One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to visit local gardens – especially vegetable and fruit gardens. It’s a bonus if we’re staying at a hotel where they have their own vegetable garden that is used in their restaurant! I seek out the head gardener (if possible) and get a thorough tour of the beds and the local fruit and vegetables. This is especially exciting if you’re in a completely different place that is growing completely different foods. I ask a million questions – What kind of wood are you using for your beds? Why the netting? What is this plant? And this plant? I’m constantly looking for new design, plant, layout and trellis ideas.
At Cape Kidnappers, in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, they have a great garden – all organic and non-GMO (as is the entire country). Alan, the head gardener, revealed many of the same vegetables that we grow in Napa, such as green beans, zuichini squash, lettuces, strawberries, cucumbers, beet root, and herbs, but many of the varieties were new to me. They have a pumpkin ‘butternut’, for example, that looks just like our butternut squash, but greenish with light-colored stripes. They have netting over everything in New Zealand (we saw it in the vineyards too) so the starlings and other birds don’t eat their crops.
In addition to all of the vegetables, we saw many local fruit plants and trees – cranberries, crab apples, kiwi and apples. Gorgeous!
After touring the garden, I ordered the restaurant’s chopped salad and enjoyed all of the fresh ingredients even more.
