Grow Get 'Em
Meet the author and the newsletter
When I was a kid, one of the things I looked forward to more than anything was my family’s annual summer garden. Each year in spring, my whole family would descend on the garden in the backyard of my rural Wisconsin childhood home. The garden–unfathomably large in my mind’s eye– was my mom’s summer project while I was her, hopefully, helpful and eager sidekick. As the season progressed, we would plant a vast assortment of crops in the garden, snacking and sampling as summer went on.
Eventually I convinced my parents to let me put a sunflower bed in the very corner of our property–behind the burn barrel but in front of the fence. Sunflowers are simple enough with their large seeds, strikingly beautiful golden heads, and mystical tendency to face the sun (turns out it’s less magic and more heliotropism). My parents rewarded my passion with what became my beloved raspberry patch. I took a sort of “set it and forget it” approach to my brambles, which proved to work out in my favor. I left them alone and was still, somehow, rewarded with an annual crop of raspberries just for me.
All of these attempts were fueled and supported by my parents, especially my mom. One summer while working in our flower garden, I asked my mom what she would have gone to college for if she could have gone for anything. Horticulture. I had no idea what that was, but after hearing her explanation and doing a bit of my own research I came to a conclusion: I was going to be a horticulturist. Never wavering, I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture with a focus in Specialty Crop Production from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Facing a lot of competition during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, my experience in viticulture and enology research (oenology for the real ones out there), orchard and annual plant production, and plant science education consistently proved to have little sway on employers. My charming personality and breadth of knowledge won me a job at a distillery in Central Texas, followed by a garden manager position. During these jobs, I decided I wanted more than my Bachelor’s, and began pursuing my Master’s degree in Gastronomy from Boston University. This program expanded what I thought I knew, and gave me the ability to see things from a variety of perspectives and disciplines.
These experiences lead us here, to this newsletter. While I am by no means an expert in horticulture or food studies, I am always working to learn more. More than that, I am always hoping to share what I learn with those around me. This newsletter is not necessarily intended to be a step-by-step guide to gardening, but is instead meant to function as more of a shared diary. We can all learn from my mistakes and successes in my very first just-for-me garden, where creativity and curiosity will guide my choices. Because of that, there are strategies that will be employed not because they are always 100% backed by sound science, but because they are something I enjoy or have had success with in the past–like companion planting. In doing this together, I hope we can form a community of neophytes and professionals, nature lovers and homebodies.
Now, let’s grow get ‘em.