The Three Sisters made an appearance at the White House last week, and we aren't talking about an R&B group.

First Lady Michelle Obama was back in the White House kitchen garden with school children, this time planting the "three sisters:" corn, beans and squash.

Mrs. Obama and Native American children from tribes across the country used an ancient planting technique in which corns, beans and squash are planting in such a way as to use the corn stalks to support the beans vines and the squash vines prevent weeds.

The first lady and the children also harvested some spring crops, and a Native American prayer ceremony was conducted to bless the harvest.

The guests were invited as part of the latest component of Mrs. Obama's childhood obesity campaign, Let's Move in Indian Country, which encourages the use of "culturally proficient" strategies to create food and fitness projects to make tribal communities healthier.

Continue reading ""Three Sisters" make White House appearance" »

Posted by Susan Reimer at 4:03 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

A year in advance of the scheduled publication of Michelle Obama's book on the White House vegetable garden, Clarion Books has released "First Garden: The White House Garden and How It Grew."

Written and illustrated by children's author Robbin Gourley, the children's book includes a forward by Alice Waters, who created The Edible Schoolyard campaign, and it includes recipes from the White House and watercolor drawings of the first lady and her school children helpers.

For more details about the book and a conversation with the author, who pretty much scooped the White House, check out Eddy Gehman Kohan's blob, Obamafodorama, She also got a "no comment" comment from the White House that seems a tad chilly.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Notice that most of the crops are early spring crops. They will no doubt be replaced by summer crops in late May or June.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

First lady Michelle Obama will author a book about the White House vegetable garden, which will entered its third year of planting last week.

Just as she had the help of school children in planting and harvesting the garden on the south lawn of the White House, she will have the help of a ghostwriter for this book, to be published by Crown next spring.

The book will have recipes and stories from the first family. Mrs. Obama received no advance for writing the book and all proceeds will be donated to a charity. It will be published as a hardback, but also an Ebook and an enhanced multi-media E book.

Mrs. Obama has brought a tremendous amount of attention to children, healthy eating and obesity issues through the garden, and the produce itself has been used to feed the first family, White House guests as well as visitors to a nearby soup kitchen.

Mrs. Obama and her helpers planted this years crops in new raised beds.

Photo courtesy of Obamafoodorama

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

According to the Obamafoodorama blog, the 1,500-square-foot garden produced 400 pounds of produce during last month's fall harvest alone, including the first-ever White House pumpkins grown on White House grounds. About 100 pounds of that harvest was in sweet potatoes alone.

The fall vegetables from the garden also include peppers, kohlrabi, lettuces, broccoli, eggplant and herbs. School children who helped first lady Michelle Obama harvest the vegetables also weighed them.

"We've gotten a lot of food out of a pretty small space," senior policy advisor Sam Kass told the Foodorama.

Continue reading "White House vegetable garden: the weigh-in" »

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Photo credit: Reuters

It was harvest time at the White House vegetable garden this week, and first lady Michelle Obama munched a baby turnip, dug up giant sweet potatoes and snipped pumpkins off the vine as she worked alongside local schoolchildren and world-class chefs.

One sweet potato weighed in at 4 pounds, drawing an admiring stare from the first lady.

"You guys have witnessed the first White House pumpkins," she told the children as they loaded up wheelbarrows and weighed in their haul.

Students from Tubman Elementary and Bancroft Elementary harvested broccoli, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and other fall crops, and later, White House chefs demonstrated how to pickle vegetables.

The Associated Press also reports that Mrs. Obama  posed for a group photo with the harvest team, and at first prompted the children to smile and say "cheese." But then she had a better idea, declaring, "Let's say 'veggies!'"

Continue reading "White House vegetable garden harvest: Year 2" »

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

The moment, as captured by President Obama's presidential photographer, Pete Souza, is the first official photo released of the President in Mrs. Obama's garden.

It reminds me of home. My DH is proud of my gardens and tells his friends about them. But he is isn't quite sure what it is all about!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:00 AM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

“To come out and say (organic) is the one and only way, which is how this would be interpreted, doesn't make any sense,” Kass told the Associated Press during a tour of the garden.

Continue reading "White House vegetable garden: it's not organic" »

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

While the school children and the first lady were busy growing vegetables on the South Lawn of the White House this summer, the bees were busy, too.

Michelle Obama had a large bee hive installed near the garden, and it produced plenty of honey.

Enough, in fact, that she was able to give each of the wives of the heads of state attending the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh a very attractive jar of "White House Honey."

And this week, at a Fiesta Latina concert at the White House, guest chef Maricel Presilla was asked to help tell the pan-Latin story through finger food.

Presilla, chef and co-owner of Zafra and Cucharamama, two restaurants in Hoboken, N.J., said every item on Tuesday evening's menu was chosen to showcase some aspect of Latin culture.

Presilla said she was happily surprised to find tomatillos growing in the White House kitchen garden, and the chef used them in a hot pepper sauce she added to the menu.

Presilla also harvested fennel and parsley from the first lady's garden and used honey from the White House beehives.

 “I felt like a farmer — a farmer at the White House,” Presilla said. “I don't feel like I'm at the seat of power. I feel like I'm in a great kitchen.”

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Photo credit: White House Photo Blog/Brooks Kraft

Garden Variety readers have been asking how the first vegetable gardening season at the White House concluded, and the answer is, it isn't over yet.

Eddie Gehman Kohan, the tireless reporter behind the Obamafoodorama blog, reports that fall crops have been planted, including pumpkins. And a high-tech composter has been added as well. And so have bird houses, to go allow with the bee hive.

The White House is offering tours of its gardens later this month, but the vegetable garden is not on it. Only the formal gardens. And only to a few visitors.

This fall's tours are scheduled from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, Oct. 17, and from 10 AM to 3 PM on Sunday, Oct. 18th.

Tours will be cancelled in the event of inclement weather, so call the 24-hour information line at 202-456-7041 to check on the status.

Tickets are free, but are only handed out in person by the National Park Service, on the days of the event.

These will be distributed at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, located at 15th and E Streets, beginning at 8:00 AM each day, on a first-come, first-served basis. The tickets are timed, and are one ticket per person, including children.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

 Photo credit: Associated Press

First lady Michelle Obama bought cheese and chocolate milk at the launch of a new farmers' market blocks from the White House Thursday afternoon.

"I've never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said to a crowd of about 300 shoppers.

Before shopping, Mrs. Obama spoke about the importance of healthy eating, which she said gives people the energy to get through the day, according to the Associated Press.

Mrs. Obama encouraged Americans to get to know the people who grow their food. And she said that farmers markets are especially important in neighborhoods where access to healthy options are limited.

"A farmers market is not just about vegetables, it's about community," Mrs. Obama said.

It was a perfect forum for the first lady, who has been speaking out for healthy eating since planting the White House vegetable garden in the spring.

Behind her in the picture above is long-time Obama chef and White House assistant executive chef Sam Kass, who made a presentation to a couple of neighborhood groups to get their support for the market. Kass has been Mrs. Obama's right-hand man in her healthy eating initiative.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 5:27 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

It's a go for a farmers' market near the White House.

The Washington Post is reporting that the appropriate permits have been signed and issued and that White House assistant chef Sam Kass got a couple of community groups on his side with a presentation.

The market will be open Thursday afternoons, beginning Sept. 17, on a section of Vermont Avenue NW just a block from the White House and draw from 17 farms in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

No word on whether Michelle Obama's garden will be one of them.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:01 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

We here at Garden Variety floated this idea a few weeks back, and it looks like somebody has picked up on it.

There is movement afoot to open a farmer's market very near the White House, where First Lady Michelle Obama is growing plenty of her own vegetables.

The Washington Post is reporting that a permit request has been filed, and it has the support of the White House chefs. No one is saying for sure that Mrs. Obama is involved, but they are hinting that the idea has her support.

The market would be located on a little-used part of Vermont Avenue NW, about a block from the White House, the Post reports.

During an interview with the Huffington Post in August, the President hinted at the possibility of such a farmer's market while talking about the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:09 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

In this video produced by the White House and posted on AOL, First Lady Michelle Obama and assistant White House chef Sam Kass discuss the origins and the goals of the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt planted hers during World War II. Mrs. Obama said the idea for the garden began as a way to change the eating habits and the food decisions of her family. It has since exploded both in terms if impact and imitation. The video also shows time-lapse photos of the garden over several months - giving lie to all those rumors that the garden was "faked."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

I can see it now.

The Obama family outside the White House, working out of the back of a pick-up truck, selling vegetables from Michelle's garden and the kids making change out of a tin cash box.

That's the vision that comes to mind when the President discusses healthy eating, getting more fresh vegetables into school lunches and the possibility of a White House farmer's market.

Read his comments on the Huffington Post.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:25 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Meanwhile...

Obama Foodorama, a well-researched and well-written blog about Obama administration's food policies, reports that a retired White House groundkeeper confirms that reconditioned sludge was only applied once to the White House south lawn, in 1985.

Though President Clinton issued a broad directive to institute more environmentally friendly landscaping techniques, he was not in the White House when the sludge was applied, according to White House groundskeeper Irvin Williams, who retired last year after 59 years of service. That would have been during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

As bogger Eddie Gehman Kohan points out, the Clintons, too, have been "slandered" as having "poisoned" the White House grounds during this crazy campaign to discredit Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiative.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

I wrote earlier this week about the persistent rumors that the White House vegetable garden had "toxic" levels of lead caused by an application of fertilizer during the Clinton administration that was manufacturered from sewage sludge.

It seems that every day, some new blog, Web site or goofy publication reprints the rumor that the lead levels are so high that the First Lady will not allow her family to eat the produce from the garden and blah, blah, blah.

This, despite the repeated reassurance from Michelle Obama's press office that the lead level - 93 parts per million - was far below the 400 ppm that might cause some concern.

Well, as the New York Times reports, the White House has again tested the soil and found the lead levels to be about 14 ppm. Sam Kass, assistant White House chef and head gardener, was even trotted out for a photo op to help make the point.

The White House attributed the astonishingly low level to all the organic matter that was worked into the garden before it was planted. 

The lead level is as low as it might be in an area where there are no cars, which pollute the soil as well as the air. 

Not that any of the cabbage heads out there are going to believe it.

Photo of Sam Kass/ Associated Press

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

The New York Times is reporting on its political blog that lead has been found in the White House kitchen garden.

Garden Variety reported that fact previously, noting that the lead level found in the ground was 93 parts per million, far below the level of 400 parts per million, which requires remediation.

Lead is not unusual in urban soil. And the lead found in the White House dirt is far below the lead levels that can reach several thousand parts per million in cities.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 4:36 PM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

GOOD Magazine has an amazing illustration of the White House vegetable garden.

It not only shows the layout of the First Garden, but also compares the number of home gardens in 2008 and 2009. According to GOOD, gardens are up 7 million this year. Not sure what their data source is, but it's still good news!

The illustration also has space for the White House's smallest First Family member:

Continue reading "White House garden guide" »

Posted by Maryann James at 10:47 AM | Permalink
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden