An Interview For the Sage Thymes...Ruth Selby: From The Garden

When you hear someone says things like “magical”, “sanctuary”, and “illuminating” to describe a place, you tend to get pulled in. And indeed, the garden at Deer Park did just that. I set up an interview at the garden with Ruth Selby, a student at the CIA. I spent the morning with Ruth, learning about what the garden meant to her. As she is preparing to graduate, she hopes to encourage current students to get involved in the school garden and keep this amazing garden going. Ruth shares with me her time spent in the garden:

CG: When you first came to the CIA, how did you learn about the garden? How did you get involved?

RS: I learned about it from Dr. Luss and Diane Martinez. Dr Loss was an instructor and head of R & D for the CIA and has since moved back to Hyde park, but he started the garden.

I initially thought it would be a good way to be outside. I had moved here from Lake Tahoe and there I worked in restaurants, but during the winter I would work as a ski instructor. I really missed being outside and being active. I also played volleyball in college at the University of Virginia, and soccer growing up.

I love cooking but struggle with how much you’re inside. And you’re on your feet all day, but it doesn’t really count, it’s not the same as really being active.

CG: Had you ever gardened before?

RS: My parents had a garden when I was growing up, but no, not really, not like the garden here. [Deer Park Garden] has been here since ’96, but as a student garden project about only 4 years. This will be the 4^th year that this will be the “student garden”.

CG: How often did you start coming to the garden? How many hours a week do you spend here currently?

RS: I’m here everyday, anywhere from 2-3 hours a day. When I started, I was hooked but the garden last year was much different, we didn’t really have any experience. Diane was really busy and Dr Loss was transitioning over to Hyde Park. There were things in the ground and things growing, but we didn’t come as often. I’d say last year we’d come once or twice a week, and every time we would get here it was like “oh my god, look at everything that’s happening!”and “This is getting away from us”; I was excited and in to it, but didn’t really know what to do. So we would show up and do some work, but things slowed down once people started looking for externships and it became sort of, less organized. The big difference was there was definitely not the same utilization of product as we do this year. This all goes in to the restaurant or the teaching kitchens, which did not happen last year.

CG: Talk about what this garden is to you, and the atmosphere it holds.

RS: My initial reason for being in love with the garden is being outside, being in nature, and being part of my food system instead of being a consumer in my food system. I’m an actor in it. I like knowing seasonality because I know when I planted things and I know when things are truly ripening; not because a chef instructor told me something like “butternut squash is in season Oct-Nov.”

You also learn about the food when you’re cooking it too. You learn why baby zucchini is better than 10” zucchini. You feel the plant, you harvest them. You look at Padrone peppers and when you harvest them you try to see which ones are spicier than others. You spend a lot more time with the ingredient and you know how hard it is to grow something like a really nice tomato. Well, not hard, but it definitely takes some effort. It simply makes you have a different relationship with the ingredients and the preparation of them.

CG: How would you describe this space to someone who has never been to the garden?

RS: (Jokingly) It’s an oasis along side the Napa River! Actually, it is a magical place. I remember last year I would have a really shitty day in Skills 3 or just barely by the skin of my teeth pass my practical and be on the verge of tears and being able to come to the garden and be outside, and see the geese on the river, and hang out with friends in the sun; it was like “everything is right in the universe”.

Last year, my main motivation for coming to the garden was purely to be outside. But as I started coming more, and reading more, and talking to chef instructors, and thinking more about our food system; it only makes sense that we grow as much food as we can. And in terms of being active, that’s a total bonus. It was a great counterbalance to a chef’s lifestyle. It balances the excess of something like calling a purveyor and ordering something and not knowing where it comes from and being able to grow some of our own food and be connected. It balances sitting in lecture, standing in one place all day cutting a bunch of things, cooking with butter, multiple trips to the dessert table…it balances all of those things.

CG: What are your plans when you graduate?

RS: My plan immediately after school is to go to Italy for 2 weeks and work at an olive oil press and learn how super premium olive oil is made. There is a villa that hosts people for an olive oil retreat. People can go get facials with olive oil, learn how to cook with it, and get spa treatments. So it’s going to be a vacation/graduation present/educational trip. Mostly I’m just interested in it, and want to be exposed to great ingredients and know where they come from.

CG: For students who don’t have a ton of time to commit to the garden, is this something you could do once a week? Maybe an hour a week?

RS: Yeah, absolutely! Any student that wants to come out and harvest, walk around, or just come check out the chickens, are more than welcome to come. And we would greatly appreciate the helping hands. It would be great for people to just be aware of the garden. Even if you just come out here and have a look at stuff, and see things like the Padrone peppers growing. Then, when you see Padrone peppers in the Teaching Kitchen, you are less likely to throw them away or pass over them. It would be like “Oh, I saw those Padrone peppers in the garden, I tasted one there yesterday, and those would be really good on this succotash” or “it would add a low throat heat to this sauce”.

And it’s definitely a sanctuary. It’s a way to be involved with food that doesn’t involve high stress or the metaphorical “heat” of the kitchen.

CG: Is gardening something you will continue once you leave the CIA?

RS: I’m planning on moving back to NY city, where I did my externship at Saveur Magazine. While I was there I visited some urban farming projects. There are some rooftop farms in Brooklyn, and a lot of urban farms in deserted lots. They grow a ton of stuff and sell it at the farmers markets in the area. There is an Edible Schoolyard Project in NY, which is an offshoot of the one in Berkeley that Alice Waters founded. They try to put gardens in schools for the children to learn how to grow and cook their own food.

CG: As the ‘farm to table movement’ continues to spread in our industry, and more support builds for programs like you described, do you think its important for chefs and the students here to educate themselves about being an active participant in their food system?

RS: I would love it if there were a gardening class offered by the CIA, or even just a study day in the garden. Or how about “special projects day” is a day in the garden? If chef instructors would assign that, if we could get 5 extra sets of hands in here in one day, we could get so much stuff done!

It’s an illuminating and enriching experience. You cant really read about this in a book. A chef instructor can tell you as much as they can about ripeness, or seasonality, or quality and condition but until you get out here and see if for yourself, do you truly get it. It would be a great thing to have a tour of the garden as part of orientation day for new students, just to let them know what its like.

There are lots of positive things that come from the garden, and I think every visit I learn something new, literally every time I’m here I see something new or learn something about ingredients and gardening. And that’s why I keep coming I think…that and the eggs and free food.