Sustainable Sensations: The Benefits Of A Divine Event's Organic Garden For Catering
When it comes to providing exquisite culinary experiences, A Divine Event always goes above and beyond. This year, we're taking our commitment to exceptional catering a step further by introducing our very own organic garden, bursting with a variety of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and edible flowers. This garden isn't just a beautiful addition to our company; it's a statement of our dedication to sustainability and superior ingredients. In this blog post, we'll explore the numerous benefits of our organic garden and how it enhances the quality of our catering services.
Our garden was beginning to flourish in mid-May when the peppers and tomatoes, herbs, and edible florals really started to take off! This garden is a happy place for our chefs, where they have tended and harvested the bountiful produce all summer long.
1. Fresher, More Flavorful Ingredients
The first and most obvious benefit of our organic garden is the availability of incredibly fresh and flavorful ingredients. When we use produce straight from the garden, it's at its peak ripeness and bursting with natural flavors. This freshness translates into dishes that are not only delicious but also visually stunning. Our commitment to organic growing methods ensures that our ingredients are free from harmful chemicals, making them healthier and tastier.
Executive Chef de Cuisine, Sandra Moyers made sure to include a large variety of vegetables, herbs, and colorful garnishes in the Chef’s Garden. Peppers are thriving with many different varieties including Candy Cane Striped Peppers, red, yellow, green, and purple Bell Peppers, Serrano Peppers, and Jalapeños. Tomatoes are also producing at an astounding rate, with black, yellow, and red Cherry Tomatoes, Grape and Roma Tomatoes all towering over four feet tall! Most of our bell peppers and petite tomato harvest will go into crudités that are featured on our menus. Roma tomatoes might get turned into salsas or sliced for tacos.
Several herbs are flourishing in the hot Georgia heat too! Our guests will enjoy more flavorful dishes thanks to our fresh green and purple Basil, Sage, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Tarragon, Oregano, Dill, and Rosemary. Rosemary and Thyme are key ingredients in many sauces, stocks, and marinades.
The Candy Cane Striped Pepper is a unique pepper that is not only beautiful, but delicious with a sweetness similar to Bell Peppers. This image shows just how much our tomato plants have thrived despite record temperatures! Our Cherry Tomatoes burgeoned beyond their original cages, so we had to install larger supports that expanded even beyond the raised beds! Our culinary team loves Rosemary and its many functions. This versatile herb is perfectly balanced, lending both a sweet taste and complimentary bitter note to the dishes and drinks it flavors. Thai Basil is used to make a delicious syrup that infuses our “Love In Bloom” cocktail with its treacherously tasty flavor!
Snapdragons, Bachelor’s Buttons, Marigolds, Pink Honeysuckle, Firesticks, Maraschino Sage, and Purple Cornflower all add color and elegance to our plated presentations, wowing your guests. Our chefs make sure your dishes are picture perfect for presentation during any event! A step that sets us above the rest when it comes to culinary details.
Our garden would be nothing without our pollinator friends! We captured a happy bee doing their part to help our garden flourish.
2. Seasonal Variety and Customization
Our garden allows us to embrace the beauty of seasonal produce. We can adapt our menus to feature the freshest ingredients available at any given time, providing a dynamic and ever-changing culinary experience for our clients. Whether it's tomatoes in the summer or fragrant herbs in the spring, we can customize our menus to highlight the best of each season. Our goal for next year is to be able to supply all our summer events’ appetizer crudités completely from the Chef’s Garden!
3. Sustainable Practices
Our organic garden is a testament to our commitment to sustainable practices. We use composting, rainwater harvesting, and natural pest control methods to maintain the garden's health. These eco-friendly techniques not only benefit our garden but also promote responsible environmental stewardship. By relying on our garden, we're minimizing the environmental impact associated with catering events. It's a small but meaningful step towards a greener future. Fun Fact: Our tomato and pepper raised garden bed has a keyhole frame with a compost hole built-in!
4. Unique Menu Options
Having our organic garden allows us to offer unique menu options that set us apart from other catering companies. We can incorporate rare or unusual ingredients and experiment with flavors and presentations, creating memorable dining experiences that our clients won't find elsewhere. The Purple and Green Basil is featured on our gorgeous Caprese Salad, mixed into savory pasta dishes, or crushed into a Pesto Sauce that is drizzled atop the Sundried Tomato and Pesto Torte included in the Crudité Appetizer Station. Our fiery Serrano and Jalapeño Peppers are incorporated into salsas or any dish that calls for a little extra spice!
We also grow some specialty herbs like Lavender, Mint, and Thai Basil that enhance our wickedly delicious libations.
Rosemary is truly the most adaptable herb in our garden! Here it is used to both garnish and create a syrup in our Better Together signature drink where it is combined with Bourbon and a splash of Cabernet. Photo by Scott Asano Thai Basil is the star of our Love In Bloom cocktail! Simmered with sugar to make a delicious syrup, basil gives this libation its shamelessly scrumptious flavor when combined with lemon juice and rose prosecco. Photo by Mike Moon Studio
5. Education and Engagement
Our garden also provides an opportunity for education and engagement. We discuss our gardening process with the team, teaching them about the benefits of organic farming and the importance of sustainability. It's a chance to connect on a deeper level and share our passion for environmentally conscious practices and the enhanced flavors that come from only the freshest ingredients. Having said that, it is a lot of work and our Chef’s Garden would not be the success it is without the consistent efforts of the culinary team. Sandra’s vision and personal love of gardening prompted the initiative, and thankfully, it proved to be contagious over time. Last year, our Executive Sous Chef, Alyssa Craig visited Greece last year and enjoyed a daytrip to a local farm in Crete. Here the owner had prepared a traditional Cretan breakfast, full of foods she had grown on her farm or purchased in the local village. Alyssa shares this was one of the most delicious and freshest meals she has ever enjoyed, igniting a passion in Alyssa to help educate, maintain, and maybe one day even expand our thriving Chef’s Garden.
A dynamic duo, we are so grateful to have Executive Chef de Cuisine Sandra and Executive Sous Chef Alyssa! The Caprese Salad Skewer Appetizer is a vibrant bite made with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil from the Chef’s Garden.
6. Aesthetic Appeal
Lastly, our garden adds an exquisite aesthetic element to our catering events. The vibrant colors of peppers and tomatoes, the fragrant herbs, and the delicate beauty of edible flowers elevate the visual appeal of our dishes. It's a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.
As you can tell, A Divine Event's organic garden is more than just a garden; it's a commitment to excellence, sustainability, and the art of catering. It allows us to offer fresher, more flavorful ingredients, reduce our carbon footprint, and create unique, seasonally inspired menus. With our organic garden, every event we cater becomes a sustainable sensation, leaving a lasting impression on you and your guests, not the environment. The love and passion of our culinary team under the guidance of Sandra Moyers and Alyssa Craig is the extra element that makes every Divine event a truly magical experience!