I HATE GARDENING. No, let me rephrase that. I hate everything about gardening — digging up rocks, weeding, planting, chasing away pests — everything except that final week before you pick those perfect tomatoes or those greens, when the food beckons on the vine and you have pride of ownership. Recently I was talking to an agricultural specialist, and he used the phrase “stoop labor” to describe the work of agricultural pickers. And I thought, aha! That’s what I don’t like about gardening: My job is hard and physical enough.
The last time my fiancee Yasmin and I had a garden we planted a variety of vegetables, but the only things that flourished besides a bunch of flea-bitten arugula and some transplanted herbs and tomatoes were two perfect round yellow lemon cucumbers. I carefully sliced them with a penknife and distributed a slice each to eight guests we had. The look of pleasure on the face of Yasmin’s uncle, a lifelong farmer and former minister of agriculture in Venezuela, was almost worth all the work.
If I hate gardening, it means I have an exaggerated respect for farmers. The longest relationship with a farmer I’ve had as a chef is with Wyatt Barnes and Amy Tisdale of Red Wagon Organic Farm, whom I’ve been buying from since the first year they started farming. There are some pretty boutique farms I’ve visited, but Red Wagon is a real, scraggly working farm. Their spread, behind the manicured house of a real estate agent, reminds me of the ugly hindquarters of a large animal.
But everything they grow is beautiful. Their arugula is peppery, crisp and spotless. Amateur gardeners may plant a border of marigolds to discourage the flea beetles that feed on arugula, but Wyatt and Amy use a piece of polypropylene tarp called a row cover.
At the restaurant, our arugula salad, made with Red Wagon’s arugula, is a complicated and labor-intensive thing, with precision — cut red onion, paper-thin fennel, chili flakes, pine nuts, fava beans, and mint. When the weather gets warmer, we’ll change it to basil leaves and heirloom cherry tomatoes.
But when I’m preparing arugula at home, I like this simple, five-ingredient salad.
John Broening cooks at Duo Restaurant in Denver, .
Arugula Salad with Walnuts and Parmigiano-Reggiano
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
6 cups arugula leaves, washed, dried and stemmed
1 cup walnut halves
One 4-ounce piece Parmigiano- Reggiano
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the walnut halves on a small baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Cool.
Place the arugula in a large salad bowl. Add the walnuts.
Roll the lemon on a cutting board (this will open up the juice sacs so the lemon yields more juice) and cut in half.
With a sharp paring knife or mandoline, shave the Parmigiano- Reggiano into the salad.
Toss the arugula with the olive oil. Place a strainer over the salad and squeeze the lemon into the salad. Season the salad with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
