A vegetable garden at the State Capitol?

When first lady Michelle Obama broke ground in April for an organic fruit and vegetable garden on the White House’s south lawn, she did more than help plant lettuce and beans. She inspired others to do the same.

Now there’s a movement afoot to get an organic garden planted on the grounds of the capitol buildings in all 50 states.

Vermont was the first to embrace the concept, at least in modern times. The Vermont State House Food Garden — designed and managed by the state’s citizens — was dedicated in May. It’s meant to educate Vermonters about the benefits of food gardens and encourage them to grow their own.

The harvest will be donated to food pantries in the capital city of Montpelier. High school students grew the plot’s 150 lettuce seedlings and assisted with the planting. Also sowed were chives, parsley, cabbage, peas, carrots and scallions.

The Statehouse-garden movement is largely symbolic, a way to show that public spaces cultivated by citizens can provide food for those in need.

It also can serve as an educational vehicle for kids, who can help with planting and harvesting, as well as learn to cook with the yield. The White House plot yielded its first harvest two weeks ago, and students from a D.C. elementary school were invited to prepare baked chicken and the garden’s freshly picked peas in the White House kitchen.

Hopefully, produce sprouting in a spot as visible as a state Capitol would inspire others to put some seeds in the ground. But will there ever be an organic vegetable garden planted on the grounds of the Illinois State Capitol?

It’s hard to know.

I put in a call to Gov. Pat Quinn’s press office but didn’t get a call back.

Then I tried to get ahold of Dean McGeath, acting executive director of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol. That office approves any construction or alteration to the building and grounds of the Capitol Complex. He didn’t return my call either, but someone in his office suggested I phone Secretary of State Jesse White. Part of the secretary of state’s job is to preserve and maintain the buildings and grounds around the Capitol.

White’s spokesman, Henry Haupt, told me that White had never been asked about installing a Statehouse veggie garden, but it was something he would consider.

There’s another movement under way, this one encouraging the 50 governors to eat locally grown foods on July 4. Started by a group called Kitchen Gardeners International, the initiative asks Illinois residents to sign an online petition (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/153) urging Quinn to eat Land of Lincoln foods on July Fourth. The idea is dubbed “Food Independence Day.”

I don’t know what the governor is planning to eat on the Fourth of July. He’s been busy trying to get a tax increase and a budget out of the General Assembly. When those issues are resolved, perhaps he can look out his second-floor office window and envision an organic vegetable garden on the Statehouse lawn.

After a legislative session that cultivated little of substance, the thought of harvesting a bounty of healthful fresh produce from a Statehouse garden may have a lot of appeal.

From: http://www.sj-r.com/