Hello friends!
Welcome to the inaugural blog of La Cuisine Cafe, Market and Catering. Several times a week, we hope to publish short snippets about all things related to food. This week’s edition focuses on our organic garden and how it came to be.
8,000 lbs. of Compost Comes Direct from Maine
People sometimes take a quick look at our industrial facade and say “Where the heck do you guys have a garden?” The answer is all around the exterior of the building - in raised beds that we replant each year. Raised garden beds make for better gardening for variety of reasons but probably the most important reason is total control of the soil content. This year, we took our garden to a new level. Ben bought 8,000 lbs. of organic lobster compost from Maine… no typo here, folks. That photo shows 8,000 lbs. of compost being unloaded into our yard here at LaCuisine Cafe, Market and Catering.
In the Beginning They Were Seeds!
Once we received the compost, the beds were mulched and tilled and made ready for seedlings. The seeds we use in our garden are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Johnny’s focuses on organic and heirloom varietals… you won’t find GMO (genetically-modified organism) seeds at Johnny’s and you won’t find GMO seeds in LaCuisine’s garden. Ben and Patty prefer to start their seeds indoors to monitor temperature, water intake, and sun exposure. Starting the seeds indoors helps them make it through the harsh Branford, CT spring.
The First Tomatoes!
After about three to four weeks of indoor germination, the seedlings were transplanted en masse to the outdoor beds. This year, we planted a large variety of vegetables and herbs including four varietals of tomatoes and three varietals of squash as well as cauliflower, lettuce, cucumbers, all manor of herbs, and - of course - Patty’s favorite, the ever-present sunflowers. (Don’t ask me how she gets them to grow so tall. Clearly, Patty has the greenest of green thumbs.)
As I write our first blog post on LaCuisine.net, we are harvesting Pattypan squash, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, and herbs galore - and our early tomatoes are just beginning to show. Yesterday’s thunderstorms added a much needed dose of rain. Dry conditions seem to be the biggest problem for our garden this year.
Happy Ben
Growing our own vegetables and herbs is a labor of love. We toil in our garden to bring you nothing but the freshest ingredients. We note the food items in our market case or on our menu that are made with our own garden produce. At LaCuisine, we practice what we preach. Eat locally-grown food… eat organically-grown food. We’re doing our part to reduce our overall carbon footprint. We thank you all for your support during our first year open at the café and market. Feel free to subscribe to our blog. We’ll keep you updated on all the good things to come out of our kitchen… whether it’s take-out or eat-in, our food is prepared from vegetables and herbs from our own garden… and it can’t get much fresher than that!
Cheers,
Brendan
Tags: Branford CT, CT shoreline, garden produce, genetically-modified organism, GMO seeds, green thumb, indoor germination, Johnny's Selected Seeds, La Cuisine Cafe Market and Catering, locally-grown food, organic gardening, organic herbs, organic seeds, organic vegetables, organically-grown food, raised garden beds, sunflowers, take-out
