Harvest time already? Schoolkids joined First Lady Michelle Obama today in the White House garden to harvest some of the vegetables they planted back in April.
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Harvest time at Michelle Obama’s garden
By Dave Cook | 06.16.09
While President Obama was busy killing a menacing housefly, elementary school children who had helped First Lady Michelle Obama plant a vegetable garden in April were invited back Tuesday to harvest vegetables.
According to a press pool report by the National Journal’s Jerry Hagstrom, White House associate chef Sam Kass said the garden has produced lettuce, snap peas, beans, kale, collard greens, and chard. The children from Washington’s Bancroft Elementary School concentrated on harvesting lettuce and peas.
A productive plot
Before today’s harvest, White House chefs had already taken 90 pounds of produce from the garden, including broccoli and green beans and one beautiful eggplant, chef Kass said. Herbs have been harvested every night and are not included in the 90 pounds.
The garden’s bountiful output has been produced without using fertilizer or herbicide. But the underlying White House soil had been “amended” with crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, green sand compost, and lime powder, officials said.
After completing an interview with ABC News, Mrs. Obama walked down the White House lawn dressed in orange jeans, a blouse, and patterned sweater. She thanked the children for being there when the ground was broken and the garden planted. “Your group helped pull up the soil,” she said.
Michelle’s harvesting techniques
The First Lady then took a knife and showed the children how to cut lettuce heads from the bottom. When the children weighed the produce they harvested, a White House spokeswoman said it came to 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of peas.
The school children worked in two groups. One group of about 10 students was assigned to the White House kitchen. It is all stainless steel but smaller than those in many new suburban houses. Each child was given an apron and a paper chef’s hat.
One group of boys broke eggs for coating chicken which would be baked. A chef taught the boys to break the eggs on a flat surface.
A second team shelled peas. Mrs. Obama arrived and joined the team, with Chef Kass showing the children how to snap the peas. Mrs. Obama noted, “We were eating some peas in the garden. The peas are very sweet.”
Better than fried?
After a time, Mrs. Obama turned to children who were preparing the chicken and said of the baked chicken they would eat, “This is a healthier version of fried chicken.” One chef also told the children they could prepare this kind of chicken at home with “shake and bake.”
After working in the kitchen, the students and Mrs. Obama went into the First Lady’s Garden where other Bancroft School attendees were outside preparing salad and decorating cup cakes with raspberries and blueberries.
Mrs. Obama helped set the picnic table with paper plates and plastic tableware. “Today is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” she said.
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2. NinaK | 06.16.09
What a wonderful experience for these children; something they will remember with joy and pride the rest of their lives!
3. sos | 06.17.09
There was a time when everyone had a garden, or at least some knowledge of one. There are children here who will be inspired to plant their own some day, perhaps very soon. What better resource for our one our greatest necessities (to eat), than to make use of the ground we walk on. There is so much wasted earth, and so many devastated communities. May this be a first step in restoring some of what has been lost.
5. Bob | 06.17.09
“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country” Like any good garden, it should be socialized.
7. wow! | 06.17.09
Well, I have to say she found some nice fertilizer and I wonder if I could find some of it.
She planted the garden around the last of march didn’t she?? Fast garden.
Wonderful concept and photo ops, but gardens don’t grow this fast do they?
90 lbs for the chefs Huge harvest too! I’m moving to D.C. where the ground is fertile and there’s no manure used. 
LOL
9. Michelle Greenjeans | 06.18.09
No commercial fertilizer was used. The extraordinary growth rate was made possible by “The President” and all the bull coming from the Oval Office.
10. Tanya | 06.22.09
Why don’t you, ironic faces, cheer: Wow, there are ways to make the soil incredibly fertile without using harmful chemicals! Why don’t you ask: How can I learn how Michelle Obama’s garden grows so fast and prolific?
I hope the First Lady will share with us the secret of her fantastic harvest.
11. Backyard Gardener | 06.30.09
It’s a garden people! Why do you need to bring your negativity and hatred into the discussion???
This isn’t a “fast” garden by any means. The article talks about harvesting peas, lettuce, herbs and some berries.
We planted our suburban Chicago zone 5 garden (colder than Washington) a few weeks after the White House garden and we’ve had peas for weeks already. Our strawberries began ripening about two weeks ago but the rabbits so far are eating them faster than my kids.
Both ours and the White House’s are normal backyard gardens, not “fast”.
And as for the amendments, the crab meal and green sand are always good bets for adding nutrients to the soil.
If you’re in the middle of the country and can’t get crab meal you can try coffee shops used grounds, barn or stable manures, or even fish meal (bones, scales, tail, etc) if you are near a river or lake. Just bury any fish stuff about 2 feet deep or more or you’ll have some furry friends over for dinner.
You can learn a lot about free organic garden amendments online or from your library — the GardnWeb.com Veggie forum and Soil forum plus Organic-Gardening.net are very informative.
It’s pretty easy and a lot cheaper than buying the chemical fertilizers since one man’s “garbage” is another’s treasure.
12. LostLiberty | 08.07.09
Michelle, please,please,please,please,please………….
Do you see how Congress has passed HR2749 ???
That’s intended for us to have to kiss our organic gardens good-bye.
Please intervene.
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. zwitter | 06.16.09
Just a nice thing