First lady's White House garden

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100504/LIVING/705049961

First lady's White House garden

WASHINGTON -- A patch of ground in a sunny corner of a lawn at the nation's most famous residential address is growing into an internationally famous test plot for showing how simple it is to produce tasty, nutritious and healthful meals with seeds, dirt, sunshine and water.

Of course, this is not a typical urban garden. It's first lady Michelle Obama's kitchen garden at the White House.

Spread across 1,500 square feet in the South Lawn and within view of pedestrians outside the fence, neat rows of broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, chard, collard greens, lettuce, mustard greens, peas, spinach and other spring crops are marked by slate signs.

Weeds don't sink deep roots. White House volunteers who shed suits for jeans weed and hand-water the plants when it doesn't rain.
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It's not just a showpiece. Something from the garden ends up in meals prepared for President Barack Obama and his family every night, said Sam Kass, the assistant White House chef who oversees the garden.

“Fruits and vegetables are a key part of every meal,” Kass said. “We never serve a meal without vegetables on the plate.''

The point of the garden, however, is not that people need an 18-acre fenced estate or a professional chef to take control of their diets and grow some of their own food. Anyone can do it on any scale, Kass said.

Now in its second spring, the White House garden has been planted and harvested with the help of local schoolchildren, some of whom were not shy about expressing their dislike for peas or salads, Kass said.

But after helping harvest and create a meal featuring chicken and peas, brown rice and salad, “I've never seen kids go after peas and lettuce with such vigor,'' Kass said.

In the end, last year's 1,100-square-foot garden produced 55 kinds of fruits and vegetables and 1,008 pounds of food. About a third of it went to a nearby soup kitchen. Garden herbs are used for seasoning state dinners.

Honey from a beehive -- a White House first -- sweetens cupcakes and vinaigrette salad dressing. The hive is tended by a White House carpenter. It produced 134 pounds of honey last year.

“For the kids, it's a powerful educational moment,'' Kass said. “We talk about the cycle of the garden. What the bees do. How they pollinate. ... It makes connections with what they hear in classes, and it starts to become very real.''

The garden buzz grew global at the president's first Group of 20 conference in London last spring, Kass said. All anybody wanted to talk about to the first lady was the garden and Bo, the family dog.

A cover photograph on a Russian weekly politics and culture magazine featured the first lady working in the White House garden under the headline, “Queen of the Fields,'' during the Obamas' visit to Moscow last summer.

Embassies are building gardens. People call the White House seeking information on how to replicate the garden. (Plans are on the White House website.)

“It's actually been astounding about how many people are using this as a model,'' Kass said.

At its roots, the garden is part of the first lady's pitch for healthful eating.

“That was our hope, but I think it exceeded expectations,'' Kass said.

The garden yields produce year round. Plastic-covered hoop houses were set up to collect heat from the winter sun. In early March, Kass picked about 50 pounds of arugula, carrots, lettuce, spinach and turnips grown inside the mini-greenhouses during the district's historic snowy winter.

Kass gained 400 square feet of garden ground this spring. He grows rhubarb in raised bed plots. Later plantings this season will include artichokes, beans, corn, leeks, melons, pumpkins and tomatoes. Kass said he might try pickling cucumbers and beans.

Last year's pumpkins were planted too late and failed.

“We'll get pumpkins right this year,'' Kass said.

There are no plans to sprinkle the fruits and vegetables with bureaucracy or bundle them with red tape by trying to certify the garden as organic. But the White House uses only natural, not synthetic, fertilizers and pesticides. The soil was enhanced with compost, sand, potash and crab meal.

More important than the organic label, Kass said, is educating and inspiring people to eat healthfully.

It requires all styles of growing food from small gardens to large-scale production agriculture to feed the nation, Kass said. And no food is bad, he said.

“The idea is eat healthy ... but if you want to go have a pizza or eat burgers once in a while, that's great,'' Kass said. “What the first lady says is that if that's all you eat, then we have a problem. Kids' health starts to break down.''

Kass said he relishes coming to the garden to see what looks good for building a meal.

“Cooking with peas in spring is great. Tomatoes in July and August is fine. And spinach, broccoli and squash whatever,'' he said. “That's the beauty of food.''

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.co