Brigitte Doffo has always considered herself a green thumb. From a young age, she helped her Dad, Marcelo, tend their small garden and a few fruit trees in the backyard. Like many people, Brigitte decided to lean into her hobby at the start of the pandemic and build up her garden at her home. Now looking more like a small farm than a simple garden, Brigitte has been expanding the variety of fruits and vegetables she grows and plans to start offering her homegrown produce and eggs at her farm-to-table market called “Batata” soon! We caught up with Brigitte to hear more about her journey!
As long as I can remember, I would help my dad in his “quinta,” or garden. Typically he had a raised planter in our backyard where he grew radichetta (a bitter lettuce popular in Argentina) and some fruit trees in the backyard. I was always curious and willing to get my hands dirty.
When I started working at the winery I asked to work outdoors more than indoors. There were so many roses to prune and feed and a large family orchard in the back of the vineyard. The area that is now the Events Piazza used to be a large vegetable garden, where my dad allowed me to plant a large assortment of veggies and battle it out with the squirrels and gophers for a season.
Like so many others, with the start of the pandemic I decided to plant a Covid garden at my house. It began with the idea of planting a “potager,” the French term for a kitchen garden mainly consisting of herbs. My reading soon led me to discover permaculture and growing a “food forest.” I wanted a pollinator-friendly self-sowing perennial garden. I kept repeating the mantra “grow food, not lawns” and was driven by the idea of using fruits and vegetables intermixed with ornamentals and decorative plants.
How does this philosophy play out? I planted strawberries as ground cover and blueberries instead of boxwoods. I have fruit trees surrounded by flowers to invite the bees for a visit. I let many of my herbs and vegetables “go to seed” so I can gather seeds and resow. I leave small clay dishes with rocks and fill them with water for when the critters need a drink as well. The idea of regenerating the soil and balancing the microorganisms below the surface is the latest topic I am studying. I steer clear of any pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and allow the marigolds and alyssum to deter pests. I compost most everything I can and now am two years into my endeavor, which means I have plenty of rich, nutrient-dense soil at my disposal.
I am beginning to reap the rewards of countless hours of sweat and lifting hundreds of pounds of heavy things! I am currently harvesting blackberries and strawberries as well as plums and melons. I have peppers of all kinds and more giant zucchini than I can count. The Japanese eggplant is plentiful and the pumpkin patch has taken over the yard. I scatter romaine lettuce and basil seeds everywhere and have so many I lost count. I use much of what I grow to feed my chickens as well, though most of the time they seem to help themselves!
The small dream behind all of this was to create a self-sustaining farm for the family as well as to share with the community. I love making fruit jams and jellies as well as pickling vegetables and am working on canning and preserving much of what I grow. Come check out some of these home-grown offerings at our farm-to-table market called “Batata” soon!
