Edible Education Begins At (the First) Home | Civil Eats

Edible Education Begins At (the First) Home

garden

Thanks to Michelle Obama, there is finally going to be a bona fide – and fairly expansive – organic fruit and vegetable garden at the White House!

Apparently, President Obama doesn’t favor beets, but the first family and their guests will be dining on a reported 55 other varieties of vegetables, plus berries for dessert, throughout the year. The herb patch is going to include anise hyssop (aka licorice mint), which, if you happen to be lucky enough to have any in your garden, you know is a huge favorite of bees – and there will be a couple of First Hives nearby.  The White House also made known that the seeds and equipment to start their Victory Garden cost a total of $200, a sum which pales in comparison to the produce the garden could yield.  White House gardener Dale Haney, along with the team in the kitchen (Sam Kass, Cristeta Comerford and Bill Yosses) will be tending to the garden. Michelle Obama insists that everyone will help pull weeds, “whether they like it or not.”  And the DC fifth-graders, who are helping break ground on this first day of spring and have a garden of their own at their school, will help plant, harvest and cook the cilantro, tomatilloes, hot peppers, red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic lettuces, and the spinach, chard, collards and black kale.

And then the words many people have been hoping for and waiting a long time to hear:

“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.”

While the groundbreaking on the South Lawn takes place today, there’ll be a more formal unveiling ceremony for the Obamas’ edible garden in June – just in time for fresh picks.

Here is the garden’s plan, from the New York Times:

We’ll bring the news to you.

Get the weekly Civil Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox.

20garden_grph_xbig

Photo: First Lady Michelle Obama works with kids from Washington’s Bancroft Elementary School to break ground for a White House garden. The White House / Joyce N. Boghosian

Today’s food system is complex.

Invest in nonprofit journalism that tells the whole story.

Katrina Heron is Newsweek/The Daily Beast's Editor-at-Large, has been Editor-in-Chief of Wired, Senior Editor at The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and Story Editor at The New York Times Magazine. Her articles have been published in Vogue, Dwell, and The New York Times. She is a co-author of Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves In A Newly Dangerous World (HarperCollins, 2005), co-founder of Civil Eats and an adviser to the Atavist. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

  1. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
  2. horay!

More from

2023 Farm Bill

Featured

‘For the Culture’ Is a Joyful Celebration of Black Women and Femmes in Food

Klancy Miller’s new book showcases the ‘sisterly insights’ of 66 pioneers in food, wine, and hospitality, while not shying away from the hard truths of racism, sexism, and mental health.

Popular

California Leads the Way in Low-Carbon School Meals

This Oregon Farmer Is Building a New Model for Indigenous Food and Agriculture

Spring Alaska Schreiner walks in her greenhouse at Sakari Farms. (Photo courtesy of Spring Alaska Schreiner)

Farming in Dry Places: Investors Continue to Speculate on Colorado Water

cattle walking to a water trough in douglas county, colorado. Photo credit: thomas barwick, getty images

Changes to WIC Benefits Would Cut Food Access for Millions of Parents

a young parent feeds an infant food that they bought using their wic benefit