Garden Parties

From the White House to city rooftops, everyone is getting their gardening on. Yesterday, Mrs. Obama invited a group of fifth graders back to the White House Garden to reap the fruit of their labor the kids had planted last spring.

The First Lady helped them pick the lettuce and peas and then demonstrated how to eat peas fresh from the garden. According to the Associated Press, she asked them, "It tastes great, doesn't it, when the vegetables are fresh? We all have to have vegetables every single day, every day."

The group harvested 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of peas from the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped plot on the South Lawn. But make no mistake, this isn’t some feel good photo-op, eating local is becoming a way of life for the First Family. The White House kitchen cooks up vegetables from the garden every day, and she hopes that the garden will help people make the connection between eating right and feeling healthy.

However, Mrs. Obama acknowledges that urban and rural families don’t always have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. She praised communities for “taking matters into their own hands.” Trickle down effect or not, from New York to D.C. to Chicago, city residents are transforming rooftops into urban farms.

Schools like P.S. 6 in Manhattan will grow plants and herbs next spring for its cafeteria. And, The New York Times reports, bar owners like Tony Tomelden of Pug’s in Washington, D.C., will be growing their own chilies and tomatoes in return for a tax break from the city.

There are those, too, who do it for the joy of gardening and love of fresh food. Paula Crossfield, managing editor of the Civil Eats blog, persuaded her fellow Lower East Side tenants to spring $3,000 for a 400-square-foot garden. In return, Crossfield pays for the seeds and harvests the goods. “The bottom line,” she said, “is that I harbor a secret desire to be a farmer, and my way of doing that is to use what I have, which is a roof.”

So, we’ve run out of excuses. Whether you’re sky-high in cityscape or in your backyard — green it up! And if you’re anything like me (I kill cactus) there are plenty of green thumbs for hire.