October 2, 2012:
She’s Tending the Gardens at Local Restaurants
For a story about the gardens Sara Gasbarra (near rose-scented geraniums) has tended for different restaurants during the growing season, including this one at Floriole Cafe and Bakery, photographed on Friday, September 14, 2012 in Chicago. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times
Notice a hint of green peeking out from a restaurant roof, even as fall creeps into Chicago?
It might be a garden. Over the past few years, restaurants all over Chicago have started growing their own food in an attempt to take the local food craze to the next level with distances measured in feet, not miles. Unfortunately, many chefs discover that consistent gardening takes work, specialized skills, and above all, time, of which they have precious little.
Enter Sara Gasbarra, owner of Verdura, a business that creates and maintains custom gardens for some of Chicago’s best restaurants.
Creating restaurant gardens might sound like a cushy job, but this isn’t your backyard lettuce patch or ornamental flower box. These gardens are on rooftops, up ladders, in parking lots and on balconies. They have to produce reliably even during bad weather, prove useful to the chefs who are paying for them and (ideally) turn a profit for Gasbarra. I spent a day visiting her gardens to learn how she does it and why chefs and restaurants should bother growing their own food.
View the complete article at Chicago Sun-Times