Concerned About What You're Eating and Where It Came From?

Photo: Anthony Masterson / Getty Images

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When the E. coli-in-the-bagged-spinach scare erupted in 2006, most folks had to stop eating spinach for a while. But not if you were growing your own.

A new generation has discovered the pleasure — and the power — of growing your own fruits and vegetables, Anne Raver writes in a New York Times article.

Perhaps most surprising to those who don't grow their own, is the taste difference between something that's been shipped 1500 miles to reach your plate — the average distance it takes a food item to get to us — and something that has been just plucked from the ground. I've never tasted a fresher, more flavorful vegetable than the heirloom tomatoes fresh from a friend's garden.

The awareness of those 1500 miles may be inspiring people who grew up with environmentalism and want to cut down on their food miles, too.

One kitchen gardener, Roger Doiron, started a movement, Kitchen Gardeners International, where you can learn the tricks of the trade. He is quoted in the Times talking about who his audience is: “people out there who are concerned about peak oil, or the gardening gastronomes who want the freshest food possible. Or the people who joined a C.S.A.” — a community-supported agriculture project — “last year, and this year are thinking, you know what? I can do some of this myself.”

Doiron is trying to get one of the presidential candidates to follow in the steps of their forefathers and use the White House lawn to grow a garden. The article says John Adams grew a vegetable garden, Woodrow Wilson had sheep grazing the grounds, and Eleanor Roosevelt grew peas and carrots on the White House lawn.

Which one of our current candidates — Hillary, Obama or McCain — would be the most likely to consider a White House kitchen garden?

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