Tom Carey

An inspirational leader’s involvement with righteous endeavors justly deserves the honor and respect history bequeaths them. And what endeavor is more righteous than growing the food we depend upon for all our meals for all our days? At his homestead in the Virginia mountains, Thomas Jefferson created the gardens of Monticello as a model for the future of our young country. The decentralized agrarian society he pictured has taken an errant turn towards corporate industrial socialism, but we can still draw from the simplicity and practicality Jefferson developed in his vegetable garden. More than just introducing new crops, he promulgated ideas that formed the basis of our national psyche.

The garden at Monticello is quite large by today’s standards, although the modern institutional gardens I have seen sprouting at our Central Florida resorts could offer a rough comparable. The terraced south facing beds were an early insight into local environmental microclimate resourcing. Beyond the subsistence farming of his contemporaries, Jefferson was able to grow enough of a variable selection to savor tropical crops along with the standard North American and European cuisine. Drawing from his international inclinations as secretary of state for George Washington, the elite from all over the world came to appreciate for the first time certain qualities of life in the gastronomic spectrum previously lacking in the new U.S.

He may not have been the first to discover the myriad of crops he grew in his garden, but Jefferson popularized many foods we still routinely grow and cook in our kitchens. Okra, brought by the slaves of Africa via the Caribbean tropics, cooked with lima beans, tomatoes and peppers (also relatively new to our collective palate), developed into our first inkling of gumbo. Other attributed introductions include catsup, French fried potatoes, roasted eggplant, kale, lettuce salads, pumpkin pie and watermelon.

Although the term would not become part of our lexicon for another century and then some, Jefferson was an ‘organic’ gardener. When confronted with pest control problems, he recognized that the feebleness of the crop could be contributing to its attractiveness to insects. Advising for long-term soil improvement to strengthen plant resolve, the ‘Sage of Monticello’ recommended that the garden be covered in a ‘coating of manure’ for the winter.

Jefferson promoted the industry of market gardening to encourage the creation of sustainable and respectable jobs, communities, family and health. He considered gardening as important as writing the Declaration of Independence, founding the University of Virginia, or even the presidency. “The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to its culture.”

Tom Carey is the owner of Sundew Gardens, a you-pick gardening business in Oviedo. Visit the Sundew Gardens Facebook page and e-mail him at [email protected]