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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Michele Owens, author of Grow the Good Life
  • Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:42:45 -0700


A Visit to My Kitchen: Michele Owens, author of Grow the Good Life
February 17, 2011 by Maria Rodale
http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/a-visit-to-my-kitchen-michelle-owens-author-of-grow-the-good-life/

Michele Owens is in my kitchen today, talking about her love for the
all-natural, and her guilty pleasures, gardening catalogs and fashion blogs.

Michele is a gardener, business writer, former political speechwriter, and
author of Grow the Good Life: Why a Vegetable Garden Will Make You Happy,
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise (2011). She’s a founding partner of Garden Rant,
one of the most popular and influential gardening blogs, and writes about
gardening for publications including O, The Oprah Magazine, and Organic
Gardening.

She lives with her family in Saratoga Springs and Salem, New York. You can
follow the progress of her 2011 vegetable garden at Michele-owens.com.

Why is living organic important to you?

It’s the only thing that makes any sense. Using chemicals to grow food crops
is completely counterproductive. The science increasingly demonstrates that
you only wind up with more pests, less-resilient soil, and lower-quality food.

I find that the more my vegetable garden resembles a natural ecosystem, the
better it does. I don’t do anything anymore except mulch once a year—no
tilling, no fertilizing, no liming, no fussing. And my garden is gorgeous.

Plus, I’m organic because I’m a total foodie. Conventionally grown food
tastes nasty, while homegrown organic vegetables are just sublime.

What was your favorite food growing up?

My mother’s spaghetti and meatballs. Those meatballs were stuffed with garlic
and herbs, and her sauce was delicious. My mother is European and made
everything from scratch. So while my friends were being fed Ragú and Chef
Boyardee, I was getting the good stuff.

What’s your go-to comfort food now?

I’m not really looking for comfort in my food. I want excitement, adventure,
sex, spices, revelation….

But if you ask me which quick-cooking meal leaves me aglow on a winter
weeknight, it would have to be a wonderful Indian stew out of a Madhur
Jaffrey cookbook, or an equally wonderful Italian stew—maybe beef with
pickles and capers—from Marcella Hazan.

What’s the one thing in your kitchen you just couldn’t live without?

Oh, I like nice equipment, but the only thing I really couldn’t live without
is my vegetable garden. I’m constantly pushing into new frontiers as a cook
and an eater, thanks to the garden. I’ll grow anything—I love trying the
weird and unfamiliar—and then I have to figure out how to cook it, so I’m
always learning something new.

What magazine, website, book, album, or product are you most obsessed with
right now?

Is anything in the world more fun than a seed catalog? I adore Fedco Seeds,
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Seeds from Italy—read every word of them and
order profligately from them. Spend $1.50 on a package of seeds of some
unfamiliar vegetable or unfamiliar variety, and it can open up a whole new
world in the kitchen.

What’s the most important news story today that you think we all need to pay
more attention to?

Climate change, the stress it is putting on agriculture around the world, and
the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 without destroying the
planet. It drives me crazy that in this land-rich suburban country, we
Americans generally produce nothing in our yards but lawn clippings. I wrote
my book to make new gardeners. I think everybody should grow a little food in
the backyard—and not just to ease the pressure on the world’s limited supply
of arable land—but also because gardening makes people happy.





  • [Livingontheland] Michele Owens, author of Grow the Good Life, Tradingpost, 02/18/2011

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