Michelle Obama Fall Harvest: Reveals That The White House Garden Cost Only $180 To Plant

Thursday Michelle Obama hosted students to help her harvest the White House garden. The students were enthusiastic to help dig up some vegetables, and the First Lady charmed the them by telling them about the garden:

So then the summer went by, and now it's fall, and there's a whole new crop of food here that's ready to be harvested. And actually we've done a little bit of that. My girls and I, we got a couple of the sweet potatoes, and we're going to do some of those -- these sweet potatoes are huge! They're huge. So hopefully you guys will be able to pull up some of these huge sweet potatoes.

The First Lady also asked the students how much they thought it cost to plant the garden. They guessed $300, $800, $1000 and $6000 as Michelle acted as auctioneer.

She then revealed the answer: "Over 740 pounds of food have come out of this little piece of land..... It [cost] about $180."

In addition to the White House kitchen preparing the vegetables, they are also being donated to Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen in DC.

Way to show the world how economical, practical and affordable gardening is, Michelle!

Comments

[quiviran]

02:49 PM on 11/01/2009

Nice. 700 pounds of fresh veggies for less that 25¢ a pound, all with no petroleum based fertilizers or pesticides. Compare that to a tomato from Wal-Mart.

[queenhippiechic]

03:26 PM on 10/30/2009

To our 1st Lady I commend U for showing your children and the world that u'r not to good to get u'r hands dirty by growing u'r own food(at least some of it).Now please help our country by helping to show the country,the world, that if we legalized growing marijuana by farmers and individuials we could tax it and use that money to help our public schools, so parents wouldn't have to buy toliet paper among other vital things. We could help to provide medical care for all, food, shelter for homeless. It would help give jobs to many. Dear God are our morals so upptity that we can't see the good it would do. Just look at Holland, its people are taken care of, its streets are clean, the streets aren't filled with homeless or drug dealers on every corner. Face it people will find a way to smoke or do drugs of any kind if they wish to do so, we should just legalize them, cut out the drug dealers and tax the product, and use the money to help our economy, help our people.

[1088]

02:42 PM on 10/30/2009

More pictures on the harvesting!

http://michelleobamawatch.com/2009/10/photos-its-white-house-garden-fall-harvest-time/

[Johnowen]

10:06 AM on 10/30/2009

Where I live there are small plots of land where city dwellers can grow food. They are called allotments.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/

Is there a similar system over in the States?

[KarlaElisa]

01:32 PM on 10/30/2009

Yes, Johnowen, at least there is in my community, in Oregon. I've been seeing parts of unused land in neighborhoods being turned into garden plots for the residents and it's a welcome site. San Francisco has also turned their courtyard on the public land into an edible landscape with the help of Alice Waters. It's happening slowly, but as people become more aware of genetic crops and their inherit health risks, the movement is gaining steam.

[Johnowen]

07:14 PM on 10/30/2009

You can't beat eating your own grown veggies

[indothinker]

08:07 AM on 11/01/2009

where i live, urban dwellers as you call them, can lease plots of land next to their house for a dollar if there is no structure on it (i.e., a vacant lot) to plant vegetables. urban farming is getting bigger and bigger and i hope it stays...

[blueskyseas]

08:11 AM on 10/30/2009

most grocery store items are hybrids and the seeds won't reproduce true to type. I do buy seeds of non-hybrid plants or old fashioned, stable hybrids.

[jsarets]

02:50 AM on 10/30/2009

Michelle Obama's garden trumps Al Gore's solar panels any day!

In my view, this is the most productive aspect of an underwhelming presidency as of yet.

[jeanruss]

10:43 AM on 10/31/2009

Sadly, Michele and the President don't seem to be on the same page. While she promotes organic gardening and nutritious food, the President appoints Monsanto cheerleaders to positions of power over our food. Right now the Senate is debating S-510 which will harass and drive small farmers out of business. It will make organic farming almost impossible. Go to www.ftcldf.org for explanation of this terrible food bill and take action to protect you and your family's food supply and local farmers markets.

[ontariogirl]

08:47 AM on 11/02/2009

Monsanto must be stopped. People don't realize how much genetic modification is done and the harm it is doing to our earth. Read up on them.....its an eye opener. Its all over the world as they are trying to control all. Scary.

[indothinker]

08:08 AM on 11/01/2009

he hasn't been president for even a year. it takes a long time to undo the damage that was done by the previous administration. keep that in mind...

[Lionsden]

02:32 AM on 10/30/2009

Neat.

[Antifascist-08]

10:17 PM on 10/29/2009

I wish there were stories like this from all over the country every night on TV.

The Planet Green Channel has a lot of shows about green energy and building but not so much about food.

We need more stories about people doing positive things right now instead of all the political b s and doom and gloom.

Go Michelle. I hope you become the first woman president.

[Milinda]

09:55 PM on 10/29/2009

I am so proud of our FLOTUS. And as a life-long gardner, I am pleased she is making this a special topic. If you have only a tiny garden, you will be amazed at what you can grow for yourself and family. If you have more space, go for it and share your abundance with food banks, they need the food now more than ever. There are kids who don't get enough fresh fruit and veggies.
And once you taste a REAL tomato, you will never want anything else. That goes for carrots, peppers, melons, sweet potatoes, you would be amazed.

[jennylynn]

09:36 PM on 10/29/2009

If gardening is so important, why are we turning off the water for the farmers in CA?

[Antifascist-08]

10:14 PM on 10/29/2009

Because they are wasting it and scamming it from the taxpayers.

[valkyrie607]

03:35 PM on 10/30/2009

Apart from Fox News talking points, you really have nothing at all to say.

[firewmn]

07:50 PM on 10/29/2009

as an avid gardener.. This is real inspiring to see.. Thank you FLOTUS...

[Whatevah]

06:13 PM on 10/29/2009

Yea! I got a TON of food from my garden this year, and it cost very little.

Now is the time to jump on the bandwagon, folks! This will save money, save the Earth, and make meals far more satisfying!

If you haven't eaten a tomato fresh from the soil, you haven't lived. Honest.

[thepoliticalcat]

05:48 PM on 10/29/2009

A fellow-gardener! And a successful one, at that. I love our First Lady more every day.

[KKojei]

06:54 PM on 10/29/2009

The hidden message in this: Our First Lady is speaking quite eloquently with her actions about the true nature of the planet we live on. That it is one of abundance. 740 pounds of food for $180.00 amounts to exactly 0.24324324324324324324324324324324 cents per pound. Interesting number that. The message is clear. Greed is the reason food costs are high. Greed by all the players in the game of food production for profit. Nature doesn't just give us an orange. The orange has nearly a dozen seeds to plant more trees, so your one orange can become a grove with thousands of trees if you want to take it that far. Yet everyday we throw away orange seeds, bell pepper seeds, tomato seeds instead of drying and saving them to grow more, and other seeds as well. We let lots in our urban communities collect trash and pass by fertile soil on the way to the supermarket to pay far too much for food. Nature gives us the ability to feed everybody in the world. Who is it that thinks they are sooooo much smarter than Mother Nature? The most proficient and productive companies in our future will model nature instead of fighting against her. The handwriting is on the wall. Thanks Michelle Obama. I hope people follow your fantastic example.

[KarlaElisa]

01:41 PM on 10/30/2009

KKojei,

I was doing the math on that too and isn't it amazing that all that fabulous food cost less than 25 cents a pound!!!

I ripped out my whole front yard this last spring, a little over 3000 sq feet and turned as much as possible into a garden. Am now prepping to do the same with my side and back yard too, complete with raised beds I can cover and turn into mini greehnouses to extend my season. Having the garden so close to the house will make rain water collection and irrigation much easier, safer in terms of repelling critters that want to harvest before me and I no longer have to mow my crappy looking grass.

I also managed to grab all kinds of free or super cheap plants off off of craigslist, like raspberry's and strawberry's and now have over 20 different perennial's planted that will bring fruit for years to come. And besides being a money saver, it's therapy and it looks beautiful.