This month, NH Magazine offers this lovely piece depicting Meadow’s Mirth Farm and its heirloom varieties and farming philosophies.

From ABC News:

ABC News’ Brian Hartman Reports: President Obama’s latest shovel-ready project is close to home — in fact, right in his own yard. In an effort to promote healthy eating, the first family will be planting a vegetable garden right on the White House grounds.

ABC News’ Ann Compton and Sunlen Miller report that the new White House vegetable garden will be dug up and planted on the South grounds of the White House — near the fountain but out of view of the main house.

Though the 16-acre complex is maintained by the National Park Service, one worker who preferred to remain anonymous assured ABC News that National Park Service staff won’t do the sowing and planting. The White House residence staff will handle that.

As first reported online by food writer Eddie Gehman Kohan, who reports on food issues related to the Obamas, First Lady Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey’s “O” magazine, “We’re … working on a wonderful new garden project.”

In the April issue of the magazine, Mrs. Obama tells Winfrey, “We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet.”

A variety of organic food and sustainable agriculture advocates have been pressing the Obamas to plant such a garden.

Congratulations to our friends at Eat the View - Kitchen Gardeners International, who worked so hard to make this happen!

Carlo Petrini is adamant that Slow Food not be an elitist movement, and many members of our convivium are active in food justice causes. But how easy is it to eat locally, seasonally, and sustainably on a budget? One couple accepted the Slow Food for the Poor Challenge: to eat for a week on $61.87, the food stamp allotment their 2-person household was given. They did succeed, but their success depended very much on things not everyone has access to, like nearby markets, full kitchen equipment, and garden produce. It’s a thought-provoking article that suggests ways we can improve access to good, clean, and fair food for all income levels.

This is Michael Pollan’s recommendation in today’s New York Times Magazine. In this piece, “Unhappy Meals,” Pollan argues that a whole foods approach is healthiest, despite decades of politically-influenced nutrition science and the proliferation of processed foods making health claims. A good, provocative read!