If you are looking to impress with dinner tonight, there is an Okotoks chef who would like to help.
Thomas Neukom has created a free herb garden that is ripe for the picking in the front yard of his Hunters Gate home, across from Big Rock School. The garden has ready to pick chives, parsley, lavender, mint, oregano and cherry tomatoes.
Neukom said it only takes a tiny dash of these ingredients to transform a meal.
Neukom, who works as a chef in Calgary, said the idea came to him earlier this year. In his native Switzerland and nearby Germany, there are community fridges, where people can drop off excess food for people who are struggling or homeless, he explained.
“If you are going away on holidays, for example, and you have six yogurts and a jug of milk left in your fridge you can take it to the community fridge for people who need the help,” said Neukom.
Although there isn’t a homeless population in Okotoks, there are people who don’t have the space or ability to grow their own vegetables, he said.
“Someone who lives in a condo who can’t grow a garden could come and grab some,” he said.
“I want everyone to see how good a sun-ripened tomato tastes.”
Neukom’s herb garden is for anyone who would like flavourful, homegrown ingredients in their food.
“Anytime you add fresh herbs to anything, it tastes amazing,” he said. “I don’t know why people even bother buying dried herbs.”
He hopes the idea will take off and people will unabashedly raid his garden.
“I remember going and stealing cherries from the neighbours tree, but this isn’t stealing,” he said, laughing. “I am offering, so just take it and enjoy it.”
When Neukom came up with the idea for a free herb garden a friend built him a four-by-two foot planter that he transplanted herbs and tomatoes into from his own garden.
This isn’t the only giving mission that can be found in the Neukom’s front yard. The Neukom family loves to share. They were the second family in Okotoks to put a little free library in their front yard.
He said the library has been popular over the past three years. People have been respectful of the system, which allows them to take a book or leave a book for free.
“We have never had an issue with it like vandalism,” he said. “People respect it and use it for exactly what it is supposed to be.”
The library was a spin-off from another giving project the family takes on every year. During the annual parade of garage sales, the family holds a bake and book sale. Proceeds from the book sale are sent to the mother of a friend who teaches in Kenya.
“She buys mosquito nets and school uniforms for about 50 kids,” he said.
When the books began to overrun his basement, Neukom came up with the idea for the free library.
“Its just paying it forward,” he said.
