Secret Garden Party Potlucks 2012

(summer 2012)

What is it? In 2012, we dug up the empty lot next to my house and farmed it. Previous entries have produce grown by us notated as 'S.G.' for 'Secret Garden.' The story of the garden is told in photographs on the tumblr linked above.

What's up with it now? The owners of the lot sold it to developers and was turned into condominiums. The garlic we planted for the next year which was patiently waiting to grow was dug up and traded in for concrete and soulless "growth."

What did you do? We dug up what was left of our yard and made new beds, we befriended the neighbors across the street and made gardens in their unused space. From the rubble we made Secret Garden II. More on that in the future! Below is a picture of the process of digging the back yard section of Secret Garden II, even as they hideous new building rose up behind me.

SECRET GARDEN PARTY POTLUCKS

When I was a teenager, I would often daydream about what my life as a 20something would be. Potlucks with my friends in the summertime were a distinct part of these daydreams.

An extremely influential experience for the whole Secret Restaurant project, for me, was 3 years of cooking dinners for large groups living in the single cooperative house located off campus from Bennington College. 14 people lived in the house, and every night except Sunday (house meeting night) we invited between 5 and 10 guests for dinner.

So for years I was used to cooking for and dining with 15-25 people sitting around a living room or back yard balancing brimming plates on their knees. Since establishing my life in Portland, I've brought together similar groups of people to share food – but it has nearly always been in the semiformal mode of Secret Restaurant.

Once we embarked on the Secret Garden project, I knew that I wanted to host informal, outdoor, biweekly potlucks. I (or Lucas, or Aria, or whoever) would serve up a dish or dishes from the bounty we were currently experiencing. Guests would bring additional food and drinks. Soundtracked by stuff like the Carter Family, we'd share food and laughter, then replace the waning daylight with firelight, and encourage the good times to roll on.

The food: Each potluck featured numerous breads & spreads, drinks, and of course many other homemade dishes, often made by guests from produce in their lovely gardens--- but the pictures really say it all…