Hello! I’m Kati Jenkins, and I live in Jonesborough with my family. My husband and I own Main Street Cafe & Catering. We take pride in making all our own soups, sides, sauces, etc. from scratch. One of the reasons I wanted to join Build It Up is to see if I could provide local organic produce from my own garden for the restaurant.
I love gardening! I feel competent at growing herbs and flowers, however, I’ve never been very successful at growing vegetables. This Spring season was a definitely challenging at times, but ended up being very rewarding. As this was truly my first season, I’ve realized the importance of timing, patience, and water. Spring was so hot! I thought I was watering the garden enough initially, but realized I had to shift how and when I water to help the plants thrive. Patience is a virtue. I was waiting and waiting for my carrots or radishes to show some sign of life (after the second sowing because I learned how to water properly) and got so excited to see the little shoots come up. They say carrot sprouts look like thin blades of grass. Once I saw those little shoots, I made sure to nurture them. They grew and they grew, but they never fluffed out. They never got those lovely, curly carrot greens. I had grown some lovely grass. I tried sowing carrots one last time and wasn’t hopeful. To my greatest delight some of them made it, and I have about 10 carrots growing right now. Moral of the story: keep learning and keep trying, and don’t let your seeds dry out.
All of my other Spring crops went pretty smoothly. I didn’t get the quantity I was expecting, but the quality was fantastic. I was beaming with pride when I harvested: black kale, collards, rainbow chard, spinaches, arugula, lettuces, and baby red kale for the first time. I took most of it to the restaurant, and used it in either a soup or the salad green mix. The response from regular customers has been wonderful. They noticed the fresh, new greens in the salad blend. Out of towners loved hearing that the Three Greens and Beans soup came from the owner’s garden up the street. Growing food and then feeding that food to other people is one of the most rewarding feelings.
Looking back on the Spring crops, I could have fit more plants in there. If I were to plant the exact same garden again, I would space them a little more closely together, and water them properly from the start (insert head smack emoji here). I felt like Spring was a good training session, and now it’s game time. May the force be with you and all your Summer gardens.
