Edible French Garden. Rosalind Creasy
them out under shade cloth. Lettuce survives the winter if it's started in fall, as do other cool-season crops such as mâche (corn salad), dandelions, leeks, cabbages, and the root vegetables.
When Georgeanne and Charlotte selected vegetables for their garden, they chose primarily French heirloom varieties, those popular in the nineteenth century but still carried by French seed houses. Georgeanne explained: "France is having some of the same variety-erosion problems afflicting most other modern nations. By using nineteenth-century varieties, we could do our share in addressing this problem while still growing exceptionally tasty varieties."
Georgeanne's descriptions of preparation techniques for most of the varieties she and Charlotte grew should give you a good overview of the potager garden. In her detailed explanation to me, Georgeanne started with the two varieties of radishes: 'Flamboyant,' a long red-and-white French breakfast type, and 'Sezanne,' a round one with a magenta top. According to Georgeanne, radishes in France are often served as an appetizer with French bread and butter; for centuries this has been a favorite midmorning snack for farmers. Next, she pointed out the two bean varieties: 'Coco Prague,' a French horticultural shelling type with splashy red-and-white pods and one of the traditional beans used fresh in soupe au pistou, and 'Aiguillon,' a thin filet-type snap bean. The two varieties of tomatoes were 'Super Mamande,' a development from the old 'Marmande' and a good French stuffing tomato, and 'Oxheart,' a flavorful, meaty tomato. Georgeanne's excited anticipation of the coming summer garden became obvious as she talked of the tomatoes. "They'll be ready in high summer, and there's absolutely nothing better than going out to the garden and picking a few before dinner. They are still warm from the day's heat then, and all their flavor and aroma are at the maximum. As you can see, like the French, I love tomatoes and feel that life without them is inconceivable."
Also included in the garden is a winter squash, 'Musquée de Provence,' a fluted buff-colored squash filled with thick, dense, orange meat. Charlotte and Georgeanne keep the squash in the garden until the first frost and then put them in the garage for the winter. One of Georgeanne's favorite ways to prepare this squash is to cube it and cook it slowly with olive oil, garlic, herbs, and grated cheese.
I asked Georgeanne to explain in detail how the potager garden was harvested. In the typical American garden, full-size vegetables are gathered sporadically, but a large harvest of even one vegetable from the potager garden would be unusual. The idea is to do a daily mixed harvest, taking what is necessary for the day's soup, salad, stew, and/or vegetable side dish. Certain vegetables are planted with specific, and sometimes a number of, purposes in mind. For example, the potager gardener might sow chard, beets, and maybe lettuce and mâche thickly in a bed and then partially harvest most of them in a few weeks as thinnings. And some leeks and onions might be harvested young and eaten small and braised; then months later the larger vegetables would be picked and cooked in a different way. And there might be a gathering of a large number of certain vegetables—cabbages for sauerkraut, or tomatoes before a first frost for some sauce—but usually for specific purposes. Mostly the harvest is determined by the needs of the day. For instance, potatoes, after reaching new-potato size, are harvested only as needed, not all at once. A leaf or two of broccoli or a head of cabbage might be picked from the garden and added to a soup. Preserving for the next season is not a primary goal, as the garden produces for most of the year, yielding vegetables and herbs in their ideal state—garden fresh.
My front walk highlighted with red roses and lined with chamomile in the parterre style, also includes beds of rosemary, oregano, parsley, and thyme.
The garden to its left overflows with French varieties of lettuce, carrots, chard, fennel, and Belgian endives.
I was enchanted with the potager garden, not only because of its versatility but also because of its individuality. In just about any yard and climate, a variation of a potager garden can be created to reflect the gardener-cook's personal taste, and the rotation of just two or three little beds yields fresh salad greens -and herbs for most of the year. The potager garden is infinitely expandable, since it's really more a concept than a specific garden plan.
The Will Garden
Jeanne and Dan Will are avid gardeners, and their beautiful herb garden in Brookside, New Jersey, inspired many gardeners in the area. A number of years ago I called the Wills in midspring to ask if they'd grow a French garden for my French book project; they plunged right in with the intention of growing a kind of garden they hadn't tried before. Their usual vegetable garden was an area off the greenhouse surrounded by a wire fence. It was very utilitarian but had not been designed with aesthetics in mind. On the phone I had mentioned the beautiful kitchen and parterre (flower bed) gardens in France, and the Wills became inspired enough to look into the history of the French garden, and to plan their own variation of the classic French garden, distinctively geometric and decorative. With dedication above and beyond anything I expected, in one season they set about creating a miniature latticed garden filled with flowers and French vegetables and herbs.
To help them get started with the vegetables, I recommended a selection of French varieties and some French herbs with which they were already familiar. I kept in touch with Jeanne, who would be doing the day-to-day gardening, throughout the spring and early summer, and in midsummer I went to New Jersey to visit. The garden was simply glorious. It gave a true French feeling, and the vigor of the plants spoke to both the care they had been given and the wonderful condition of the soil. The vegetables, of course, were the primary focus, and they were planted throughout the garden in long, rectangular beds. A latticed fence, painted light gray, surrounded the whole garden.
The French vegetables included 'Lorrisa' and 'Marmande' tomatoes, 'Cadice' bell peppers, 'Arlesa' zucchini, 'De Carentan' leeks, 'Vernandon' haricot beans, 'Paros' chard, 'Cornichon' cucumbers, 'Oak Leaf and 'Mantilla' lettuces, 'Planet' carrots, and charentais melons. Also included were mâche, French sorrel, arugula, a frisée chicory a friend had brought from France, and, of course, lots of herbs: "I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the produce," Jeanne told me. "Many of the varieties were distinctly superior to those I'd grown in the past. I noticed that some of the plants were smaller, but they seemed equally productive." All in all, Jeanne and Dan Will were very pleased with their French garden and hoped to keep growing many of the vegetables in the future.
Jeanne and Dan Will's New Jersey French garden was designed in the French parterre style. In the beds are eggplants, bronze fennel, tomatoes, and lots of herbs.
interview
Georgeanne Brennan
Working on a book about food can be dangerous to your figure. For days, as I transcribed the information on French cooking from Georgeanne Brennan, onetime co-owner of Le Marche seed company and author of Potager, I would eat and eat. As Georgeanne described dipping French bread into sun-ripened tomatoes mashed with garlic and basil, off I went to the kitchen. When she described a chard tart with sultana raisins, pine nuts, and honey, I found myself needing a snack. We all know how deeply the French value good food, but Georgeanne's recollections emphasized the fact.
Born in California, Georgeanne went to school in France, where she later married and settled in an old farmhouse in the country. There, far from the supermarket, she and her husband raised goats, and she grew and cooked the family's food. Eventually they moved back to the United States, but Georgeanne still retreats regularly to her old farmhouse in France for weeks at a time to research vegetables and recipes for her books.
One of Georgeanne's descriptions of living in the French countryside exemplifies the French respect for food: "The first time I had fava beans, a local farmer came to the door and said, 'Here are some favas for you.' He saw my blank look and, transported by the first favas of the season, proceeded to show me how to use them. He shelled the beans and asked for a skillet. Then he heated up a little butter and oil and soon stood over my stove, cooking away. He just popped those beans into the oil and butter, added a little salt and pepper, and shook