UA-area restaurants forage at Main Gate garden

The UA student grows produce for the merchants of Main Gate Square in a 250-square-foot garden tucked behind Geronimo Plaza. In exchange, they feed him.

Not a big fruits and veggies eater when left to his own devices, Artwohl, 25, does enjoy munching on his produce turned fine dining.

“I just like the growing,” he says. “It seems silly saying it out loud. ... I can’t beat these guys. They take such good care of me. I remember taking eggplant, and they were like, ‘Got a minute?’... And they came out with a dish.”

He has gardened in the above-ground containers behind the Marshall Foundation for about eight months, making Friday rounds to distribute the week’s harvest to Main Gate merchants. Wilko, Sinbad’s Restaurant, Mutts Premium Hot Dogs and Sausages, The Scented Leaf, No Anchovies, Fuku Sushi and Pasco Kitchen and Lounge are some of the vendors that take advantage of the free goodies. The restaurants use his herbs for cocktails or his peppers for salsa. Last summer, they had watermelons galore.

The chefs often duck into the garden to do their own picking.

“Some chefs are great gardeners, but some come out with a butcher knife 12 inches long, and I’m like, ‘Dude, go back inside,’” Artwohl jokes. So far, he hasn’t had any problems with malicious treatment of the garden.

He takes requests from the restaurants. Specialty plants such as ghost chile peppers and zucchini blossoms are popular.

“I would never have thought there would be a market for those, but there is,” he says. “I used to grow zucchinis and just throw (the blossoms) away to get as many as I could.”

But not this year.

Now he knows zucchini blossoms taste pretty good stuffed with onions and garlic, battered and then deep fried.

The garden is the vision of Jane McCollum, general manager of the Marshall Foundation and Main Gate Square. After she enlisted the help of the UA’s Students for Sustainability and Compost Cats clubs to build the garden and supply the compost, the beds stayed empty.

Then Artwohl, a sustainable plant systems major at the University of Arizona, stopped by.

“It’s fun, and it’s beautiful,” McCollum says. “My office overlooks the garden. He is here every day and sometimes several times a day. He charges us when he goes out of town with watering, and we are afraid we will kill something.”

Artwohl grew up in a family of growers and plans to do this professionally when he graduates, possibly next December. For now, each season brings a crop of unexpected challenges, from lighting to pest control. About one month ago, Artwohl estimated that he had at least 20 species growing in the organic garden.

“I look at this as art,” he says. “This is like a canvas that is constantly seen.”