Vegetable Garden... no, really...

Yesterday I found an article on the NY Times website that had been reprinted from 1991. I was excited to read the editorial, written by a favorite author of mine, Michael Pollan. It's about planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to post it on the blog with no delay. I wanted to share what I thought was an interesting piece, and did so without any further research. Because of I was so anxious to write about it, I ended up with a post that laughed at the idea of an actual garden appearing on the White House lawn.

Woops.

The reason the article was unearthed from the NY Times archives should have been clear to me without too much research or active thought. Maybe it was the early Sunday morning air, or perhaps I have a gas leak in my living room -- whatever the reason, I completely missed the story that this past Friday, work began on the brand new White House vegetable garden.

Aided by students from a local elementary school, "first lady Michelle Obama [hosted] a groundbreaking for a White House kitchen garden on the South Lawn... The 1,100-square-foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach and, yes, arugula. (The selection is a wish list put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family, as well as for state dinners and other official events."

I probably should have realized that the Times doesn't just pull up random articles from its archives without a purpose. Now the Pollan article is even more interesting -- it may have taken close to 20 years, but the garden is now becoming a reality.

So is this a symbolic moment? Will a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House bring attention to the organic and locally-grown food movements? Let's hope so.