Garden-to-Fork: The only thing better than farm-to-fork is garden-to-fork

The only thing better than farm-to-fork is garden-to-fork. Little compares to picking your own sweet ripe tomato and pinching off basil leaves for a homemade lunchtime caprese salad. Or, harvesting squash, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and onions to make a delicious caponata

A wire mesh covered hoop house protects Nan Sterman’s vegetable garden from hungry critters

This year, I’m growing great vegetables in a really cool mesh covered hoop house I had built last summer.

I’ve been growing vegetables nearly all my life. I start seeds in March, nurture the seedlings till May, and plant them into the garden. That worked great until a few years ago when the rats got so bad that every seeding I put in the ground disappeared overnight.

Seemed that once our hunter cat passed on, the rat and rabbit populations exploded. We tried every type of trap and non-toxic bait available – with little success.

Still, I wouldn’t give up.

When killing and trapping didn’t work, I turned to Plan B – exclusion.

Plan B

I’d seen wire mesh covered frames built to fit over raised beds but they were too limiting and cumbersome. But…what if the wire mesh framed the

Half-inch wire mesh keeps critters out but lets pollinators in to Nan Sterman’s vegetable garden

entire garden instead of a single bed? Like a room… four walls and a “roof.” That would work!

According to my contractor son, the weight of enough mesh to cover my 20’ x 20’ garden would require a support post in the center of the garden.

That would put it in the center of one of my raised beds. That wasn’t acceptable.

Then, one day, I was in one of my favorite wholesale nurseries and noticed the plants growing in plastic covered hoop houses. I’ve walked in those houses and shopped that nursery so many times in the past, but I hadn’t really noticed the structures before….

How wide are those hoops houses? I asked the general manager. About 20’ across, he said. And where do you get the hoops? There’s a local man who fabricates them, he said.

A month later, my own hoop house was under construction, but mine was to be covered in wire mesh instead of plastic. It was the crew’s first time creating a mesh-covered house but they were game to do what I asked. I special ordered welded wire mesh (aka “hardware cloth”) with half-inch openings. That was the size experts told me would exclude rats and rabbits, yet allow in bees to pollinate my vegetables.

And…. it’s working! I’ve already harvested zucchini and basil and patty pan squash. Tomatoes are still green but the sunflowers are blooming. Yeah!

Raised beds are home to tomatoes, squash, eggplant and many other vegetables

The mesh covered hoop house has brought more to the garden than I expected. It’s added structure and interest and I am dreaming up ideas for adding art to the hoop house, too.

— Nan Sterman

farm-to-fork