In years past not much attention has been given to food in the White House. This is not the case with the new administration. Michelle Obama hosted a harvest party this summer celebrating the organic garden they planted in their backyard. This is the first vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt resided in the White House. This incident was not without controversy the Mid America CropLife Association sent a letter to Michelle stating that:
“Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical.”
“What happens if you want some grapes during the month of December?” “What are you going to do? Not eat grapes?”
This is absurd to me. I will admit our food system is complex and we cannot all begin to rely wholly on our back yard gardens but we should be encouraging that practice as much as possible. Why can’t we eat grapes in the summer when they are ripe and not for Christmas dinner. People don’t carve pumpkins for spring break so don’t be absurd and demand grapes on your Christmas fruit cake.
Upon moving into our new house we decided to build a garden. The bennefits of having a garden in your back yard are many. Here are a few:
- Freshness: Food available to cook as soon as you pick it. As soon as you pick food it begins to break down, some things lose half of their sugars within an hour.
- Beauty: Plants are beautiful things.
- Sustainability: The food you are eating is a hop skip and a jump away as opposed to the average 1500 miles most travels to get to your plate.
- Relaxation: Being in a garden tending to the needs of the plants also tends to care for your personal health.
- Variety: We love tomatoes, and you can only buy on or two kinds in the store. That is why we have 18 different varieties of tomatoes in our garden.
- Waste: Eating food from your garden does not produce any packaging only compost that you can use the next year around.
- Community: When you start growing your own food, you can share excess with your family or friends.
- Price: The cost of gardening is very small if you avoid unnecessary things.
The first step in the process was to ask our landlord if he would allow us to plant some vegetables in the back yard. He agreed to our request and even helped out a bit.
