Not since World War II has there been a working Victory Garden on the grounds of the White House. This week, things changed. Clad in some great sturdy boots, First Lady Michelle Obama, along with students from local D.C. Bancroft Elementary School broke ground again - literally and figuratively - to begin a Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn, in which vegetables and fruit for meals at the White House will be grown; among other healthy taste treats, peas, arugula and blueberries will be on the menu. The photo captures activities that look a lot like the gardening that has been going on in my neighborhood lately, but on smaller plots. You can check out the garden layout, which includes over 50 varieties of veggies and fruit, as well as keep an eye on what’s happening at the White House blog. Obama is quoted in Friday’s Wall Street Journal as saying something which is very true, but that many people in the U.S. today don’t really understand: “What I found with my girls, who are ten and seven, is that they like vegetables more if they taste good, right?” Right! But why is that so? It is not just that the food is fresher, it’s that for marketability reasons, many of the fruits and vegetables delivered to grocery stores are picked before they’re totally ripe, so they haven’t had the chance to develop a full, rich flavor. The selection of produce grown for that market segment, to be delivered to stores, is also chosen for it’s ablility to maintain freshness for a long period, but because the compromise results in often less-than-wow flavor and texture, we’ve turned to making other more flavorful and appealing food choices. There are many other varieties your could grow which are much more delicious and tempting, but also more fragile and susceptible to bruising and rot when carted thousands of miles to market. Growing vegetables at home or in community gardens allows a world of choices that you just can’t get at the grocery, and the “harvest-to-mouth” time can be a matter of seconds. White House chefs, as well as local harvest advocates like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, are in accord about the great benefits that can be reaped from growing your own food.
The White House Kitchen Garden reflects a trend in home vegetable gardening, which is remarkably up this year. We Americans are getting excited again about growing our own food. Fueled by economic concerns and food-safety issues, as well as an increased interest in greener landscapes, much attention is being given to this opportunity. Just today our Herald-Leader City/Regional headline was about volunteers at the Lexington Rescue Mission’s Outreach Center planting a garden at the Glen Arvin Avenue Complex: Garden Volunteers Plant Seeds of Hope. This is a perfect time to dig in and begin replacing some lawn with luscious edibles.
To see how life has changed since the 1940s, and for a slice of history about just what a Victory Garden is, check out this 20-minute video:
Watch Victory Garden Movie USA in Educational | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
