Sam Kass, left, an assistant chef, and Dale Haney, a gardener, at the site where Michelle Obama will plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s.

Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Vegetable Garden

By MARIAN BURROS
New York Times
Published: March 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

In an interview in her office, Mrs. Obama said, “My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

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By Alice Waters
Photographs by David Liittschwager
80 color photographs
Published in December, 2008

Edible Schoolyard — One of America’s most influential chefs, Alice Waters created a revolution in 1971 when she introduced local, organic fare at her Berkeley, California, restaurant, Chez Panisse. Twenty-five years later, she and a small group of teachers and volunteers turned over long-abandoned soil at an urban middle school in Berkeley and planted the Edible Schoolyard.

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