Char-Grilled Kale with Garlic, Thyme and Lemon
If you have never grilled fresh kale before, you are in for a treat. This easy-to-prepare side dish is packed with flavor and cooks up in a matter of seconds.
Backyard Gardening for the Dinner Table
Chef Steve Stallone shares lessons learned and tips for success in starting a backyard garden.
Steve Stallone, a corporate chef and business owner with nearly 15 years of experience in the local food scene, is no stranger to having fruits and vegetables delivered to him in boxes at restaurants and commercial kitchens. Nowadays, he’s also getting his own produce in boxes of a different sort - right from his backyard. The chef had long dreamed of planting a backyard fruit and vegetable garden. Until recently, his busy schedule and plenty of work-related travel had prevented him from doing so.
But once the pandemic and the subsequent shutdown started in mid-March, Stallone found himself at home a lot more. So he decided to dig in and go for it. “I wanted to start a family project, and as a chef, I liked the idea of having a lot of the ingredients I like to cook with readily available,” he explains. “I also liked the idea of becoming more self-sufficient, and not having to go out every time I need something – in other words, creating a more sustainable lifestyle.”
First, Stallone identified the area he wanted to use for the garden, a 50-feet long by 24-feet wide section of his backyard in St. Johns. Next, he set about doing some research which included everything from seasonality to soil to the amount of spacing he needed to allow between each plant. “You have to really look at how much space each plant will need as it grows, and what plants go together,” says Stallone. “You can't plant things together that don't go together, otherwise they’ll kill each other. So I learned a lot about companion planting.”
From there, Stallone drew up a blueprint for his garden, mapping out where he would plant crops that initially included cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, greens, herbs and zucchini, among others. He also left space for marigolds to help attract bees. And with the help of his wife and two young sons - who worked on it almost every day - he was ready to begin planting in just three short weeks.
The hardest part initially, Stallone says, was bringing in all the soil he needed: 50-80 bags of peat moss soil. He also constructed beds and trellises for some of the plants and installed an automated drip watering system. Stallone also decided to start composting all the food scraps from his kitchen, both to cut down on the waste he and his family created and also to provide organic nutrients for the soil in their new garden.
According to the chef, that first round of planting went “pretty well.” However, the second round, which Stallone and his family planted in June (as they were still figuring out growing seasons) did not fare as well, due to the amount of rain Northeast Florida received this summer. “Everything just started getting drowned out from all the rain,” he says. “I probably should have waited until the fall to plant some of it, especially the lettuces.”
Stallone did not give up, and still managed to harvest a number of crops, including cantaloupes, watermelons and pumpkins from his summer planting. And he is applying the lessons he’s learned along the way as he continues to tend to his garden and plant new crops, which he now does every month – or once he removes something – in order to have a constant supply of homegrown fruit, vegetables and herbs.
To date, Stallone’s most important learnings all start with, and revolve around, his soil. “Take care of your soil, and it will take care of your plants,” he says.
For fall, the chef started his plants off in a DIY greenhouse before transferring them to the ground in early September, once they grew to about four inches high. He says they have fared better with some of the insects and elements than the younger plants he had previously planted directly in the ground. And while it’s been a lot of work, he said that as a chef, there is nothing better than having your own garden.
“It’s great to come up with new recipes, and be able to go in your backyard and gather some of the ingredients you need for them,” Stallone says. “And on the flip side, it’s also nice to let whatever’s ready to be picked inspire a new dish, or even just what I make for dinner.” He is also looking forward to including some of his homegrown produce in his holiday meals, such as char grilled kale with lemon and thyme, among other side dishes.
Having a home garden has also prompted the chef and his family to eat healthier, since they now have so many fruits and vegetables within easy reach. However, he noted that his kids are still pretty picky, so in addition to working on his garden in the coming months, he jokes that he’ll also be working on expanding their taste buds.
From Chef Steve's Kitchen