The Northeast Georgia Mountains are home to some of Georgia’s top fresh food producers. Vegetables, fruits, flowers, cheese, wine, nuts, grains, poultry, eggs, fish, pork, and cattle are available in season throughout the area. An abundance of fresh water, combined with nutrient-rich soil and a mild climate offer a recipe for excellent, fresh, seasonal foods. Rabun County is particularly known for its cabbage cultivation. Maybe it’s the dirt, but the cabbage that grows here tastes better. As spring moves into summer, we can’t wait for our first ears of Osage Silver Queen corn.
With all this local abundance, each spring we worry about what things to plant in our culinary garden next to the inn. We’ve been to restaurants where, moments before sitting down to dinner, you watch the chef in his white coat tiptoe into the gardens to cut fresh herbs and edible flowers. You only know that you are in luck. We want to offer the kind of experience where the diner sees and tastes things on his plate that he knows came out of the garden minutes before. The chef’s culinary garden should provide wonderful produce, but it should also be near the back door of the kitchen to be just as useful as walking into the pantry. And we want the garden to enhance and add variety, color and unique flavors to our guests’ dining experience.
Through the years we have perfected our culinary garden to our style of cooking. This is what we have planned for this year. We will plant a hedge of Genovese basil, as well as about 8 other varieties and colors. Other necessities include bay leaf, dill, English thyme, tarragon, lavender, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, parsley, savory, and fennel; a rainbow of toy box tomatoes, lemon verbena, bee balm, heirloom tomatoes, edible flowers to bloom in succession. We also have an established orchard of asparagus, raspberries, blueberries, two varieties of crabapple, wild cherries (for drying), peaches, plums and a chanterelle grove. We can also count on Leckie Stack to supply us with some seasonal fruits from the Stack farm, such as Asian pears, persimmons and grapes. And Jenny Sanders will share with us seasonal wild ingredients like ramps, elderflowers and berries, fiddleheads, and a variety of mushrooms.
We would plant an acre of basil if we could. For many gardeners, basil is the queen of herbs. Basil can play many roles while basking in the sun. Basil is essential in our kitchen, but it is also very ornamental in our gardens and on our tables. We add branches to the flower bouquets. Hot summer days become bearable if I can pluck fresh basil and use it in pestos, herbal vinegars, vegetable dishes, and best of all, if I layer the leaves between slices of fresh bread along with a big slice of ripe tomato and a little cream Homemade Mayonnaise.
Basils, a member of the mint family, are native to India, Africa, and Asia, but have a long and rich history of legends and uses around the world. Basil is best used fresh. Small-leaved varieties can be grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill during winter. To preserve the summer flavor for winter, make a lot of pesto and freeze it.
We make sure that each year our garden has several Thai basil plants. It is characterized by a strong fragrance and licorice flavor. Thai basil has many applications in beechwood cooking due to its attractive flavor. It is the highlight of many Asian cuisines, including Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian. The inn’s specialty is Thai basil rolls with peanut satay sauce.
Another staple we plant each spring is lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla). It is native to South America and grows well in North Georgia, but does not survive our outdoor winters. The Spanish brought it to Europe where it was used in perfumery. It has been a favorite for garden rooms in North America since its introduction in the 19th century. It has a clean, strong lemon aroma that makes it the queen of lemon-scented herbs. In Gone with the Wind, lemon verbena is mentioned as Scarlet O’Hara’s mother’s favorite plant. One whiff of the scent, and I predict you won’t want to live without this delicious smelling herb.
The inn’s specialty is lemon verbena ice cream, but we use the leaves in several recipes. It makes an excellent tea, especially when mixed with mint. It can also be used to enhance the flavor of fish, poultry, vegetable marinades, fillings, salad dressings, sherbet, panna cotta, jellies, and vinegar. Since the leaves are tough, remove them before serving. Finely shredded dried leaves can be added to carrot, banana or zucchini bread doughs. Try adding a little to cooked rice just before serving.
A rainbow of toy box tomatoes is an essential to our culinary garden each year. They are cherry and grape tomatoes in a variety of wonderful colors and flavors, some hybrids. The most important thing for the chef is the color palette and unique flavors that they offer. Some are sugary and sweet, others are incredibly tart. But oh, they are beautiful in pies, salads, bruschettas and as a garnish. Last year we planted about a dozen varieties and I had to resist eating them while picking them fresh from the vine. We plant them in giant containers and they surround the Beechwood Gardens. We will often see guests taking a sample as they walk by.
Our heirloom tomatoes are good on just about anything, but one of our favorite recipes is Black Krim Tomato Jam. Our wild cherries and wild apples are very tart, so they are best used in coulis, jams, and remoulades. Blueberries and raspberries will arrive fresh at our breakfast table and will also be baked into sinfully wonderful muffins, breads, and desserts.
The gardens also produce a succession of edible flowers in season. Today, many innovative restaurant chefs and home cooks decorate their dishes with flower buds for a touch of elegance. They can be sprinkled on salads or added to your recipe. The secret to success when using edible flowers is to keep the dish simple. Most edible flowers have a very delicate flavor, so when using them as a flavor component, don’t add them to something that already has strong flavors. Today this almost lost art is enjoying a renaissance.
Not all flowers are edible, and edible varieties must be grown without the use of pesticides or other chemicals. Edible flowers must be carefully identified, and in some cases there are only parts of the flower that are edible (in some flowers, the anthers must be removed). Beechwood Chefs often use a flower as the centerpiece of an appetizer or main dish. For example, we use organic colored lilies and fill them with a light filling of local goat cheese and fresh herbs.
Writing about our culinary garden and thinking about these recipes makes us long for the tomato season once again. Planting our culinary garden each spring renews our spirit and brings us joy. We appreciate the efforts made by local farmers and ranchers, but most of all we thank God for the variety and abundance of fresh produce we bring to our table.