Colonial Gardens. Part 4.2 Monticello Vegetable Garden

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The recreation of the Monticello vegetable garden began in 1979 and included two years of archaeological excavation that attempted to confirm details of the documentary evidence.
Thomas Jefferson's vegetable garden resembled a terraced space 80 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, cut into the hillside and supported by a massive stone wall.
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The 2-acre garden included 24 growing plots or "squares". They were organized according to which part of the plant was harvested - roots (beets, carrots), leaves (lettuce, cabbage) or fruits (beans, tomatoes).
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"While Jefferson cultivated common crops like cucumbers, cabbages, and beans (both "snaps"for fresh use and varieties that were dried), he also prized his sea kale (Cramber maritima), a perennial cabbage-like species whose spring spouts were blanched with pots, then cut and prepared like asparagus."
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"Salads were an important part of Jefferson's diet. He would note the planting of lettuce and radishes every two weeks through the growing season, grow interesting greens like orach, corn salad, endive, and nasturtiums, and plant sesame in order to manufacture a suitable salad oil. While the English pea is considered his favorite vegetable, he also cherished figs, asparagus, artichokes, and such "new" vegetables as tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, and cauliflower."

I never heard about orach. Did you? Orach (other names: mountain spinach, French spinach, sea purslane) is an annual plant grown for its leaves, which are used like spinach.
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I don't think I will ever forget these gardens extending to the foggy hills ...
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The garden was not only a source for the family table, but also a laboratory where Jefferson planted about 330 varieties of more than 70 species of vegetables.
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Nowdays, the garden serves as a preservation seed bank of Jefferson-era and 19th-century vegetable varieties.

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"I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that... as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet"- Jefferson to Vine Utley, 1819
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Pavilion, used by Jefferson as a retreat, was reconstructed in 1984
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Joinery* Chimney. This was one of Virginia's best-equipped woodworking shops. Here, skilled white and enslaved joiners created some of the finest architectural woodwork in Virginia. The joiners also made furniture for Monticello.

*Another new word for me: Joinery - a factory producing wooden products such as tables, doors, and cabinets; cabinetmaking.
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Below the vegetable garden wall, was a 6-acre orchard. It included a nursery where Jefferson propagated special plants.
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A lot of vegetables grown in the kitchen garden ended in this kitchen:

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With its French copper cookware and a multiple-burner charcoal-fired stew stove, the kitchen was among the best equipped in Virginia.

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I have a strong desire to return to Monticello and spend probably the whole day there learning more about a person who wrote:
"...all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello" Thomas Jefferson, 1787
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Credits: T. Jefferson. Monticello. A Guide for Visitors; The Gardens of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello by Peter J. Hatch. Peter J. Hatch is a Director of Gardens and Grounds since 1977.
My previous Colonial Gardens posts are here: Part 1 - Jamestown , Part 2 - Yorktown, Colonial Gardens. Part 3 - Williamsburg, Colonial Gardens. Part 4.1 Monticello .