An Interview With Dr. Andrew Weil

n this exclusive interview from his bountiful summer garden in British Columbia (BC), Dr. Weil shares his deep passion for gardening and cooking, along with sage advice for growers and cooks at every level.

Q: When did you get bit by the gardening bug?

A: I grew up in a row house in Philadelphia, which had a tiny plot of ground behind it. My mother introduced me to planting things at an early age, and we made as much use of that little bit of soil in the back of my house as possible. I always dreamed about having enough space for a serious garden.

Q: When did you plant your first serious garden?

A: I moved to Tucson in the early 1970s. The desert is not the easiest place to learn how to garden, but I had some land and was able to try to grow my own food. Then, in the early 1990s, I moved to a ranch outside of the city on wonderful land. It was a flood area from two streams, so the soil was all deposited silt, not the usual harsh desert soil. I made a big garden, about 40 feet by 40 feet, and that was the first time that I really gardened on a larger scale.

Q: How did those early plots evolve into the extremely productive gardens you tend now, in both Arizona and Canada?

A: I tried things out. You learn which plants and which varieties work in your area and which don’t, and what you’re good at growing and what you’re not. It helps to spend time with other people who have expertise.

In BC, I work with a woman who’s a master gardener. I’ve learned a great deal from her. For example, she uses seaweed as a soil amendment, which I had not used before. I’ve also taught her and other British Columbians a few things, including introducing them to an herb called culantro that I originally planted in Tucson. It’s found in Asian cooking and has a flavor something like cilantro—they aren’t related—but stronger.

You learn what you like. I love a Japanese spinach called hoyo; it’s the sweetest, best-tasting spinach I’ve found. I eat a lot of lettuce and like really good varieties like Red Iceberg, so I’ve learned to stagger the starting of seeds in order to have a continuous supply throughout the growing season.

Now, I probably get 80 percent of my produce from my gardens, maybe more. With some meals, everything is from the garden.

Q: Explain homegrown food’s role in diet and nutrition. Are there health advantages to eating with the seasons?

A: Varieties of produce not grown commercially often have better flavor and better nutritional profiles. There’s no comparison between food that’s really fresh and food that has been transported a long way or sat on the shelf for a long time.

There are some nutritional philosophies, for instance in Asian medicine, that say we should change how we eat through the seasons. In summer, you want to eat more salads, for example; in the cold season, more beans and starches. I think that may be true, that we should pay attention to what best agrees with us at different times of the year. Take fruit. Traditionally, people would have only had fruit in late summer and autumn, when calories from sugar could be stored as fat for sustenance through winter. Now we can eat fruit all year long, giving us too much sugar that contributes to obesity.

Q: Any cooking tips and tricks to share?

A: I’m a very good home cook, and I like to cook simple dishes. When I cook for people, a lot of them ask how I get food to taste so good. But it’s not me! Really fresh vegetables straight out of the garden make a big difference.

The less you fuss with food, the better. Let its natural flavors come through. Go with relatively short cooking times: People tend to overcook vegetables and lose their delicious qualities, especially broccoli. I steam it for as little as two minutes, just until it’s bright green and crunchy. If it goes much longer than that, it gets limp and unappealing. I have snap peas and snow peas coming in from the garden now, and they’re also delicious briefly steamed or stir-fried. Cook them too long and their color and flavor deteriorate.

Q: Say a reader picking up this publication is brand new to home cooking. Any particular advice for them?

A: Plan your meals around what you’ve got coming out of the garden. And learn how to store foods so they retain their freshness. I like Green Bags for storing produce in the fridge and a new product called Fresh Paper—sheets of paper impregnated with fenugreek. Put a sheet in a bag with your vegetables and it keeps them in good shape longer.

Q: What about for a novice gardener?

A: Start with what’s easy. The easiest are radishes. Lettuce is fairly easy to grow in cooler weather, and cucumbers are easy in the hot season. Everybody likes fresh garden tomatoes. Pick things that are easier to grow and are going to give you fewer problems and much satisfaction.

Many people tell me they are afraid to garden (or cook), because they think it’s too hard and they don’t feel up to the challenge. I encourage you to just try.