New Jersey gardeners win props for crops on Kitchen Garden Tour

By Molly Colgan

More than 100 residents explored the 17 bountiful food gardens on Dirt magazine’s ninth annual Kitchen Garden Tour on Sunday, Aug. 13.

Garden peepers learned how to grow onions and make freezer-ready tomato sauche at Russell Anema’s Franklin garden, found eco-friendly – and back-saving – gardening solutions at Mike and Heidi Della Pesca’s Highland Lakes home, and toured the flower-filled “potager” garden tended by Christina Stephens of Vernon Valley Farm.

“That’s the fun of a garden,” said Stephens. “You’re not just growing vegetables. You’re creating something.”

After a day of garden-hopping, attendees joined the gardeners at Meadow Blues Coffee in Chester, N.Y., for an after-party, where they voted for their favorite gardens while kicking back to live music.

Multiple Sussex County gardeners took home awards.

Vernon gardener Patrick Moynihan was voted Most Hospitable. His property is home to peach trees, dozens of grapevines, beefsteak tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, potatoes, 38 bird houses and a koi pond. Moynihan’s “creative, free spirit” is reflected in his backyard, said an event attendee.

Megan Curry, new to the event this year, took home third place for Best Garden. Her family homestead’s organic, raised-bed garden in Sparta started as a pandemic project and took off. She and her husband, Adam, grow almost everything from seed, including heirloom tomatoes, dragon tongue beans, Red Russian kale and Detroit Dark Red beets. Their garden includes a bed of perennial tea herbs for fresh tea on summer evenings, which Megan dries to enjoy the rest of the year. “Backyard grocery shopping is the best!” she said.

April and Rocco Perciballi, with help from their sidekick grandson Aidan, tied for second in the Best Garden category this year. The Perciballis’ Lafayette oasis, with its expansive koi pond, grape arbor, and fig and pear trees, is a regular favorite at the event. They took first place in 2016 and second in 2015 and 2018. April and Rocco credit their straight-from-the-garden meals with significant weight loss in the wake of their retirements, leaving them healthier and more energetic.

Bob and Kathy Linguanti’s Warwick, N.Y., garden tied with the Perciballis’ for second place.

First place was awarded to Aysha Venjara of Warwick for the second year in a row. Tour-goers were excited to learn how Venjara grows shiitake mushrooms on logs. “Gardens, bees, livestock and even mushrooms inspired us,” said one attendee. “I love that Aysha donates a lot of her crops to a food pantry,” added another.

Greenwood Lake’s Common Ground Community Garden took first place for Best Community Garden. Apple Acres in West Milford took second for the category.

The event, now in its ninth year, is hosted by Dirt magazine, and was made possible by this year’s sponsors: Meadow Blues Coffee, Greenwood Lake Discount Wines and Spirits, Village Hands Cafe, Elite Auto Works, Scheuermann Farms and Greenhouses, Harrison Regen, Maggie’s Celtic Cottage, Gray Barn Farm, Grow Local Greenwood Lake, Sarah May Special Occasion Floral Designer and the Dirt Foundation, a newly formed nonprofit committed to helping people live closer to the earth through eco-conscious journalism, diverse community-building and advocacy of a resilient local food system.

To make a contribution to the Dirt Foundation, go online to donorbox.org/the-dirt-foundation