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FRESH VEGETABLES ARE A HEART BEET AWAY
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Suzan Filipek
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THE ZUCCHINI are growing like crazy, says Lexie Conrad, with daughter Maddie.
Lexie Conrad puts chard on her pasta and in her sandwiches. “It’s delicious. ”Her “zucchini is producing like crazy.” So is the basil. “I’ve even got pesto in the freezer,” she smiles.
A potpourri of smells fill the senses as you walk through her front-yard garden at her N. Van Ness home, which will soon be brimming with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, rosemary and thyme.
The cilantro looked good enough to eat to two women recently walking by. They asked if they could buy it. “I said no,” said Lexie.
Technically it’s not only her garden, or her families: husband Josh, and daughters Maddie, 7 and Joy, 4. The harvest is shared with five other families—called subscribers—through Heart Beet Gardening, launched in 2007 by three Marlborough School graduates.
The trio planted an edible garden at Larchmont Charter School, which led to the pilot urban program—Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA)—in Larchmont, at the Van Ness site and at another home garden on Wilton Pl.
“It’s where we got the most response,” says Heart Beet co-founder Sara Carnochan.
Her partners, Megan Bomba, a graduate student at UC Davis, and Kathleen Redmond have degrees in environmental studies, while Sara majored in literature. Not knowing what they wanted to do after college, and with various levels of experience, they started with a garden for Sara’s mom in her Venice backyard. One plot of land led to another, and today they count more than 100 in their leafy portfolio of “edible wonderlands.”
Consultations are free, and once a site is deemed sun worthy, clients can choose the communal-type CSA garden to share the bounty and the expenses or plant a private one. Either way a maintenance program is available.
“We’re happy when they tell us they’re ready to take care of it themselves, but we’re also happy to help along,” Sara said.
Lexie tends to her garden a few minutes mornings and afternoons and also pays a $10 weekly maintenance fee. Initially she paid $900 for plants and materials. Subscribers pay $25 a week for a basket of fresh-picked produce, hand-picked by Sara.
“This was my sunniest spot,” Lexie says as to why the front yard was chosen. She saves about $30 a month on her water bill since she covered the grass with newspapers, compost and mulch. Her farmer’s market bill has also been slashed since she eats vegetables and herbs picked outside her front door.
You are assured it’s organic, beams Lexie, explaining cilantro “gone to seed,” and other plants draw lady bugs, bees and other beneficial creatures. “We didn’t even have to buy a carton of lady bugs at the store, they make their way here.”
“It’s great. It’s amazing.”
For more information write to Sara at info@heartbeetgardening.com, or call 310-460-9365.
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