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Visit over a dozen backyard food gardens this Sunday

Chester. Dirt mag’s Kitchen Garden Tour returns this Sunday, July 31. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., ticketholders will hop from one veggie patch to the next, viewing the gardens and chatting with the green thumbs who planted them. The farm-to-table after party runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at Meadow Blues in Chester, where gardeners and ticketholders meet up to celebrate the day over food, drinks, and live music.

| 25 Jul 2022 | 05:28
    Karin Harrison’s Florida, N.Y. garden is a longtime favorite. She’s showed her garden in the Kitchen Garden Tour multiple times, and was voted “Best Garden” in 2019.
    Karin Harrison’s Florida, N.Y. garden is a longtime favorite. She’s showed her garden in the Kitchen Garden Tour multiple times, and was voted “Best Garden” in 2019.
    The Landmark Inn’s garden features and abundance of freshly grown produce, which the restaurant uses in its dishes.
    The Landmark Inn’s garden features and abundance of freshly grown produce, which the restaurant uses in its dishes.
    Vernon Valley Farm’s Christina Stephens plants a “miracle garden” outside her kitchen door, where she grows an abundance of okra, sweet potatoes, blueberries, herbs, salad turnips and much more.
    Vernon Valley Farm’s Christina Stephens plants a “miracle garden” outside her kitchen door, where she grows an abundance of okra, sweet potatoes, blueberries, herbs, salad turnips and much more.

Dirt magazine’s Kitchen Garden Tour returns for its eighth season of garden hopping this Sunday, July 31.

Equipped with a map of over 15 kitchen gardens, attendees spend the day marveling at their neighbors’ backyard produce, and learning new tips. Afterwards, gardeners and attendees gather at Meadow Blues in Chester, N.Y. to vote for their favorite gardens, and enjoy locally crafted beer, wine, and hors d’oeuvres.

A sneak peek

Karin Harrison, who took third place for Best Garden in 2019, will be showing her unique front yard garden during the event this Sunday. She spends up to two hours in her yard each day, where cares for a peach tree, a sour cherry tree, blueberry bushes, strawberries, kale, various tomatoes, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, potatoes and more.

Christina Stephens, the farmer behind Vernon Valley Farm, will be showing her “miracle garden” again this year. “It started off as a place to plant the transplants that needed more attention or were not suitable for the big production garden,” she said. “It became so abundant and beautiful that I continued to plant it every year. It’s a miracle that they not only grew but thrived. It’s a place for me to harvest food for dinner and it is conveniently located outside my kitchen door.”

This year, Stephens is harvesting okra, mammoth sunflowers, corn, sweet potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, scallions, salad turnips, beets, basil, rosemary and much more.

After picking up a few tips from the local farmer, attendees can pop over to the Landmark Inn in Warwick, N.Y. There, they’ll see the restaurant’s booming veggie patch and meet with owner Michael DiMartino, who started the garden during lockdown in 2020. He used the time he would have been in the kitchen to build multiple raised beds and plant a selection of herbs, tomatoes, and vegetables. Attendees will find zucchinis, yellow squash, eggplants, chili peppers, a variety of beets, a variety of radishes, Brussel sprouts, dinosaur kale, Swiss chard, cucumbers and more at the Landmark Inn’s organic garden. The fresh produce is used in the restaurant’s dishes.

Visit these gardens and over a dozen others at the 2022 Kitchen Garden Tour this Sunday, July 31. Limited tickets are available at kitchengardentours.com