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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] 'Obamas Prepare to Plant White House (ORGANIC) Vegetable Garden'
  • Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:08:19 -0700


'Obamas Prepare to Plant White House (ORGANIC) Vegetable Garden'

from the New York Times

By MARIAN BURROS
Published: March 19, 2009

WASHINGTON On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a
patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since
Eleanor Roosevelt&rsquo;s victory garden in World War II. There will be
no beets (the president doesn't like them) but arugula will make
the cut.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family's
meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will
be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and
vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

In an interview in her office, Mrs. Obama said, My hope is that
through children, they will begin to educate their families and that
will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in
Washington will help her dig up the soil for the 1,100-square-foot plot
in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street. (It's just below the
Obama girls swing set.) Students from the school, which has had a
garden since 2001, will also help plant, harvest and cook the
vegetables, berries and herbs.

Almost the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull
weeds, whether they like it or not, Mrs. Obama said laughing.
Now Grandma, my mom, I don't know. Her mother, she said, would
probably sit back and say: Isn't that lovely. You missed a spot.

Whether there would be a White House garden has been more than a matter
of landscaping. It's taken on political and environmental
symbolism as the Obamas have been lobbied for months by advocates who
believe that growing more food locally could lead to healthier eating
and lessen reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for
transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.

In the meantime, promoting healthful eating has become an important
part of Mrs. Obama's agenda.

The power of Michelle Obama and the garden can create a very
powerful message about eating healthy and more delicious food,
said Dan Barber, an owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico
Hills, N.Y., an organic restaurant that grows many of its own
ingredients. I don't think its a stretch to say it could translate into
real change.

The Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the roof of the White
House. But the Obamas' garden will have 55 varieties of vegetables
from a wish list of the kitchen staff grown from organic
seedlings started at the executive mansion's greenhouses.

The Obamas will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro,
tomatilloes and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green
oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach,
chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of
berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise
hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will
tend two hives for honey.

Total cost for the seeds, mulch, etc., is $200.

The plots will be in raised beds fertilized with White House compost,
crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, lime and green sand. Ladybugs and
praying mantises will help control harmful bugs.

Cristeta Comerford, the White House's executive chef, is eager to
plan menus around the garden, and Bill Yosses, the pastry chef, is
looking forward to berry season.

Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef who prepared healthful meals
for the Obama family in Chicago and is an advocate of local food, will
oversee the garden. The White House grounds crew and kitchen staff will
do most of the work, but other White House staff members have
volunteered.

First of all, Mrs. Obama said, there's nothing really cooler than coming
to the White House and harvesting someof the vegetables and being in
the kitchen with Cris and Sam and Bill, and cutting and cooking and
actually
experiencing the joys of your work.

Mrs. Obama, who said that she never had a vegetable garden before, said
the idea for it came from her experiences as a working mother trying to
feed her daughters, Malia and Sasha, a good diet. Eating out three times
a week, ordering a pizza, having a sandwich for dinner took it's
toll. The children's pediatrician told her she needed to be thinking about
nutrition.

He raised a flag for us, she said, and within months the children lost
weight.

For children, she said, food is all about taste, and fresh and local
taste better.

A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things
that you'll ever eat,&rdquo; she said. And my children know
the difference, and that's how I've been able to get them to
try different things.

I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of
people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in
the South Lawn of the White House.

The country's one million community gardens, she said, can also
play an important role for urban dwellers who have no backyards.

But, sitting in her office in the East Wing, Mrs. Obama stressed that
she doesn't want people to feel guilty if they don't have the time to
have a garden: there are still many small changes they can
make.

You can begin in your own cupboard by eliminating processed
food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate
more fruits and vegetables, she said.






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