White House Plants Victory Garden: Share Stories And Photos Of Your Gardens Options

[Craig Minowa]

NOTE: To place a photo in your posting, you'll see an "Attachments" box below the form where you post your message. In that box, you can browse to find a file on your computer of your garden. You can Upload that file there. Once it is uploaded, click on the "Manage Attachments" box above that and choose the left icon (with the little green plus sign) to have the attachment embedded into your text message. It's that easy!

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Organic 'Victory' Garden Planted at White House!

In a major victory for organic and local food activists, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground on the White House's first organic kitchen garden since the Roosevelt Administration. According to the First Lady "I've been able to have my kids eat so many different things that they would have never touched if we had bought it at a store because they either met the farmers that grew it, or they saw how it was grown," she said.

Are you ready to follow the First Lady's lead? Would you like resources and tips for growing or expanding your own victory garden? Sign OCA's organic victory garden petition (http://organicconsumers.org/transitions/index.cfm) and visit our Transition's Campaign to learn more.

Want to share pictures and stories about your personal or community garden? Please do so below!

[Craig Minowa]

Hi all,
It's still wintery in Minnesota, so I can't share any fresh photos of our garden, but I've attached one of our back prairie where we are working to bring the land back to it's natural state.

As for the gardens, we expand them every year, and are working to become totally self-sufficient in regards to the food we produce and preserve, but it's a sharp learning curve. We added chickens last year, which have helped keep the tick population down. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to keep the neighbors three dogs away from the chickens and out of our vegetable garden. If you have ideas, let me know.  farm2008.bmp ( 900.05K ) Number of downloads: 0

[uncommon ground]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

uncommon ground
The Nation's First Certified Organic Rooftop Farm! (M.O.S.A. Oct, 2008)

BEYOND GREEN; AN UNCOMMONLY CERTIFIED ORGANIC ROOFTOP FARM

Chicago, IL, November 2008 - What began as an innovative idea hatched from a passion for sustainability has grown to become a 2500 square foot certified organic rooftop farm, rising 30 feet above Devon Avenue on the north side of Chicago.

The Midwest Organic Services Association designated the farm organic on October 16th, 2008, making it the first certified organic farm in the United States that resides on a rooftop. The organic farm boasts a grocery list of produce, from Nardello Peppers to Black Prince Tomatoes, which fuel the restaurant below. For 17 years Uncommon Ground has upheld a farm to table mentality, building relationships with farmers from the Great Lakes region who follow sustainable and organic methods. In 2007 the owners of Uncommon Ground, Helen and Michael Cameron, decided to expand and in finding the second home for their restaurant at 1401 W. Devon they were inspired to bring local food even closer to home. Not only do they now grow vegetables on the roof, they also employ 5 solar panels that heat up to 70% of the water for the restaurant, house 2 beehives that this year produced over 40 pounds of honey, and teach urban agriculture classes to the local Waldorf school 3rd graders. The rooftop has been busy since mid-summer of 2008 when the construction finished and the farm opened its planter boxes for planting and eventual harvest. "There are many green roofs in Chicago," said Helen Cameron, "but they are not necessarily geared for full-on production and used as an educational tool. We made an enormous investment with the idea of producing food for the restaurants and using it to teach and create awareness about the possibilities of urban agriculture. That's the biggest difference between us and other green roofs."

The extensive remodel at 1401 W. Devon began with digging down into the basement an extra five feet to accommodate for heavy-duty steel beams that could support a rooftop farm. Every effort is taken to make the restaurant as “green” and sustainable as possible, including the interior tables, which are made from re-claimed wood out of Jackson Park and are designed by local furniture makers. On the organic farm there are 28 raised bed planter boxes that were designed and built by local craftsmen and hold a total of 640 square feet of organic soil (nearly 6 tons). The planter boxes rest on top of a deck that is made entirely out of a recycled plastic and wood composite material, making it durable to the daily duties of farming. Beyond the green materials and products that the restaurant uses, the idea for a sustainable community hub is important to Helen and Michael Cameron. There is a weekly farmer’s market, complete with live local musicians and artists displaying their goods. And, once a month Uncommon Ground holds an Eco-mixer hosted by local green organizations with the intent of developing opportunities for networking and growing a sustainable community of like-minded individuals. Just down the street is Loyola University and Uncommon Ground has paired with a bio-diesel class and now supplies their Environmental Science department with used vegetable oil. Helen and Michael hope that their endeavor can be an example to other restaurant owners and educate their clientele about the importance of locally produced goods and the value of growing your own organic produce, even if it’s on the roof. “Our mission is to stand as a working model for other restaurants, businesses and home owners,” Helen says, “to show what is possible within an urban environment.”

# # #

About Uncommon ground

Uncommon Ground operates a community based restaurant that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and ­­­­­­­ advocates the principles of local, sustainable and organically produced food and contributing to the community that they reside in. The Uncommon Ground Roof Top Farm is committed to a long-term organic gardening program that hopefully will be used as a model for other roof top gardens and farms in comparable environments. We hope our Roof Top Farm will become a beacon for our community and raise awareness of the power of local production and what is possible in urban agriculture.


Press Contacts:
Michael Cameron
Owner
mike@uncommonground.com
Cell: 773-968-1228
Office: 773-465-9801

Helen Cameron
Owner
helen@uncommonground.com
Cell: 773-968-9166
Office: 773-465-9801

Natalie Pfister
Farm Director
natalie@uncommonground.com
Office: 773-465-9801

[Farmer Omi]

Kudos should go to the First Lady for Planting a garden at the White House. For deciding to avoid chemicals and use organic methods, the First Lady gets another huge round of applause. What a way to set an example for the nation!
However, there's another educational issue at stake here and the organic community must see that it's enforced. The White House Garden cannot be called "Organic" yet. It must remain in "Transition" for 3 years while chemicals are kept off. Then, it must be inspected by a legitimate certifying agency. As an organic farmer, this is important to me because I had to accept lower prices and was not allowed to use that term for 3 years. And then it cost me over $1500 to get all my land certified. I should expect no less from the White House. Besides, consumers need to learn the true value of Organic. It's not enough to settle for Local. There are local crops in my area that are still polluting the land!
Use the White House as an example to teach people what Organic really means.



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Organic 'Victory' Garden Planted at White House!

In a major victory for organic and local food activists, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground on the White House's first organic kitchen garden since the Roosevelt Administration. According to the First Lady "I've been able to have my kids eat so many different things that they would have never touched if we had bought it at a store because they either met the farmers that grew it, or they saw how it was grown," she said.

Are you ready to follow the First Lady's lead? Would you like resources and tips for growing or expanding your own victory garden? Sign OCA's organic victory garden petition (http://organicconsumers.org/transitions/index.cfm) and visit our Transition's Campaign to learn more.

Want to share pictures and stories about your personal or community garden? Please do so below!
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[anniegreenjeans]

We in the Willits, CA area household gardening movement are thrilled to hear about the White House Veggie Garden, and will promote our own food projects in the light of this tremendous breakthrough...imagine the political pressures from the GMO lobby and all the other Farm Bureau types, that do not want us growing or controlling our own food supply esp, the locavore movement which would begin to unravel their hold on major centralized food production...cast in that light - this is truly an awesome decision by the Obama's!!

Although I agree that the new White House Food Garden is actually and legally "Transition Organic" - I think that using the simple single word "Organic" is very preferable to a paragraph long explanation of the legal meaning of the term "Transiton Organic" when embracing the concept in general conversation or mass media.

To be honest - I prefer LOCAL to ORGANIC when I make difficult Food choices at the market...and the best local food is picked right outside my own door. It is being grown organically by me - & yet, since I recently bought this house, I do not know the history or the chemistry of this plot of ground...thus I am choosing and preferring "local over organic" yet again in my daily life as I grow rather than purchase Organic lettuce from somewhere far away....

To grow other local food gardens & to meet my neighbors I have started a campaign called -
The LITTLE RED WAGON EDIBLE GARDEN PROJECT
Sat. April 4th, 10am, will be the first of several WELL "Little Red
> Wagon" planting brigades. Meet at the Grange and we'll have the
> plants you need to go door-to-door offering folks the possibility of
> putting a yummy tree collard or strawberry into their landscape or
> flower garden. (Do bring your own wagon or backpack, trowel, gloves,
> shade hat, and drinking water.) Significant rain will postpone this event.
> For more info, contact Ann Waters Weller at abweller@pacific.net
More details at www.anniegreenjeans.com

[radicalmom]

if michele obama is planting an "organic "garden at the white house, then will they avoid weedkillers and insecticides on the lawn nearby? is it really an organic garden or is it just a victory garden? will they be subject to the strict rules of this new bill wending its way into congress? if they are will they be arrested of they don't use the seeds they are told to use? will they be forced to use chemicals? why the double standard and why are these questions not being asked or even answered by the administration? is the hype over hr875 real? if it is then why the hoopla over this garden? just askin....

[MarinaSnow]

How is this a victory for organic and local food activists?

It serves no one but Michelle Obama and her own loved ones. It does nothing to help the American public unless and until the President appoints cabinet members that are not linked to Monsanto and helps no one but themselves until they openly condemn Monsanto and GM "food."

[freethoughts]

Craig, you mentioned chickens keeping tick populations in check. Look into this:Another "natural" form of control for ticks is the Guineafowl. They consume mass quantities of ticks.[citation needed] Just 2 birds can clear 2 acres (8,100 m2) in a single year.