Sheryl's All Organic Garden

Beautiful path the the front door of Sheryl and Gary's home

It is a lot of work to create and nurture a garden that will feed your family. but   Sheryl Reuter has done it.  Sheryl, a member of our traditional Lutheran congregation, bears the aura of the original earth mother..  She and her husband, a local attorney, live on a sprawling, sloping sight on the west edge of town.  She recently designed and supervised a significant remodel of their original home which now features a beautiful, well-equipped kitchen at its center.

Fava beans blanched and frozen for later use

To reach the front door, you walk past bee-filled planters filled with herbs and flowers.  As  you enter the glassed in foyer. you immediately relax.  Our small group shares a meal in the back yard.  We are surrounded by different fruit trees and other plants, some of which are volunteers, and some have been planted.

Honey bee on a leek blossom

Sheryl and her family eat the food from her garden all year long.  She shared some of the food with us at our meal.  She demonstrated how she preserves all of her food for use in the winter.  She has various techniques including freezing, drying and canning.  She showed us some freezer containers of eggplant, peppers and zucchini.  One of her favorites is a plumb sauce which is made without any added sugar.  She also cans hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, all grown from her own garden.

Sheryl with her budding green beans

Sheryl does not use insecticides and she does not purchase anything grown with the use of pesticides!!  We have a lively discussion on the pros and cons of purchasing our vegetables organically, or conventionally grown. Her views are at odds with those of some of the farmers in our congregation.  There is a new list of the "dirty dozen" foods that it would be best to purchase from an organic grower. Doctor Oz even recommends purchasing organic coffee and dairy products.

Next Sheryl takes us on a walking tour of her garden.  We pass an entire flowerbed planted with lambs ear.  It is literally vibrating with all of the bee activity.  Sheryl explains that she originally started with one or two plants, but they have reproduced--with a vengeance.  Next we look at the dozen or so gravenstein apple trees. (Did she have that many?  I thought she had only one big one)  Sheryl does not like apple sauce, so she cans them in chunks.  (I think we need to check this one out--does she can or freeze them? When one makes applesauce--and I love Gravenstein applesauce--one usually chucks them and "stews and mashes them" before canning.)

Next we get the tour of the garden.  It is surrounded by a six-foot-high, metal fence to protect it from marauding deer. The garden starts at the top of the hill with some raised beds.  Sheryl has as many kale and chard starts as you could ever hope to use in a life time.  Swing by she'll give you some.  Sheryl's attitude about pests is laze-fair.   "So what if they eat a few?"  she says.  Apparently she has enough to go around.

Down the hill are planted tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.  The garden is huge (around 200 square feet?)  Along the eastern lower edge Sheryl has a compost pile.  She has a recipe for her compost.  You add a little of this, and a little of that.  The most important ingredient is worms.  "Red wrigglers, not earth worms!"  She exhorts.

Cocoa Relaxes under the tomato plants

We go away from the event amazed at the amount of work Sheryl puts in to growing and preserving her own food.  We wonder how she has time for anything else in her life. Sheryl is one these people who has bursts of creative output.  Maintaining a moderate homestead landscape can be a full time job.  When you add a huge garden on top of all that work, it would be overwhelming to most of us.  Of course, Sheryl does have a crew of Hispanic gentlemen who helps her out occasionally!