“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

This brand new picture book about Michelle Obama’s world-famous White House kitchen garden is the perfect way to celebrate the growing season. Grab your trowels and dig it!

I’ve been a Robbin Gourley fan ever since I read and reviewed her first picture book, Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You a Pie (Clarion, 2009), a story about Virginia chef Edna Lewis. Gourley has also published two self-illustrated cookbooks and is a proponent of the field-to-table philosophy of healthy eating. In First Garden, she describes how Mrs. Obama, the White House kitchen staff, and students from a local elementary school turned an 1100-square-foot plot of land on the South Lawn into a flourishing garden which provides fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for the First Family and staff, White House guests, and even homeless men and women at a D.C. shelter.

We see how in March 2009 they prepared the soil, planted seedlings (some of the seeds came from plants first grown two hundred years ago in Jefferson’s Monticello garden), implemented pest control, watered, nurtured and finally harvested the produce. A beehive was also installed, the first in White House history. In August, Mrs. Obama hosted a harvest party, where the student gardeners, along with White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford, Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, and Assistant Chef Sam Kass, cut lettuces, picked peas and berries, prepared a salad, decorated cupcakes and enjoyed a scrumptious picnic table feast.

 

Over the summer, the First Garden produced more than a thousand pounds of food, and the bees produced one hundred and thirty-four pounds of honey — roughly eleven gallons.

But of course, no beets, as per President Obama’s request. ☺

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