Garden goofiness

Produce you can’t eat and pretend garden maps

By Culinate staff

June 10, 2011

A recent BlogHer gardening post noted a paradox with those highly touted school gardens: The kids often aren't allowed to eat the food they grow. How’s that, you ask? Well, it depends on the school district; in Chicago, for example, “the food must be either given away, sent home with students, or sold.” Sure, many schools try to incorporate their gardens’ bounty into their lunchrooms. But bureaucracy and the federal lunch program sometimes get in the way.

For another wacky federal take on gardens, check out the recent gardening graphic comparing the layout of the White House vegetable garden with the same garden if the crops were grown based on federal agricultural subsidies. As Mark Bittman noted, “The change is pretty stark.” Goodbye, kohlrabi and rhubarb; hello, wheat, corn, soy, and cotton.