Louise O. Fresco fellow for the history of food and nutrition

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people began growing their own vegetables on a small scale. Aspiring gardeners could find tips and inspiration on social media, blogs, podcasts, and in vegetable gardening manuals. Such manuals have been published in the Netherlands since the seventeenth century. The development of this genre offers insights into the changing image of the kitchen garden. For example, the value of gardening may be associated with food or labor. As a Louise O. Fresco fellow, Sanne Steen reconstructs the evolving Dutch image of the kitchen garden and kitchen gardening based on handbooks for the construction and maintenance of kitchen gardens. She examines both the form and content of Dutch manuals from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. This research provides insight into the historical development and may also contribute to a better understanding of the value that vegetable gardening has or may have today.

Sanne Steen is a historian of art and culture with a keen interest in image and identity formation. Visual art, heritage, and the physical environment as bearers of meaning are central to her research. She is currently studying the historical appropriation of Desiderius Erasmus for her doctoral research at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In addition, she is actively involved in vegetable gardening as coordinator of a community garden and initiator of a vegetable garden project.