September Harvest: Fresh from the Garden
As summer draws to a close, the garden enters a season of fulfillment. Plants have spent the warmer months growing and maturing, and now is the time to enjoy the fruits of that work.
For Dataw Island’s Executive Chef, Dean A. Thomas, that connection between growing and cooking has always been part of his approach to the kitchen. His love of gardening began as a child, when his father passed along what he jokingly calls “10 green thumbs.” Since then, he has kept a garden wherever his culinary career has taken him.
At Dataw, that garden has become an everyday extension of the kitchen. During the summer months, the culinary team grows nearly all of the herbs they use, purchasing only parsley. The garden currently includes English thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, Mexican tarragon, bay leaf, fresh sage, mint and chives, along with several varieties of chili peppers, eggplant and tomatoes.
For Chef, the appeal goes beyond simply having fresh ingredients on hand. “Fresh is always the best,” he says. Herbs begin to lose their freshness the moment they are cut from the plant, making the ability to walk outside and pick an herb just before it is used for something special.
That experience has become a favorite part of the kitchen routine. The culinary team gets to watch the garden grow and mature, then step outside and gather what they need for the day’s dishes. At The Pub, the garden’s herbs are used daily, bringing ingredients directly from the garden to the plate.
Chef also looks to regional ingredients when developing dishes, particularly those that offer an opportunity to add a distinctive flavor, garnish or unexpected twist. And while there is “never a bad time to cook,” he considers fall one of his favorite times of year, as the changing season brings its own opportunities to work with ingredients at their peak.
For Chef and the culinary team, September’s harvest is about more than what is growing. It’s about the simple satisfaction of planting something, watching it grow and ultimately putting it to use in the kitchen. And at Dataw, sometimes the freshest ingredient is only a few steps away.