Who Doesn't love fresh food ?

Garden to Table Expert and More

by Joann Deutch

Traveling Near and Far

CAPE COD, MA - I thought puttering in my garden made me a gardener. I stand corrected. Technically a “gardener” is someone who’s paid to work in someone else’s garden. I spent some time with the GardenLady, CL Fornari, [more] who is well versed in horticulture and floriculture. Her lifestyle is a testament to her skills, harvesting from the dirt to her table, making yummy recipes dictated by what’s ripe. Can I call her a “farmer” or “chef”? Probably “amazing” is her best descriptor.

She is passionate about sharing her knowledge. She can rattle off a plant’s Latin name, and the family it belongs to, which is always a useful association for me. She invited me to check in on her crops. The tomatoes were ripe. One for the basket, one for me. Yum they were so sweet. Carrots and kale were ripe and turned up on the menu, although I swore I was going to get through this kale craze without ever having eaten any, CL prepared a seared mozzarella wrap kale dish which won me over.

Blueberries were also in season, and Sparky, her long legged terrier-mix, was assigned the task of routing out the birds from the blueberry patch. It was pretty comical. No matter how determined CL was to protect the berry bushes from the rapacious birds, having covered the bushes securely with netting, the birds managed to infiltrate, keeping Sparky on his toes. In the end both sides got their fair share. It’s pretty hard to stay pissed off at a bird.

CL regularly shares her wealth of knowledge on her call-in radio show (8AM-EST) [link]. She interviews specialist and more importantly answers caller’s questions about fruits, vegetables, trees, bees, bugs, and just about anything you need to know about growing stuff in dirt. She usually nails the cause of your failing horticultural efforts identifying the offending fungus or insect, along with a recommended cure. If she doesn’t know the answer [her favorite thing] she contacts her network to get the answer and then posts it on her blog.

By her generous sharing she makes us better - dare I say it - gardeners.