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When she's not at Three Square, Barb can be found in her beautiful garden.
Barb says "Kill Your Lawnmower!"
Barbara Barber - Sara Perry - Tastemakers - The
Oregonian
Sunday July 7, 2002
I 'm perpetually late to work," admits Barbara
Barber, when asked how early she gets to her restaurant each day.
Ask
why and it's abundantly clear that she has a good reason --and a
delicious
one.
Barber is a gardener -- an eager, earnest and proficient gardener --
and at this time of year,her mornings are spent tending and harvesting
her bounty. She brings lots of fresh ingredients into Three Square
Grill
so that her husband, chef David Barber, can use them in his daily menu.
What a treat for customers. On any given day, at lunch and at dinner,
tiny tender leaves
of heirloom lettuce, with exotic names such as Merveille des 4 Saisons,
Bunte
Forellenschluss and Tauro will grace the fresh salads. And when the
season is right,
sun-ripened, home-grown tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables and
greens will
make their presence known, along with tender herbs and fresh garlic.
Old MacDonald
may have had a farm, but Barbara has one amazing vegetable garden.
In 1997, it was an asphalt driveway. That's when the couple bought
their
house after
moving here from North Carolina and living in an apartment for a year
while they opened
their popular neighborhood restaurant in the Hillsdale Shopping Center.
Although Barbara
was engrossed in managing the busy dining room, and David was busy
preparing tasty
American regional cuisine, they both knew she needed "some earth of
her own" and a
place to garden.
It turned out the property's best growing area was on the side of
the
house where the
driveway was located. No problem. Out went the asphalt jungle; in went
a little piece of
Eden.
"I really can't say enough about how glorious it is to garden in
Oregon,"
Barber says.
"We have such good fortune to live here. It's like nowhere else. Almost
anything will
grow, and grow well."
Barber would like to persuade more people to get their green thumbs
in action. She
suggests starting small with a container and some lettuce seedlings.
Before you know it,
you'll be pinching off a few of the young leaves each day to snack
on or give a
sandwich or a salad reason to shine.
This time of year, Barbara's pinching and harvesting yields at least
five giant shopping
bags of just-picked delights for David to use in the restaurant each
day. He's currently
using fresh spinach, chard and young garlic in a flavorful savory tart
accompanied by
an heirloom tomato salad dressed with a sherry vinaigrette. To add
subtle flavor, David
uses his friend Pierre Kolisch's superb Juniper
Grove Farm's Tumalo Tomme goat
cheese.
Like Barbara's garden, he says, it's the best.
Get a free "Kill Your Lawnmower!" bumper sticker.
Send your name and address to: killyermower(at) threesquare.com
