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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Exclusive Video: White House Garden Survives, Thrives in Washington Winter
  • Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:52:54 -0700


Exclusive Video: White House Garden Survives, Thrives in Washington Winter
Posted: 03/26/10
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/26/exclusive-video-white-house-garden-survives-thrives-in-washing/

Despite a harsh Washington winter -- two blizzards and several feet of snow
-- the recently harvested White House kitchen garden yielded a bounty of
lettuce, spinach and a lot of turnips.

"There was some concern about how our garden would do," said Sam Kass, an
assistant White House chef and Food Initiative Coordinator in a video about
the White House winter harvest, debuting exclusively on AOL's Politics Daily:

"Nobody thought that the garden would survive," said Kass.

It not only survived, it thrived, making First Lady Michelle Obama's
signature project a four-season source of fresh produce.

The plants grew over the winter covered by white plastic stretched over
hoops, trapping the heat of the sun by day and keeping the plants warm at
night. But even Kass was not sure the "hoop houses" would work. "The fact of
the matter is we didn't know."

The video shows how the hoop houses exceeded expectations. The harvest
included robust looking lettuce, spinach and arugula, Kass said leeks will be
ready in the spring, garlic and peas will be picked later, as will carrots,
planted but not harvested.

Ground for the 1,100-square-foot garden on the west side of the South Lawn
was cleared on March 20, 2009 and first planted in April, with a "perfect"
southern exposure.

"The planting of this garden was one of the first things I wanted to do as
First Lady here at the White House," Mrs. Obama said at an earlier harvest on
June 17. At the opening of a Farmers Market on Sept. 17 in Washington, Mrs.
Obama said the garden was "one of the greatest things I've done in my life,
so far."

The garden was been wildly successful, growing into Mrs. Obama's
anti-childhood obesity campaign.

Kass, gesturing toward stakes already in the ground, says in the video "we
are going to be expanding our garden this year, at the request of the First
Lady." The plan is to "build a couple more rows of beds," Kass said.

In assessing the harvest, Kass said it was "more humble" than a summer
picking, "but I think we did pretty great."

After all, who knew from growing vegetables in the winter?

Said Kass, "Nobody had the expectations that we were going to grow any food
during January and February."








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  • [Livingontheland] Exclusive Video: White House Garden Survives, Thrives in Washington Winter, Tradingpost, 03/27/2010

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