CLEVELAND, Ohio – EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute is hosting a five-course vegan dining experience and wine pairing at its Shaker Square location at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26. Reservations are $85. EDWINS gives formerly incarcerated adults a foothold in the hospitality industry and supports successful reintegration into the community.
All of the Vegan Dinner products were grown by men currently incarcerated at the Grafton Correctional Institute in Lorain County. Grafton’s garden began in 2012 when former inmate Jeff Deel, who holds an associate’s degree in horticulture, moved into the medium-security facility. At that time, he asked the administration if he could cultivate a small vegetable garden at the prison. Long story short, EdWINS made setting up the garden easy. The original harvest was donated to a local church or used in the prison police station.
“In prison, we had police station food loaded with salt and little flavor,” he recalls. “I really learned to appreciate the flavor of freshness.”
Over the years, the garden has grown and evolved.
“I tried to grow a bit of everything,” says Deel. “I was a greedy gardener. I always had to grow more the following year. We had so many donated plants one year that I had no space. I planted on the sides, on the edges. One year we had cabbage galore. When we took over supplying EDWINS, we expanded it. During COVID 2020 we enlarged it to four times that size.
“Our main crops during COVID were squash and zucchini,” he explains. “You can feed a lot more people with a squash than with a bell pepper.”
Today, the plot grows everything from tomatoes to Swiss chard, squash to corn as well as herbs like basil, oregano and sage. These are used on the menu all year round and for that special dinner.
Deel’s last efforts in the garden were to order seeds for the 2022 season. He was released in June and is now a student in the EDWINS culinary program. This growing season he has helped maintain the student center and restaurant gardens for EDWINS. He will graduate in January.
Paris Wolfe is a life and culture reporter for Cleveland.com. She has a particular interest in food and catering. You can reach her at pwolfe@cleveland.com. here is a directory of his latest articles.
