[Pollinator] Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden

Fri Mar 20 09:33:05 PDT 2009

Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden  

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By _MARIAN BURROS_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/marian_burros/index.html?inline=nyt-per) 
Published: March 19, 2009 

WASHINGTON — On Friday, _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 White  House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the 
first since _Eleanor Roosevelt_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/eleanor_roosevelt/index.html?inline=nyt-per) ’s victory garden in 
World War II.  There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but 
arugula will make  the cut. 

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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Sam Kass, left, an assistant White House chef, and Dale Haney,  
superintendent of the White House Grounds, at the site of a new vegetable garden  on the 
South Lawn. 

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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
>From left, Cristeta Comerford, Sam Kass and Bill Yosses in the  White House 
kitchen. 

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 it’s 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_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/l/local_food/index.html?inline=nyt-
classifier) , 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 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.” 
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_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/malia_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per)  and _Sasha_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/sasha_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per) 
, 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,” 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.

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive  Director
Pollinator Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th  floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org

_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 

_www.nappc.org_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. 
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