Jan 23 2009
White House Farmer, EAT THE VIEW!
Call it trickle down agronomics. Call it leading by example. Call it an excellent idea and I personally hope it gets some legs. Eat the View! Just as there has always been a White House Chef, why shouldn’t there be a White House Farmer? Do you know any local farmers? You can make your nomination on White House Farmer … Who Will It Be?
There is a history of some depth about farmers and the White House; just take a look at Jefferson’s Monticello . While I didn’t run across any specific references to anything but an interest in establishing an organic garden at the White House, if they decided to include small livestock it wouldn’t be the first time farming has happened in the White House, or at least aspects thereof. There were goats in President Lincoln’s White House , and he found them instructive in a manner still applicable today.
Mr. Lincoln was fond of pets. He had two goats that knew the sound of his voice, and when he called them they would come bounding to his side. In the warm bright days, he and Tad would sometimes play in the yard with these goats, for an hour at a time. One Saturday afternoon I went to the White House to dress Mrs. Lincoln. I had nearly completed my task when the President came in. It was a bright day, and walking to the window, he looked down into the yard, smiled, and, turning to me, asked: ‘Madam Elizabeth, you are fond of pets, are you not?’
‘O yes, sir,’ I answered.
‘Well, come here and look at my two goats. I believe they are the kindest and best goats in the world. See how they sniff the clear air, and skip and play in the sunshine. Whew? what a jump,’ he exclaimed as one of the goats made a lofty spring. ‘Madam Elizabeth, did you ever before see such an active goat?’ Musing a moment, he continued: ‘He feeds on my bounty, and jumps with joy. Do you think we could call him a bounty-jumper? But I flatter the bounty-jumper. My goat is far above him. I would rather wear his horns and hairy coat through life, than demean myself to the level of the man who plunders the national treasury in the name of patriotism. The man who enlists into the service for a consideration, and deserts the moment he receives for a consideration, and deserts the moment he receives his money but to repeat the play, is bad enough; but the men who manipulate the grand machine and who simply make the bounty-jumper their agent in an outrageous fraud are far worse. They are beneath the worms that crawl in the dark hidden places of earth.’
A Victory Garden at the White House seems completely appropriate to me, especially now. Self reliance has been a long standing precept of America and Americans, and having it exemplified on the grounds of the seat of our Federal government would be just grand. While I understand that buildings probably cover most of the eighteen acres of the grounds, surely there’s enough room to get an acre of vegetables in, to create Victorian knot gardens of herbs for use in the White House Kitchen. I’ll just bet there’s some sunny site there that could hold a couple hundred strawberry plants, too.
And why not? Even if it’s only used seasonally, it brings to the forefront the tradition of self reliance which seems to have been sorely lacking in the public eye for the last many years. I’d personally be quite glad to have the my four dwarf fruit trees on the balcony in front of this apartment viewed as patriotic instead of odd ball, LOL!
