Steven and Vickie Coker have spent 39 years growing crops in their garden to eat daily. As members of PlowShare, they have found friends and food within Oglethorpe County.
By Caitlin Farmer
The Oglethorpe Echo
Steven and Vickie Coker find purpose in the garden behind their home in the Beaverdam community each day.
The Cokers’ 15-acre garden includes plants and vegetables, from succulents to ghost peppers, with kale, mustard greens and lettuce crops used most often in their daily meals. Planted throughout their property and in pots around their porch, each vegetable brings a variety of textures and tastes to their plate.
The Cokers, who have lived in Oglethorpe County for 39 years, also share this love with the members of PlowShare, a group of gardeners who swap seeds, learn from each other and promote sustainable backyard farming.
The Cokers will continually plant different lettuce, mustard and kale seeds so when one crop dies out, another will be ready for harvesting, Steven said. Kale can be seen throughout the garden in various stages of growth. Their oldest kale patch — Siberian Kale — will feed them throughout the winter.
“A lot of people do cover crops of course over the fall. Well, this really, in a sense, is a cover crop for us,” Vickie said. “I mean, we will eat it all winter and spring long and then we’ll plow it in in the spring.”
They also planted Dinosaur and Russian Kales along with lettuce and Dragon Tongue mustard greens. Blue Veil Kale is one of Steven’s favorites because it’s “very, very sweet and just absolutely delicious,” he said.
At PlowShare’s monthly meetings, the 30-50 people in attendance will exchange seeds that are extinct or hard to find as well as knowledge about sustainable farming practices, such as fertilization.
“We all share stuff together and we all bring and share our overflows of our vegetables and stuff,” Steven said. “It’s a very nice little club.”
Don Williamson, co-founder of PlowShare, recommends using organic fertilizers when growing plants as the chemical ones aren’t good for the environment.
“One of the best things we can use especially to get plants started is fish emulsion or fish hydrolysate. It’s the remains of fish that have been processed and it’s extremely high in nutrients, sort of low nitrogen,” Williamson said. “There are all kinds of element elements in seawater and the sea water fish have the same nutrients and that brings it to your plants.”
The Coker’s garden also has peppers and beans, some which are hybrids of different types or extinct. The patch also features rows of three to four different types of mustard greens, Steven said, which Vickie doesn’t like as much as he does, but still includes in their salads for taste contrast with the mix of kale and lettuce.
“We have salad every day,” Steven said.
Vickie recommends pairing the greens with in-season fruits and vegetables, adding items such as chopped apples or pears, red bell peppers, broccoli florets and sweet onions. For cheese, Vickie suggests a fresh grated parmesan or Dubliner. Then she adds additional crunch with sliced almonds or chopped walnuts.
The Cokers’ recipes
