Director: Nina Ljeti Director of Photography: Michael Lopez Editor: Katie Wolford Senior Producer: Bety Dereje Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg 1st Assistant Camera: Izzac Nixon 2nd Assistant Camera: Kahdeem Jefferson Audio: Nicole Maupin Production Assistant: Quinton Johnson Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones Production Manager: Kristen Helmick Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors Assistant Editor: Billy Ward Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew Supervising Editor: Kameron Key Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Entertainment Director: Dipal Acharya Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
00:25Sorry about this construction that we have next door.
00:28It's like totally ruining our reverie in the garden.
00:35We are in the mini apple orchard at my house in Amagansett on Long Island.
00:44We've had this house for coming up on 20 years.
00:48I think really when I got this house is when I started planting a kitchen garden.
00:53We planted all of these apple trees. We have a peach tree over there.
00:58And then over the years I've experimented with planting different things in the vegetable garden.
01:04I really started gardening much later in life.
01:07I'm a New York City kid, so we didn't grow up really with any access to gardening.
01:13And I feel like I used to really not have a green thumb at all.
01:17And I didn't really understand very much about soil and gardening and how everything went.
01:23I've had many moments where I've killed things, especially potted plants, you know, overwatering them, underwatering them.
01:33I started really getting the inspiration because of our food systems and learning about how up until basically the end of World War II,
01:47Americans all had a kitchen garden.
01:50You know, many, many households grew their own fruits and vegetables and had their own chickens.
01:56And the population was so much healthier then.
01:59And I really started to understand the link between kind of this industrial food complex that we have in America and how unwell we've become as a nation.
02:11And I don't know, there's just something so satisfying and so grounding about being in your own garden where you planted something and then you're sharing it with people that you love.
02:21It's just this beautiful circle that gets completed.
02:25I think it's dual wellness aspects.
02:34Alrighty.
02:43See?
02:46Hi bud.
02:47See the tomatoes are coming.
02:49Whenever I go into the garden, I always kind of have that moment of like awe.
02:54Like I feel so lucky that I actually have a garden that's full of vegetables.
03:01And I think it's probably the part of my day where I feel the most humble in a way, like just how awe inspiring nature is that it can produce all these beautiful things for us to eat.
03:15And I always feel an incredible sense of calm, like there's just something about being in there foraging, harvesting your dinner or your breakfast or lunch or whatever the case may be.
03:25And it's where I always feel the happiest.
03:35That's Gaucho. He's my best friend.
03:38He's my best friend.
03:49This is like lamb's ear kind of lettuce and then this is a kind of romaine over here.
03:55It's a little early for the eggplants, but all the peppers are coming.
04:00Got to be careful with these guys.
04:02They're spiky.
04:04They're beautiful.
04:05Well, planting season is over, but now it's that beautiful time where things are really coming ripe.
04:17So the zucchinis are looking really beautiful and the lettuces and of course all the herbs which go all summer long.
04:25There's a real bounty in there right now.
04:28Take a jalapeno.
04:30Mmm.
04:31That's going to be good.
04:33Mm-hmm.
04:34Spicy.
04:35Oh, he's such a good dog.
04:36Stretch it out.
04:37Stretch it out.
04:38Look at this.
04:39Oh, boy.
04:40Who's here?
04:41Are you going to start barking?
04:42Gaucho?
04:43Gaucho?
04:44Oh, boy.
04:45There he goes.
04:46Okay.
04:47I'm a person who really loves to be in nature.
04:49I always feel like my nervous system down regulates a little bit.
04:53If I've got the sky and the green, it's just this immediate like calming force.
05:06You know, you can take two sage leaves, put a little anchovy in the middle, dip it in batter and fry it.
05:24And it's like the most delicious thing of all time.
05:31Okay.
05:32I got to deal with this lettuce.
05:34This is terrible.
05:35I was gone for a week and all my lettuce is bolted.
05:40Oh, bolting.
05:41It's when it sort of starts to shoot upwards and then it gets quite bitter.
05:47So you're supposed to cut it before it starts bolting up.
05:51See, it's really bitter.
05:58So got to deadhead it.
06:00It's okay.
06:01It'll be good for my compost.
06:03This is less of a wellness visit than usual because I was very upset to find my lettuce so bolted.
06:13But, you know, sometimes in the pursuit of peace, you're served obstacles and, you know, it's all in how you deal with the obstacles.
06:22So it actually is fortuitous.
06:24And the next time you come, I'm going to have perfectly succulent lettuce ready to pick.
06:33I would recommend gardening even if, you know, you have just like window boxes really because it's something that anybody can do.
06:47And the result, like the ROI, the return on investment is so incredible.
06:54It's like you put seeds in some good soil and you water it and put it in the sun and you start to get this beautiful kind of reward from the soil.
07:05Again, I just think it's a very grounding practice.
07:09I really feel like my other worries kind of just diminish.
07:14You know, it's like the volume gets turned down on the other worries in my life.
07:18And anything that I do that keeps me connected to nature, I think always pulls me out of any complicated situation and more into the present.
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