Beekman 1802 and Williams-Sonoma are teaming up to create the world’s largest “community” garden.

Our aim is to get 10,000 gardeners to grow 10 of the same heirloom vegetables that we grow at Beekman Farm.  We’ve hand-selected the collection because we felt these vegetables would be easy for anyone to grow.

Throughout the season, you can grow right along with us, ask questions of one another, submit pictures of your prize produce AND win great prizes from Beekman 1802 and Williams-Sonoma.

Worried that you don’t know enough about gardening to join in? We’ve put together a bi-weekly e-mail checklist that will give you step-by-step instructions to get your garden started and keep thriving. And it’s customized for your growing zone.

At the end of the season, as we all start to harvest, we’ll ask that you put your produce on a scale and we’ll tally how many pounds of exquisite food we were all able to create from our own back yards.

To buy your seeds and get started, click here.  Or visit your nearest Williams-Sonoma store.

To ask a question of all the other gardeners participating, ask here.

To sign up for the free, bi-weekly Garden Checklist email, click here.

How we got to where we are

As city dwellers, we had the opportunity to sample the work of some of the very best chefs in the world.   In a never-ending quest to replicate these culinary experiences at home (and save a few dollars), we were always trying to get our hands on the “best ingredients’”.  One summer not very long ago, tired of the winter selection of test-tube tomatoes that had been picked too soon and shipped thousands of miles for our convenience, we rushed to the Union Square Greenmarket (where ALL the chefs shop!) and hastily assembled a small flat of tomatoes.  Twelve deep purple Black Cherokees–$80, please.  While they were worth every penny, our appetite, it seems, outmatched our budget. No wonder those restaurants are so expensive!

The next summer, we used the rooftop of our apartment building to start growing our own tomatoes along with several varieties of peppers and a full compliment of fresh herbs.    It was so easy.…and then… two short years later we were full-fledged farmers on a 60 acre historic farm in upstate NY with a herd of goats, cows, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, a goat-herding llama and a half-acre vegetable garden with 52 hand-built raised beds and 110 different varieties of heirloom vegetables.  (It can happen that fast.)  We now raise, grow, cultivate and harvest over 80% of all the food that we consume.

While not everyone is going to make the leap to a farm, it’s surprisingly fulfilling to grow SOMETHING in your own backyard.  The journey from there to your plate is one worth taking this season.  Beekman 1802 and Williams-Sonoma want you to make that trip with us.

Story of the Seeds

When we first started our vegetable garden, tomatoes were the only heirloom vegetable we had ever sampled. Who knew that there are heirloom varieties of nearly every vegetable you can think of?  Heirloom varieties play an important role in maintaining genetic diversity in our food supply and can taste wonderfully different than any vegetable you’ve ever had before.    These seeds have never been genetically modified and their lineage can often be directly traced back to the farm that originally grew them.  Today we grow over 110 varieties of heirlooms at Beekman Farm, many provided by Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seed house in America.  Even though we love the moment they hit our plate, what we like most is that each of these vegetables has a history, and coaxing them along from seed to harvest helps you become a part of their story.

GET STARTED!!  Enter our garden here