- In the 21st century, we kind of seem to be obsessed
with always looking for the next new thing.
And if it isn't something new, it just isn't cool enough.
But we all know that new isn't always better.
So all of this noise looking
for the next big thing seems to distract us
from what usually are the simple answers
that solve the problems we're looking for.
However, those tend to be the ones that you can't monetize.
So you'll pleased to know that the secret
to a highly productive vegetable garden doesn't cost
you anything at all.
It relates to you my 2022 gardening mission statement
which I revealed in my last video,
which is to grow for flavor, not productivity,
with the secret to prioritize your taste buds
so you can enjoy incredible yields
and a lot of fun in the garden.
But why does this work so well?
When you focus on what you enjoy eating the most,
three things suddenly happen.
Number one is a spike of motivation.
You get this buzz of excitement and you go above and beyond
to provide the best opportunity for that crop.
Number two, your interest increases.
And usually by going above and beyond what you'll usually do
you're gonna end up learning more skills, techniques,
and knowledge that you can also end up applying
in other areas of your garden.
And number three, your growing space becomes more personal
and meaningful and you find that you
and your garden start working together as a solid team.
The end result, well, you're gonna get a step closer
to an ever more productive and fulfilling garden.
Now I need to just quickly jump in and say
that homegrown produce is always going to taste better,
than what you buy from the supermarket.
Because in a supermarket produce is paid by weight
not by nutrient density.
But to paraphrase Masanobu Fukuoka,
author of "The One-Straw Revolution".
"You can't separate nutrient density from flavor."
Now, the reason why homegrown food tastes so good,
is because you harvest it when it's meant to be harvested.
At peak ripeness and freshness harvest
have the optimum nutrient density.
However, if you store these, even in the fridge
those nutrient levels start to reduce quite rapidly.
This all links to a really powerful story that I read
in Chef Dan Barber's book, "The Third Plate".
So I'm just gonna read a couple of things out here
that I think every gardener needs to hear.
So Dan Barber was speaking to a plant breeder
and the plant breeder said,
"They don't have a face to breed for.
They breed for the two sentence description
on a seed packet.
That's what the whole universe
of breeding possibilities gets whitled down to,
two sentences, and one of them has to be about yield,
and the other has to be about uniformity."
So then Chef Dan Barber ask him a challenge.
"Would it be possible," he asked,
"to shrink a butternut squash but improve the flavor?"
Now, I'm gonna hold off on the answer for just a second
because a rather shocking answer that the plant breeder gave
is why this year I'm growing over a hundred heritage crops
and varieties that I've never grown before,
on my new quest to find the best flavors
that I can get from this garden.
Yes, total yields may suffer, but that's a loss
that I'm willing to take if it means that I can get tastier
and more nutrient dense food from this ground.
So what exactly was the answer
that the plants breeder gave Dan Barber?
He said, "It's a funny thing, maybe a tragic funny thing,
but in all of my years, breeding new varieties
after maybe tens of thousands of trials,
no one has ever asked me to breed for flavor,
not one person."
Recent new varieties of crops have been so focused
on uniformity, size, and shelf life,
that we've perhaps forgotten
the most important element of food.
To help me back up the case of flavor,
I popped over to SY23, a mission star restaurant
to ask the head chef Nathan Davis, a question.
What's the most important part of your menu?
- With us here at the at the restaurant,
we're very focused on ingredients,
ingredients across the board and and different ingredients
that things that we might not necessarily come across
in everyday life.
So we've just been experimental with a grain,
but we've toasted and turned into a type of tea
which is a Korean thing.
And that's just one ingredient that is very local to us.
It's a heritage variety of grains,
it's an ancient grain.
So that's one example of where we are looking
at ingredients, but ingredients across the board
it has to be special to go on our menu.
We are very lucky that we have a set menu
that we dictate the pace and what it is.
So by doing that, it opens up the window we've been able
to get the best possible small producers,
heirloom varieties or heritage varieties
of different ingredients that are unique
and lend themselves to cooking in a special way.
- So which is most important?
Is it how a vegetable looks, or is it how it tastes?
- In terms of the way it looks, we don't care.
We can make something that tastes delicious,
very beautiful to look at quite straightforward,
but fundamentally it's flavor.
- As gardeners, we have this incredible opportunity
to celebrate taste and to not be restricted
to supermarket shelves.
However, I do completely understand the benefit
of growing healthy amounts of staple crops.
To marry your core staples
and then exquisite taste together,
I'm gonna read a short extract from my upcoming book,
about the dual variety list methods
to make sure you tick both boxes so,
"Every gardener should consider having
two separate variety lists for reference
when making a planting plant or putting in a seed order.
The first consists of your staples,
the hero variety for each crop that is tasty,
easy to grow, consistent, and abundant.
On the second, specials list are the more unusual varieties
that will add magic to your garden,
as well as excitement to your cooking."
Dedicate a bit of space either at the end of the bed,
or even in a bucket to grow one or two heritage varieties
that seem to really interest you.
Because at least for me, the excitement and anticipation
of trying and eating that new variety is along
the same lines as harvesting that first tomato
of the season.
The reason why heritage vegetables taste so good
is because our ancestors selected for flavor
and used taste as a measure of success.
However, day success is very much measured by total yields.
What you're gonna find is that over time
as you do this method, you're gonna build
your own curated list of really special varieties
that adds a little bit of magic to your garden.
And it's this bit of magic that makes all of the difference.
And over time you are gonna see for yourself
how quietly powerful this method is
for getting an ever more productive garden.
I think one of the most underrated elements
in any discussion about gardening and productivity,
is actually annual herbs.
And in this video, I talk about why I grew 10 times
as many herbs last year, and I'm going to continue to do so.
And with a growing season ahead of you,
if this doesn't make you grow more herbs,
I'm not sure what will.