October 26, 2013

Why you should let your garden grow... & grow... & grow! (Saturday 10/26/13)


"A garden, where one may enter in and forget the whole world, cannot be made in a week, nor a month, nor a year; it must be planned for, waited for and loved into being."
 - Chinese proverb


Why you should let your garden grow...& grow...




So because I am working around the times when I have internet access for awhile, I am posting this about 8-10 hrs earlier then normal - just don't get used to it! This was a rare occasion of extra motivation and enough time on hand to complete my post well in advance. So today we talk about the White House Kitchen Gardens and how you should take inspiration from First Lady Obama's campaign to grow fresh healthy food & teach your children to also! Hope you like it - I put a lot of time into this one folks!

Look no further then the White House Lawn and Gardens for your Weekend inspiration! That's right today we are here to look at something that has a long and interesting history at the White House (and in hundreds of thousands of other locations across the country and beyond). We are examining the call of cultivation, specifically growing our own food in our own gardens and the new revival of this past time and popular personal food source. No doubt a lot of the recent enthusiasm for gardening and education about fresh, healthy, home grown food can be traced to our First Lady Michelle Obama who has done great things for gardening and nutrition initiatives since her husband became President. And after years she continues to be a leader and supporter of all things nutritious & educational which she should be extremely proud of as women, Americans, an/or human beings in general. Not everything about our leadership has been devastating or selfish (though I defend nothing that has been done of late by our elected officials!)- and it's a good time for us to remember that amidst our anger and outrage at the antics of many in government and on TV! 

So gardening and the White House... the fastest and most entertaining way to cover this is by animation of course; a brief video-history from EAT THE VIEW about some of our past President's who have used the White House Lawn to grow food for a variety of reasons. Click the picture below to watch the clip or go to the Garden of Eatin' link. The video was first made available in 2009 as part of the "Eat the View" campaign,to turn part of the White House's 18 acre lawn back into an edible landscape. The video tells the story of the "America's Garden" from 1800 when President John Adams planted the first "first vegetables" to feed his own family, to 2009 with a request to President & First Lady Obama to begin growing food on their lawn once more! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8y1oNdmoE)





In case you are unable to watch the video or just choose not to here's the basic history...
"The White House has had multiple vegetable gardens since its completion in 1800. Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama all have had their own versions of vegetable gardens. Roosevelt planted the White House victory garden during World War II to promote the use of victory gardens by American citizens in a time of possible food scarcity. Hillary Clinton had a vegetable garden constructed on the roof of the White House. On March 20, 2009 Michelle Obama broke ground on the largest and most expansive vegetable garden to date on the White House lawn." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss) 

It made sense then to grow food at the White House, and it makes sense now! 

"The Obama's planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House on March 20, 2009. This L-shaped 1,100-square-foot (100 m) garden is located by the mansion’s tennis courts and can be seen from E street. The plot provides more than 55 varieties of vegetables along with fruits that are incorporated into meals made for the Obama family as well as invited guests. Another portion of the yields are donated to the local soup kitchen and the Food Bank Organization. There are 55 varieties of vegetables grown, including: arugula (rocket), cilantro (coriander), tomatillo, hot peppers, spinach, chard, collards, black kale, berries and lettuce. In addition to the seeds selected to be planted are twenty five heirloom seeds and ten different herbs such as anise hyssop and Thai basil.
http://www.pajamadeen.com/images/victory-garden.jpg
Former presidents' favorite produce will also be sown such as President Thomas Jefferson’s preferred vegetables “Brown Dutch and Tennis Ball lettuce, Prickly Seed spinach and Savoy cabbage” but beets will not be grown as the current President does not like them. Along with the vegetable garden a beehive was added near the chef’s kitchen that is overseen by Charlie Brandts, a beekeeper and White House carpenter. Honey collected from the beehives has been used to brew White House Honey Ale. The contributing gardeners responsible for the early stages of the garden include the First Lady herself, White House Horticulturist Dale Haney, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a team of chefs, and fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington. These twenty –three fifth grader advocates, who have grown a garden at their school, helped with digging up the soil, planting, harvesting, and cooking the crops produced. Project facilitator Michelle Obama has made the vegetable garden a priority by requiring hands on assistance from all the family members."(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/growing-food-on-the-white-house-lawn/)

In May 2012, the First Lady published "American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America", a book detailing her experiences with the Kitchen Garden and promoting healthy eating. I have yet to read it but after this write up will be sure to get myself a copy. I truly admire our First Lady for her stance on health and nutrition and the active hands on role she takes with it & has for years now. She is a great role model to us all though I didn't come into my own health and nutrition passions and activism until less then a year ago, I love having someone like her to look to now, it's encouraging & useful too! She has helped get a lot more media attention on the issue of health, diet, nutrition, and homegrown produce all of which we desperately need. No doubt she has influenced the recent nutrition craze more then many of us realize - which makes my work, research and writing much stronger and more diverse and gives my audience the sense that this is not just a fad but truly important, and a long overdue movement - not a fad. 

'First Lady Obama, who had no prior experience in gardening, was motivated to start a garden when she realized her daughters Malia and Sasha were not receiving daily nutritious meals. The young girls' diet that would sometimes consist of dining out three times a week with occasional sandwiches for dinner was recommended to be modified by the family’s pediatrician.' (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/growing-food-on-the-white-house-lawn/)

The First Lady and DC students garden
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/20/Spring-Gardening/
"She thought growing a garden would be an easy way to get more fruits and vegetables in her daughters' diets. (She was right!) The emphasis on the vegetable garden movement is to encourage Americans to increase healthy food choices. The First Lady believes that changes could be made by cooking more at home, eliminating unhealthy foods, and consuming more fruits and vegetables. Furthermore the garden will take a leading role in educating children about the benefits of local grown produce in attempt to decrease the rising cases of obesity and diet related health issues affecting the nation. First Lady Obama is confident that by educating the children of this generation then "they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.” (https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-House/112957978719119)

"Foodies and Environmentalist are elated with the produce garden growing at the White House. Michael Pollan, author of the The Omnivore's Dilemma" and advocate of sustainable agriculture, believes the garden is not only practical and efficient "but just as important, it teaches important habits of mind – helping people to reconnect with their food, eat more healthily on a budget and recognize that we're less dependent on the industrial food chain, and cheap fossil fuel, than we assume." (https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-House-Vegetable-Garden/138056879547890?rf=353118038096578#)


In our next video, "First Lady Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass tell the story of the first garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II. This new garden was planted in the Spring of 2009 with the help of local elementary school children and has yielded a constant supply fresh produce for the First Family and White House events." 
Watch the story "Inside the White House: The Kitchen Garden" by clicking the middle of the link just below here... you may also find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVpEr3kfWjc#action=share.




I love when Michelle Obama says the garden will be an important introduction to a new way that our country thinks about food. She is absolutely right. 
(www.bing.com/images/search?q=White+House+vegetable+gardens&qpvt)
It is easier to encourage kids to eat well and to teach them about healthy eating and vegetation when they are young then to try to change food and diet habits "mid-stream"; when they are older and often HAVE to change their diets in order to save their bodies. 
But by then bad habits are hard to break and much damage is already done to the mind and body. Of course, we all have the option of making changes for the better as adults if we know how to! If we're taught to eat well as children, many of those changes may be unnecessary and our health will be improved also. 

GROWING FOR THE FUTURE!
 "A recent study of adolescents at 3 different elementary schools found that those who participated in gardening along with being taught about nutrition, increased their intake of vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber. It also shows gardens can be therapeutic for all people and that there is a relationship between gardening and nutritional attitudes and behaviors in older adults too." (http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1370/?utm_source=nl_2008-07-21&utm_medium=email)


'All ages and all socioeconomic levels can reap the benefits of gardening. Gardens can be small or large, inside or outside, at home, in the community, at school, camps, restaurants, on a deck, or on a windowsill. Gardening is fun and adventurous and, when combined with a curriculum (like that offered at HealthBarn® USA), is a wonderful way to improve your children's diet and lifestyle, while educating them about plants, nature, the outdoors and science.' (http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1370/?utm_source=nl_2008-07-21&utm_medium=email. See also http://healthbarnusa.com/Shop/ProductDetails.aspx?Pid=7).




What is so great is her focus on nutrition (and gardening) with young people was not a one time deal for the First Lady - far from it. She didn't break ground, give a speech and pass her spade off to another; she has been out there digging and planting multiple times over the years. She put her money where her mouth is when it comes to nutrition. She feeds herself and her family fresh fruits and veggies (from the garden too!), and has been an outspoken leader in changing our nations food standards, and in promoting nutrition and dietary education to all ages, with added emphasis on school children. Just last spring she was welcoming students out to the White House garden so they could begin planting new crops with her...

(April 2013) "Are you ready to go?" the first lady asked the kids after she met them at the garden on a crisp, sunny afternoon. Students who attend school in Bradenton, Fla., Somerville, Mass., Knox County, Tenn., and Milton, Vt., were invited, she said, because their districts are doing "such wonderful things" to put in place new federal nutrition standards for school lunches.

The first lady personally planted rows of wheat, spinach and kale, with help from a few students. Other students planted the remaining crops, with an assist from White House staff members. Also helping were military veterans in training for careers in sustainable agriculture.

Mrs. Obama planted the garden in 2009 to help launch her campaign against childhood obesity and encourage healthier eating. She says involving children in the growing of fruits and vegetables makes it more likely that they will eat them, too. The garden so far has produced more than 3,000 pounds of food. The White House gives some to a local soup kitchen." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/04/michelle-obama-white-house-garden_n_3016764.html

When the Obama's first announced plans for the garden, the First Lady was quoted saying: "We want to use it as a point of education," the first lady said in an interview in the April issue of O magazine. "We want to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031902886.html)

"Nothing could be more exciting," said Alice Waters, chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., who has been lobbying for a garden on the White House lawn since the first Clinton administration. "The symbolism of putting a seed in the ground is a promise of a real nourishment and education for the population who visits, the people who plant the crops and the people who pick from it." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031902886.html)


Well Chef Waters & First Lady Obama, I couldn't agree with you more! Growing your own food is fun, fresh, educational, inspirational and gives you a real sense of accomplishment and creativity. It promises nourishment in a literal and metaphorical way. It also makes you more appreciative of food and the hard work that goes into growing it, and therefore less likely to waste it. Plus, when you grow your own you control the use of pesticides, insecticides and the decision to use Genetically Modified seeds (why you would ever do so is beyond me!) or not. 

Now of course, historically gardens have involved the use of soil but remember with hydroponics and aeroponics this is no longer necessary. More to come on these exciting topics I promise. But for now the point is GROW SOMETHING! And get your kids, your local schools, and your neighborhood involved! Even if you don't have little ones I bet there are many to be found nearby who'd benefit greatly from some gardening experience and education. If you don't know what you're doing (like me), then volunteer at a local garden, farm or school program. If you do, and have rows of plants to be proud of, show them off and relay all your knowledge to a younger generation in need of such learning and exposure to healthy fresh food! If you have the knowledge but physically aren't able to keep up with the demands anymore, again I'm sure there's a way... 


If you don't know any children who are interested in helping you out or learning the trade then invest in a Tower garden like myself and learn everything there is to know about the newest and easiest way to grow many types of non-GMO food right on your porch or patio, or indoors! Just because the old ways no longer fit with your lifestyle or schedule does not mean there is no way to keep growing - or even get started for the first time. Now you know there are options- so there's no excuse. (If you are interested in finding out more about alternative gardening methods hop on over to my website at akorteshares.towergarden.com and see this wondrous new and easy way to garden indoors or out. ) Either way I urge you to plant a garden, plant a seed and grow grow grow good health for yourself, and our future generations. There are plenty of links below on articles that may be of interest to you readers. So you've got lots to keep you busy this Saturday! 


Have a happy and healthy day dear readers. Don't forget to become a follower of this page too, if you aren't already & share the website with friends and family if you like what you see. Y'all come back now, you hear? ; ) 

Peace, Audrey









FOR FURTHER READING, AND EDUCATION CHECK OUT THESE ARTICLES, BLOGS, AND WEBSITES...

  • "Mommy, look what I picked!" Improving Children's Nutrition & Health through Gardening." Diana Wind, RD, May 31, 2013 (http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1370/#ixzz2imZR0lxd)
  • Exciting News! More and more public school cafeterias turning to the new Farm to School program! "Public School Cafeterias: The New Local Food Nirvana?" A census conducted by the USDA shows that many districts are participating in the department's Farm to School program. Find out more here: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/10/24/public-school-cafeteria-local-food-nirvana?cmpid=tp-gplus
  • What to do and When to do it, October. From "The Learning Garden Blog" found at this link: http://www.lagardenblog.com/2013/10/what-to-do-and-when-to-do-it-october.html
  • Instructional Activities & Links for School Gardeners from "School Garden Weekly": http://schoolgardenweekly.com/resource



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