Warrior Magazine December 2018

Cultivating culinary skills at ECCC Chef’s garden enhances education

P eople have been garden ing for centuries in one way or another. There are single family gardens and large farms that produce for the masses. There were “Vic tory Gardens” as far back as World War I and II, which not only helped increase food production during the war efforts, but also instilled a sense of patriotism in the communities in which they were planted. Today one Some people garden for the fresh and healthy benefits of home-grown food, others to save money, and for many, it’s simply a relaxing hobby. Restaurants have also taken to planting rooftop gardens and planters of heirloom vegetables and herbs to ensure the freshness of their prepara tion. For East Central Community College Culinary Arts Technology instructor Chef Barry Karrh, a community garden, which he started in 2012, was a way to enhance Teaching & Learning. In addition to grow ing fresh ingredients, he also included the arts of canning, freezing and drying as practical parts of the curricula, which in turn allows for a stocked kitchen full of fresh items he is able to use in the class room. “Because we try to keep a variety both in the garden and green house, we use fresh herbs throughout our projects, and feature might find com munity gardens in urban areas, which are plots of land that are usually rented by individuals or groups for private gardens in areas with not much land.

the vegetables in every class from Culinary I and II to Garde Manger and International Cuisine,” said Karrh. The garden really took on a new life af ter a lengthy visit between Chef Karrh and EC alumna the Rev. Jane Todd Gurry. “Rev. Gurry started the ball rolling and inspired me to use Mississippi native plants which were drought tolerant and would preserve our regional heritage,” Karrh said. The original garden began with a dona tion from the Decatur Progressive Club, as well as income earned catering for the ECCC Alumni Association. Later gifts given to the ECCC Foundation’s Culinary Garden Account helped with incremental expan sion. Presently the garden includes variet ies of Swiss Chard, Better French lavender, blue sage, chives, al lium, garlic, Ti plants from Hawaii for pit barbeque, sugar cane roots, fraise du boi and pink rose strawberries, pumpkins and gourds, bell peppers, and white, orange, purple and yellow carrots. It also includes a Hawaiian pineapple, which was sprouted from a plant that was donated. Chef Karrh said they rotate sections ac cording to type of plant and season. “This way not only are we replenishing the soil through the nutrient exchange of natural crop rotation, we use the compost generated from the garden as a free/natu ral fertilizer,” he said. The garden is maintained by Chef Karrh and his students, as well as some commu nity partners. Karrh said, “The garden has been vis ited by local chapters of the Boy Scouts Boy Tomatoes, Big Boy Toma toes, Marigolds, Golden Pansies, Silver Queen Corn, Yellow Dent Corn, red sweet potatoes,

“ ” ...Every summer the kids in Culinary summer classes spend time in the garden and learn about growing food simply and naturally.

– Continued on page 10

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