In the Greening Garden of...Pizza!

Once, while leading a FarmHands-CityHands tour through Betsey Ryder’s beautiful production garden, I asked a group of inner-city kids if they could identify the herb we were passing around. Rapt, they inhaled the aromas released when they crushed the leaves with their fingers.

One young man raised his hand. Did he know which herb this was? “Yes!” he shouted enthusiastically. “It’s pizza!”

“No. It’s oregano. But it’s used on pizza.”

And so began a delightful sensory tour of farm and garden that included savoring countless shades of green, listening to growers, walking rows, picking plants, crushing leaves, smelling, tasting, feeling, naming…and learning, first-hand, what does and doesn’t grow on trees.

We were treated to cool mint, rosemary, oregano, two colors of basil, three kinds of thyme, and so much more. And THEN we had pizza, topped with all these fresh hand-picked herbs...some of which were at first vaguely familiar to our group, many of which were newly recognized, and all of which were now savored in every sense and experienced by both sides of the brain (the right side of which forms and processes impressions; the left side of which analyzes and names).

It’s the kind of tour that I think we all should be taking more of these days.

And fortunately, we can! In so many ways.

For starters, in New York City, there are:

* Greenmarkets, now celebrating their 30th anniversary
* Newly launched Real Food Markets
* Waldy’s Wood Fired, where you can snip your own fresh-grown herbs onto penne and pizza

Wherever you are, you can:

* Find and share local resources
* Support local farms and pick-you-own programs
* Grow your own...be it in backyard, window box, in kitchen or on desktop
* Stay tuned to The Senses Report where you can learn, among other things, how and why Tasting WINE can be one of the best sensory training grounds of all!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, The Senses Bureau