Readuponit: Travel and voracious reading

Max Hartshorne, travel website editor and cafe owner, sharing some of the stuff I read, hear and see with you. Updated every day. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

A Beautiful White House Vegetable Garden….NOT

by Max Hartshorne on July 31, 2009

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

I, like many citizens, was so proud when I read about the Obama’s White House vegetable garden. Encouraged by uber chef Alice Waters, Michelle and her kids dutifully planted a huge victory garden at the White House. I was so encouraged by their gardening, as I am at our house where Francisco has put in a huge garden and has built a chicken coop. It’s always just a little bit more complicated, I guess.

Today it comes out that there is toxic sludge in the soil, because the Clintons used a sludge-based fertilizer when they planted their own garden in the 90s.Readings of 93 part per million of lead means that whatever comes out of that garden won’t make it to the Presidential salad bowl. Dóh!

I don’t see why they don’t just truck in a bunch of new soil and start over. But for now, it’s sort of a secret, not something the Obamas will be releasing to the public.

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Jeannette July 31, 2009 at 3:46 pm

That *is* bad news…but, it does make people think about their soil. It really makes a difference what we've done to the earth. And maybe, we can learn from the White House disaster…Jeannette, Belchertown

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