White House garden promotes good food

WASHINGTON -The White House kitchen garden is surely home grown, but it isn't organic, and there aren't any plans for it to be.

Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass, an old friend of President Obama's who oversees the garden, says labeling the crops "organic" isn't the point, even though the White House only uses natural, not synthetic, fertilizers and pesticides.

"To come out and say (organic) is the one and only way, which is how this would be interpreted, doesn't make any sense," Kass said recently as he walked among the garden's newly planted broccoli, rhubarb, carrots and spinach. "This is not about getting into all that. This is about kids."

Still, it has become a curiosity around the world and part of first lady Michelle Obama's pitch for healthy eating. She is clearly proud of it and she is asked about the garden everywhere she goes, her aides say. Embassies and organizations often call the White House with questions about how they can replicate it.

The kids to whom Kass refers are from local schools and are sometimes invited to the White House to help plant and harvest vegetables as part of Mrs. Obama's campaign to stem childhood obesity. Kass says the kids often say they don't like certain vegetables - peas, lettuce, spinach - until they eat the fresh veggies they harvested from the garden.

"They've never seen what broccoli looks like or where peas come from," Kass said.

Last year, the White House garden produced 55 kinds of fruits and vegetables and 1,000 pounds of food, about half of which went to local charities. Although the crop wasn't large enough to feed guests for state dinners, some of its herbs were used for seasoning.

The patch of lawn includes a bee hive tended by a carpenter who has worked at the White House for more than two decades and tends bees on the side. The hive has produced 134 pounds

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