By AFRO Staff
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Michelle Obama and schoolchildren plant seeds in the White House vegetable garden. (Photo / landoverbaptist.net)
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(April 12, 2009) - Michelle Obama got down and dirty Thursday.
Armed with brown gardening gloves, knees pressed to the earth and surrounded by a group of eager helpers, the first lady planted the first fruit and vegetable seedlings in the new White House kitchen garden, according to the Associated Press.
“It does have nutrients, it does make you strong, it is all brain food,” Obama said about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables to students from Bancroft Elementary School.
She said that’s something she learned from feeding her daughters, Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7.
Based on what was planted Thursday, the first family will be eating a lot of spinach, assorted lettuce, cucumbers and peas flavored with an assortment of herbs, onions and shallots.
Tomatoes will follow in about three weeks. Honey will come from a beehive a short distance away from the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped plot on the South Lawn.
The garden will be used to feed the Obamas and White House staff and guests. Crops, which will be harvested by the same fifth-graders who helped prepare the lot and plant the seedlings, will also be donated to a local soup kitchen.
All that, Obama said, at a pretty low cost.
“We can produce enough fruits and vegetables to feed us for years and years to come, for just a couple of hundred dollars,” she said.
The White House garden has stirred a lot of interest among chefs—including those at the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.—fresh food and nutrition advocates and gardening enthusiasts. It has even drawn the attention of people abroad. Britain’s Prince Charles was among many who asked the first lady about her garden, she said.
“In many countries they really believe in the importance of planting and growing their own food,” she said.