[OKC] Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

[Shauna Struby]

This is amazing! 

 

Next up . Governor Henry? Mayors (who will be first in Oklahoma to have a
vegetable garden at city hall or at their home? Church lawns? Schools? City
parks?

 

March 20, 2009


Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House 


By MARIAN BURROS
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/marian_burros/
index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

WASHINGTON - Michelle Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/michelle_obama
/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn
on Friday to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since
Eleanor Roosevelt
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/eleanor_roosev
elt/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 's victory garden in World War II. There will
be no beets - the president does not 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 a time when
obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.

 

"My hope," the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, "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 is 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. Virtually the
entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, "whether they
like it or not," Mrs. Obama said with a laugh. "Now Grandma, my mom, I don't
know." Her mother, she said, will probably sit back and say: "Isn't that
lovely. You missed a spot."

Whether there would be a White House garden had become more than a matter of
landscaping. The question had taken on political and environmental
symbolism, with the Obamas lobbied for months by advocates who believe that
growing more food locally, and organically, can lead to more healthful
eating and reduce reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for
transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.

Then, too, promoting healthful eating has become an important part of Mrs.
Obama's own agenda. 

The first lady, who said that she had never had a vegetable garden, recalled
that the idea for this one came from her experiences as a working mother
trying to feed her daughters, Malia
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/malia_obama/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per>  and Sasha
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/sasha_obama/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per> , a good diet. Eating out three times a week,
ordering a pizza, having a sandwich for dinner all took their toll in added
weight on the girls, whose pediatrician told Mrs. Obama that she needed to
be thinking about nutrition. 

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

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

While the Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the White House roof, the
Obamas' garden will far transcend that, with 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, tomatillos
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, Charlie Brandts, who is a beekeeper, will tend two
hives for honey.

The total cost of seeds, mulch and so forth is $200, said Sam Kass, an
assistant White House chef, who prepared healthful meals for the Obama
family in Chicago and is an advocate of local food
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/l/local_food/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-classifier> . Mr. Kass will oversee the garden.

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, said she was eager to
plan menus around the garden, and Bill Yosses, the pastry chef, said he was
looking forward to berry season.

The White House grounds crew and the kitchen staff will do most of the work,
but other White House staff members have volunteered. 

So have the fifth graders from Bancroft. "There's nothing really cooler,"
Mrs. Obama said, "than coming to the White House and harvesting some of 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."

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

"A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you'll
ever eat," 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?" 

For urban dwellers who have no backyards, the country's one million
community gardens can also play an important role, Mrs. Obama said.

But the first lady emphasized that she did not want people to feel guilty if
they did not have the time for a garden: there are still many changes they
can make. 

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

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?_r=1 

 

::: shauna lawyer struby

 

 

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