As Jamie knows firsthand, a garden
can turn a backyard lawn or school lot into
the foundation of months of fresh meals,
a delicious antidote to an obesity epidemic
that has put a generation of Americans in
danger of dying younger than their parents.
Getting gardening to catch on, though,
means starting with crops that have an
immediate payoff— in the garden and the
kitchen. To that end, Jamie has his favor-
ites: Quick-sprouting lettuces give crunch
to a salad with crostini— and collapse when
braised with peas and tossed with pasta;
mint and other herbs lend blasts of seasonal
freshness. Bountiful chile peppers spark up
a veggie stir-fry* Old standbys like squash,
potatoes, and carrots are easy to grow and
endlessly versatile, whether they’re used
individually (as in a multicolored carrot
salad) or together (in a soup that captures
the harvest in a cup).
At home, Jamie likes to make a game out
of gardening, “When a zucchini or pumpkin
starts growing, I can score niv daughter’s name
on it, ‘Poppy, you’re the best.’ Then a month
later there’s this huge grown thing screaming
out her name, and she’s like, ‘Wow.’”
Gardening takes time and commitment,
but they’re a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Jamie envisions a future in which American
children not only eat healthful meals at
school but understand the “incrediblc-
ness” of growing their own, “Would that
dramatically change the health statistics of
America in the next 10 years? Profoundly.”
Jam ie likes to g ro w chile
p ep p ers to spike such
d ish es a s a quick veggie
stir-fry to ssed w ith egg
noodles and se rv e d w ith
sliced ste a k , top, an d
p a sta w ith b ro cco li an d
an ch o v y , op p osite. S p read
a low -fat so u r-cre a m icing
onto an easy c a r r o t cak e,
above
, to sh o w y o u r
ch ild ren th a t th e g ard en
ca n supply th e m ak in gs of
d e s s e rt, to o . B raised p eas
w ith le ttu c e ,
left
, can be a
side d ish , a w a rm salad ,
o r th e b ase of a quick
soup. B ecau se p e a s can be
a bit lab o r-in ten siv e to
grow , Jam ie sa y s, th e re ’s
no sh am e in fro zen .
Recipes begin ort page
172
W IT H S'
