fruit section of your basket is going to get bigger and bigger. So you'll have more tomatoes, more cucumbers, more squash. And the greens are still under there. They may have kind of changed shape and they're different kinds, but you've still got this big base of lots of greens. And you've still got some beans coming and some root crops. But the focus, the fruit starts to really outweigh the others. And like when you're lugging the harvest basket inside, you've got tons of fruit on one side. You hit say 90 days into your garden season, 90 to 120 days, and that basket is still got tons of leaves at the base of it, but it's now packed with all kinds of heavy fruit, fruit, eggplants, loads of peppers, tomatoes, maybe even some potatoes, maybe even some okra at this point, lots of beans, all these things that have taken up to three months to fill the basket. So you'll have a really heavy basket for a good while there. And then as the weeks pass on, as you move into say 140 days, 150 days, you're at maybe the five month period, period of your garden season, you're going to start to see the fruit disappear a little bit. So it's going to back off and you'll have less cherry tomatoes, less cucumbers, less squash and zucchini and more leaves again. And you'll almost see a reflection, like a symmetry to it, where your harvest basket slowly is going to empty out of a lot of those fruiting pieces and fill back up again with the greens. So hopefully this gives you a mental picture of how your harvest basket is going to change over a six month period of time. But as you can tell hopefully from this picture I've tried to paint that there are greens at the base of that basket every single time you bring it inside. And that to me is the beauty of really focusing on herbs and salad greens because they are so prolific and they really provide kind of of the base level of your harvest. So that's what you can expect as you harvest from the garden. What you do with it in the kitchen, girl, that is up to you. And if you just want to snack on it right there in the garden and not go anywhere else with it, that's okay. And if you want to throw a big party and show off with 30 guests, you can do that too. Although I Guess right now during this time that might be, make sure you're eating outside and everyone's wearing a mask. But there are so many ways to celebrate and use the harvest. And it really is beautiful to see all the things you can pull out of the garden. Now let's talk about the fact that you're actually pulling a few more things out of the garden than just vegetables. I hint on this all these all the time, but I have to come back to them as we celebrate the end of the book. So the first thing I think that is, so that's really the best thing that you're bringing in every time you bring your harvest basket inside side is wonder. This is what brings me back to the garden again and again. I promise at the beginning of Kitchen Garden Revival that your food is about to become a wonder to you. And what a wonderful thing to be a wonder, right? There are so few things that we touch every single day of our lives. There are a lot of things that we do sometimes once a week, you know, once a day or once a month. But there are very few things that we do multiple times a day every single day of our lives. And food is one of them. It's one of those things we're lifting our hands to our mouth so often and so how amazing that we can take something that's so every day and turn it into a wonder. Something that feels like other and wizardry like, but is is literally so basic as you filling up a plate and eating from from it. Nature is wild, and when you grow a kitchen garden, it exposes you to that wildness in the most controlled manner. I guess it gives you that experience of just getting to see the magic of something so tiny become something so big. I had my own experience with wonder this season with my plant Lucy. If you haven't followed along, Lucy is the tallest lens plant in the world. And I've documented her story on YouTube and Instagram this season. So she was part of a rocky top lettuce mix that I bought from Baker Creek Seeds. And it just. She just stood out literally among all the other salad plants when I was pulling most of them in June, Lucy just was a really unique shaped plant. And she ended up being over 6ft tall or almost 6ft tall. I named her Lucy because she was just. She had a personality of her own. Anyway, Lucy stayed in the garden until just a few weeks ago. So she literally was in the garden more than six months and she was grown from one tiny seed. Now I harvested her seed head and there are Thousands of seeds from Lucy's seed head. Like this one seed grew into a plant that fed me and then now has created thousands of of seeds from it. And it's just so amazing to see how something so simple like lettuce and just one little seed is so miraculous. So when you're working in your kitchen garden, when you're harvesting, take a moment and just think about it. Think about nature and how incredible it is that tiny seeds can grow in a very short time. If you think about about it, it's just two months, three months. This little tiny seed can multiply itself so many times over and become food for you, become vitamins for you. And think about what that means when it moves into your body, it's fueling you, it's giving you nutrition, it's helping your brain work, it's helping you do your work and care for your family. It's just amazing. So when you're harvesting, you're harvesting wonder. The second thing that you're picking when you're out in the garden is understanding. This has been so huge for me, and a big thing that brings me back to the garden again and again. I like to say that the garden is like a microcosm for the universe. So many lessons that I need to learn about life in general and myself are growing right inside of my garden. I can't tell you how many times I've been trying to work through some issue, some challenge, something I'm facing in my personal life or with Jason, or with my children, or with my business or family, and I just can't figure out the answer. And then I'm out in the garden tending or harvesting, and suddenly things become clear. It's like I all of a sudden, can see things a little bit better because of something that's going on with my plants. Here are just a few little truths that we get from. From the microcosm of the garden. One is realizing that everything has a season. I'm always amazed at how fast things transition in the kitchen garden. It's like as soon as I get used to one thing being there, it's time for it to go and something new to take its place. Or as soon as I adjust to a problem that the plant is having or a challenge that it's facing, that's over and a new challenge has begun. And if this is not true for life, and especially true for 2020, I don't know what is. But realizing that there's a season for everything has really been such a lesson of understanding. I've taken from the garden. The second is that good things take time. I'm literally recording this podcast standing under a banner that says that very thing, good things take time. We are in such a instant gratification culture, but the garden teaches us otherwise, that it's just not a universal law that things happen instantaneously. We may be able to get an immediate download on our phone or, you know, win a game online instantaneously, but in real life, in nature, things take time. Even the shortest things, like your radish seed or arugula, it still takes 25 to 30 days before you're going to get to see the fruit of your labor. And there's a lot of things that can happen in between then. And so many things are hidden, right? That's another beautiful lesson of understanding we take from the garden. So much of what happens in the garden is happening underground, and we can't see it. So when those seeds are planted and they go down in the dark soil, there are days on end when we just kind of have to, like, grin and bear it and wait to see if this thing was actually growing roots all along. I also think that we learn the understanding that things that we care for will grow. I remember reading about the power of the garden, and it said, you know, when people care for plants, it's similar to caring for pets where or people, I guess, in my case. But, you know, when you feed something and nurture something, you watch something grow, and it really does something for your soul. And that is so true of the garden. And the opposite is true as well, right? The things we neglect usually go wild or, you know, may have issues. And so it's this great place to kind of study that fact and see it played out in maybe a more neutral place than having to see it in our own, say, personal life or family life to watch the garden and go, huh? You know, I gave a lot of attention to that tomato plant, and it did amazingly well. And I didn't step out and do a thing for the garden when it was super hot and stressful, and look what happened. So the garden is a place of understanding. When you're out there picking food, you're also picking understanding. You're getting a little bit. A little quick meditation, a little download into your brain that says, hey, you know, things are going to be okay. Look at how they worked out here in this space, and they're going to work out in your life as well. I remember I was. I just had my final child, Elaine, and I was kind of questioning whether we would have any more children. And what that meant for me, because my identity had been very wrapped up in being a mom for a few. For more than a few years at that point. And I can remember being out in the garden and noticing the flowers, and I was a sunflower, actually. We had had a huge sunflower patch that year in Houston, and there were. I was watching the flowers turn to seed, so. So if you've never watched sunflowers just create an incredible amount of seeds and they were entering a new season, so the petals were kind of fading and the seeds were forming. And I can't necessarily put it into words, but there was a moment out there in the garden where I suddenly had peace about moving on to a new season, that it would be okay, you know, to stop producing in one way and to move on to a new season in my life. And then I would find, you know, an identity and a purpose there. And I saw that with that sunflower, that it was basically okay with stopping its own bloom and creating seeds for the next year. I know super deep, right? But just thought I'd share. So there is understanding, I think, in the garden waiting for. For us. Every time we step out, the next thing is gratitude. Seeds become huge things, and gratitude is the attitude that can change things for us. I have experienced this so much, and I'm sure you have, too, that when I focus on what I focus on grows. Have you heard that saying? It's so true. I say this to myself often, especially when I start to get too stressed. What I focus on grows. And what you focus on grows, too. And when we are out in the garden and we're harvesting, you're literally focusing on. You're taking time to focus on what worked. Isn't that cool? So instead of spending time on the things that failed and had to be taken out of the garden, when you're harvesting, you're putting 100% of your focus on the bounty, and it's so powerful. So having that gratitude, being thankful for what did grow for what did work, I think just cultivates this spirit of. Of thankfulness inside of us. And I think the world could use some more thankful people. What do you think? I love the. The times. So my garden is right next to my driveway. It was right next to my driveway in Houston as well. And I love the moment when I pull into the driveway and I see the garden, especially if, I don't know I'm tired or stressed or hungry. I can remember several times this year where we took a quick say family trip to see my family or to get away and came back to an empty fridge. And I could look at the garden and see that there were going to be things we could pick to eat fresh that night. Whether it be a salad or some tomatoes for a caprese or some cucumbers to slice up with some vinegar. There was just always something fresh there that we could grab even when there wasn't much in the pantry. Even though my kids would probably complain because they like pantry food. You know what I'm saying? Also that there's always something beautiful to see. Even when things are tough. Plants display this to us in such a great way. Right? Like that each season is so beautiful. Plants have a beauty all their own, even in different seasons. Seasons. I watched the documentary sponsored by Gardening Style, see if I can find the link to it. But I think his name is Pete Ouf. I don't know if I'm saying that right. I'm so sorry to my in laws. So Jason's family is actually from the Netherlands and I think Pete is as well. So I probably just ruined my chances at favor from them because I. I'm not very good with, you know, saying that. Anyway, he. He has an incredible documentary and it follows the seasons in his gardens. He creates the most beautiful perennial gardens. And in the documentary, he talks about the beauty of fall and winter with the plants and how even when it looks like they're dead, they're actually producing all that they'll need for the coming year. And it's just a really beautiful thing. Like his quote there was just so gorgeous. And talking about the fact that there's always something to be thankful for in the garden because even when it looks like things are over, they're actually about to multiply. So when you're out there picking, you are literally focusing on what grew. And that is gonna make you. That's gonna have implications for your life as you try to focus in your own life on things that are growing. The final thing that you are picking from your garden, besides veggies, is, is change. I think this is one of the most powerful parts of the garden, is that it doesn't just stop with us. There are a lot of things we can do for ourselves that are good for us. Right? Or that make us feel good. But I think there are a few things in the world that are good for us and simultaneously good for the whole planet. And the garden is one of those things. You've heard me say that the garden is good to the third power. It's Good for you, good for your community and even good for the planet. And it's so true. So I thought I would close this episode by reading an article from telling the story of one of my heroes. His name is Ron Finley. If you have not heard of him, he is a gangsta gardener and he's changing the world by gardening. This is an article from 2016. I thought it'd be super important and timely to read it now because it was actually during the time of voting for the next president back in 2016 and we are entering a season of that as well. So the title of the article is why growing food is the single most impactful thing you can do in a rigged political system. So I'm not going to read you the whole thing, but I will link to the article in the show Notes I'd love for you to read. It's about a few five minute read and you definitely need to be following Ron Finley. He is amazing. So the start of the article says the most effective change makers in our society aren't waiting around for a new president to make their lives better. They're planting seeds. Quite literally through the revelationary act of gardening. They're rebuilding their communities while growing their own independence. Every four years when the big election comes around, millions of people put their passion for creating creating a better world into an increasingly corrupt and absurd political contest. But what if that energy was instead invested in something worthwhile? Something that directly and immediately improved life, community and the world at large. Did you hear that? It's garden to the good to the third power. Right? Improves life, that's 1. Community, that's 2. And the world at large, that's 3. The simple act of growing our own food directly challenges the control control matrix in many authentic ways. Which is why some of the most forward thinking and strongest willed people are picking up shovels and defiantly starting gardens. It's become much more of a meaningful political statement than supporting political parties and candidates. Propaganda gardening, a combination of guerrilla gardening and political protest, is about developing self sufficiency while making a simple yet bold statement about the world we all share in the the rules we choose to live by. So Ron Findlay is the guerrilla gardener in Los Angeles and he inspires the world with no nonsense truth about how the corporate food system enslaves us. He makes growing veggies cool again, as it should be, because food sovereignty is the very foundation of personal independence. So the article goes on to talk about Ron Findlay's mission, which is so amazing. But he here is some are Some of the benefits, some of the change we make when we grow our own food, we decrease dependence on a polluted corporate food system. We improve health and wellness by providing exercise and nutritious food, freeing us from dependence on a for profit medical system. We undermine Monsanto and the agrochemical industry that's polluting our world and killing bees. We highlight issues of political control by pitting homeowners and gardeners against government and ordinance makers. We build and heal community by providing a place and activity worth coming together over. We work to repair the damage we're doing to the environment with our consumer lifestyles. We protect against insecurity and food unrest, and we facilitate a greater awakening by setting an example for others to follow. When united awareness and action create the kind of change that a rigid control system cannot tolerate, and when extraordinary people like Ron Finley take the lead, a meaningful movement can take hold. All right, so this is a quote from him, and I'll close with this from the article. I had 60 people putting in an urban garden while you guys were marching. Now, who do you think was more effective? Just a few generations ago, gardening for sustenance was not the fringe activity that it's become in recent decades, but because it was a basic daily act of survival, one that will rise again as a controlled economy and engineered economic collapse will make it imperative to join forces with your community and defend your personal sovereignty. Now, wherever you fall on the fence in terms of politics, I think we can all agree that we need to make some changes. And one of the simplest, easiest, most beautiful ways you can make change is, is by starting and growing and harvesting from your garden. So I really believe in the garden. I really do believe it's good to the third power. And I believe that the more of us that garden, the more we can change our communities and the whole planet for the better. So, friend, you were harvesting a lot more than you thought, right? You weren't just picking veggies, tons of greens and herbs and roots and fruit. You were also picking wonder and understanding gratitude and change. And I am so, so grateful you've taken this journey with me. I hope that you have loved the Kitchen Garden Revival Book Club. I have loved the opportunity to dig deeper into the book with you. I'm going to move to the conclusion and read that as we close today. Whether you end this book with a pot of chives or a formal potager, you can call yourself a gardener who's making a difference. And I couldn't be more proud to call you my friend. Thank you for taking this journey with me for considering a new way of eating and living and being. Thank you for bringing back the Kitchen Garden with me. Together, let's think more about nature, fill up on the good stuff, and grow ourselves into who we're meant to be, whole and happy. Here's to your harvest, big and small, and to making the most of every season. And here's to you, my new friend and partner in this important movement that could literally change the world. Now please go share your seeds and overflowing harvest with your neighbor and call me if you ever run out of kale. All my love from my kitchen garden to yours, Nicole. I really do love you. I'm not joking. Thank you so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. Stay tuned. We have a new series, All Time Tons, all kinds of tons of new things coming your way over the next quarter, and I cannot wait to share them with you. So I will see you next week on the Grow Yourself Podcast. Thanks for listening. As we close up this episode in the Kitchen Garden Revival Book club, don't forget two things. One, send your story to hellogardenary.com you can just record an audio, you can take a video, but we need to hear your voice telling your own story of your kitchen garden, what your kitchen garden has meant to you over the last year, and how you've learned and been part of the Kitchen Garden Revival. You can send those to helloardenary.com and next, if you're a gardener, there is no better way to spread garden magic than by starting your own garden consulting business. And I'll show you how in the next Garden Coach challenge. It starts October 5th and you can sign up@gardenary.com challenge. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next week.