Virginia's largest grower of USDA organic herb & vegetable plants
Virginia's largest grower of USDA organic herb & vegetable plants
• Watch the NBC12 News interview with Nicole and a phone interview with Chef G.
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September 30, 2012 10:00 AMAcclaimed chef, cookbook author and TV host Gerry Garvin (aka G. Garvin) is most widely known for his television series, Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin, which ran for seven seasons on TV One. The show’s increasing popularity earned the talented artist a second series on the same network entitled G. Garvin: The Road Tour, which premiered in 2007. Garvin also appeared in a Cooking Channel special, Georgia Roadtrip with G. Garvin. He is America’s most down-to-earth chef, and his claim to fame is showing everyday cooks how to keep it simple with a Southern twist.
Garvin’s impressive resume and philanthropic efforts have warranted such accolades as the 2007 Man of the Year award by Women Moving Forward in Business and Third Best TV Chef by Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine in 2006 (behind Jacques Pepin and Emeril Lagasse). Additionally, Garvin has been a popular guest on both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Good Morning America. READ FULL BIO
DAY @ THE FARM FILMING THE SHOW
In May, we were surprised and delighted to find that Chef Gerry Garvin, known to many as Chef G, wanted to come to Lavender Fields Herb Farm as a stop on his ‘Road Trip’ seen on the Cooking Channel. He’s passionate about getting the word out on cooking with fresh herbs, and happily for us, found us via the web. Intrigued by what he sawe, he decided to visit up close and personal and decided not only to tour our farm but to use fresh ingredients from the farm for grilling a meal for the show.
As you can imagine all of us were very excited and eagerly looked forward to his visit, not knowing exactly how to act around someone so well known. As it turns out he’s just a super nice guy with a great sense of humor. He arrived with his production team of 8-10 folks, and told us his family had had a farm as he was growing up. We wanted to see how much he remembered so our first stop was the bee hives.
We spent quiet a while filming the bees with Bob, The Bee Man. Chef G was dressed to the gills in his beekeeper’s gear minus gloves. As we went to harvest some honey, lo and behold, our bees, totally unimpressed with his celebrity, stung him. Fortunately, he was a great sport.
Deciding to quickly move on from the bees, we next visited the laying hen house. I had mentioned that the hens were brooding, so Chef G would have to go up under them to collect any eggs. Well, the hens began pecking him! He didn’t like that. He decided to let me gather the eggs we would need for the recipe. We were off again– as all of enjoyed more laughs from that experience.. After watching me collect an egg. He says “I’m not doing that. Doesn’t seem proper– looks like you’re going up under her skirt. I don’t think I need to be doing that.” That was hilarious.
We saved the greenhouses for last. We discussed the over 220 various USDA verified organic herbs and vegetable plants we grow here at The Farm. He was amazed at the sheer variety of plants, the lime trees, lemon grass, banana basil, chives. We traipsed down to the garden where we collected lettuce, rosemary, and parsley. Chef G made a delicious honey-citrus salad dressing using some of our fresh herb to accompany the grilled skirt steak that he insisted that I make. [Can you imagine cooking with a famous chef standing at your side? I felt “the heat turned up on me. We also made fresh herb butter to top our fresh bread Chef G picked up at Ellwood Thompson’s. We topped the meal of with a glass of our refreshing lavender lemonade that we had made previously.
It was a long, exhausting day to film the show all over the farm—but we had a blast, Chef G and the whole PowerHouse Production team were all great to work with. It was a real treat having all of them at the farm, knowing that he is out there helping to spread the word about healthy eating the simple, natural, local way. I hope more people will visit local farms as a result.
We are looking forward to seeing the show!
• Check out the Cooking Channel web page for more info on the Chef G’s ROAD TRIP
