Vegetables from the White House

Today, I read in the newspaper that Michelle Obama is planting an organic White House vegetable garden. She believes that children are more willing to try fruit and vegetables when they see them grow.

From my experience, I can only confirm that. We had in Austria a very big fruit and vegetable garden, and my kids were used to picking apples, pears and plums right from the tree. We never had discussions at the dinner table about eating vegetables. In Austria, people rarely have gardens without fruit trees and vegetables.

One of the first purchases for our house here in America was a peach tree. From my Dutch neighbors, I got red and black currant bushes, and my Portugese neighbors gave me a grape plant. In the following years, we bought more and more fruit trees and bushes and this year, we are hoping to harvest apples, plums, apricots, grapes, cherries, currants, strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries. In addition, I'm planting tomatoes, salad, beans, squash, eggplant...

My neighbors, who first couldn't believe that apricots or cherries would grow in Massachusetts, are now also starting their own kitchen gardens. They are now convinced that even an average sized backyard can yield a delicious crop (and save you quite a lot of money)