Client Highlight
Janet Gamble:
Owner/Manager of Turtle Creek Gardens
Janet Gamble is Owner/Manager of Turtle Creek Gardens, an organic/biodynamic farm. She raises vegetables, cattle, hogs and hemp.
"My approach to farming is to create an living interdependent system that is regenerative in which everything we grow, whether plants, animals and soil, has a role in the vitality and long term sustainability to the farm as a whole and that the food we produce is nutritious and healthy for the good and well being of all. The farm, in my view, is a living organism with an individuality unique unto itself."
How did you get into farming?
I was always interested from a young child to be a farmer. My grandparents were farmers and some of my aunts and uncles so I had a lot of exposure growing up. I went to an agricultural school out of high school and applied that to my first job as a gardener on a private estate which lead me to managing the estate where I learned as much as I could about plants and horticulture. It's where I had my first CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] in 1994 before leaving and going to work at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute where I was Program Director for their farmer training program and education. I was realizing that I needed to learn more specifically about the soil and expand my world to growing food and the larger context of our food system.
Do you think Farmer's Markets are important? If so, how?
Absolutely, a farmer's market is the best way to educate the public about food, how it is grown, and the importance of supporting small family farms.
Farmer's markets also make locally produced food accessible to all communities.
Farmer's Market's provide a local economy for small family farms and other food based entrepreneurs.
What is the best way to support local farmers (both now and in the future).
Join a CSA, buy local when you are able from farmers markets and/or stores that carry local, buy from small independent companies-brands.
Do you have a Favorite Restaurant?
I would have to say La Merenda is my favorite. Wish I could go more often than I do.
Do you have a Favorite meal?
My favorite meal, changes with the season.
I love pasta, basil and tomatoes with garlic olive oil and parmesan and eat this at least once a week while the tomatoes and basil are in season. Then I switch to soups. I love the nourishment of making stocks and transforming them into all kinds of soup. I do like the comfort foods of my childhood: roasted chicken, potatoes, and gravy. Yeah, meat and potatoes but not excessively, just in the winter.
I also like to bake and ferment things.
Do you have any favorite hobbies? What is your go to relaxation activity?
Reading. Writing.
I am part of different agricultural groups and board of directors, so I spend much of my free time involved on big picture issues.
What are you doing to pass the time during this Pandemic?
Life is pretty much the same here on the farm. Isolation is the norm.
What is one thing that you miss, that you are not able to do right now because of the Pandemic?
Visiting friends. Fridays on the farm with my family.
Do you have a favorite quote?
"There is a crack in everything...that's where the light get in." Leonard Cohen
Inspired by Rumi's "A wound is a place where the light enters you".
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