Vegetarian Star » Gardening

Snoop Dogg Admires The Grow Your Own Peeps

Vegetarian Star — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:05:23 +0000

Snoop Dogg the grow your own and stay local type? Who would have thought!

The rapper gave a shout out to a 68-year old man who impressed him by growing an 85.5 pound rutabaga!

For that, Ian Neale of Newport, Wales gets Snoop’s fo’shizzle.

“Man, I want to tell you something, when I do my show in Cardiff, I want you to come backstage and see me because I do vegetation myself and I want to know your secret,” the rapper said in the video. “So Ian Neale … come see your boy Snoop Dogg, I’ve got two tickets for you when I get to town. Ya dig?”

Neale has taken Snoop up on the offer.

Gardening may be the only thing the two have in common, as Neale admits he’s more of a country music fan.

Plus, there’s a serious shortage of rappers in Wales.

Photo: lulian/Creative Commons

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Michelle Obama May Add Flowers To White House Garden

Vegetarian Star — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:22:06 +0000

Michelle Obama is considering greening the White House even more by planting a garden of flowers to be used for decorating the halls and rooms of the president’s home.

The First Lady would use the flowers to brighten up the decor in the East and West Wings.

“In terms of using things from the garden, I feel like that’s in the works,” White House chief florist Laura Dowling told U.S. News & World Report. “We all know about her organic vegetable garden, and all she’s done to promote healthy eating and living. I think the next step then is a cutting garden.”

Dowling said the flowers can do more than decorate. Depending on the color and species, flowers can also symbolize a “diplomatic role.”

They can also help create a tasty and decorative dish. An edible flower garden could be Mrs. Obama’s next step in demonstrating cooking and seasoning with healthy, plant-based sources.

Vegetarian Times has an article that discusses types of edible flowers, their flavors and what dishes they go best in. Chrysanthemum, a flower with a mild peppery flavor, is a great addition to soups, dips and cooked vegetables. Marigolds can be added to pasta sauces, yogurts and flavored butters. And with their sweet flavors, Violets go great as a syrup in any vegan ice cream.

Photo: PR Photos

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Mario Batali Launches Edible Garden At New York Botanical Garden (Video)

Vegetarian Star — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:39:31 +0000

Mario Batali will return to the New York Botanical Garden to help the organization kick off its 2011 gardening season and launch his Edible Garden.

On April 12, 2011, Batali will be joined by Bronx schoolchildren to celebrate both the benefits of gardening and the 25th anniversary of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, a hands-on exhibit at the Botanical Garden that teaches gardening techniques.

Batali will prepare vegetable beds and plant seeds for his Edible Garden, an exhibit that runs for several months starting in August, featuring the celebrity chef’s favorite vegetables, cooking demonstrations from Batali and recipes using plants from the garden.

Batali made one of his New Year’s resolutions for 2011 to “master more vegetarian dishes” that can be cooked as a team.

A clip of Batali at the New York Botanical Garden from a previous year can be viewed below.

Photo: PR Photos

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“First Garden” First Children’s Book About White House Garden

Vegetarian Star — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:09:27 +0000

April is National Garden Month and what a better way to celebrate than releasing a children’s book about the White House Garden.

First Garden: The White House Garden And How it Grew from Clarion Books, is a 48-page hardcover edition aimed at 6-8 year olds, filled with recipes and colorful pictures in addition to text that traces the history of the garden, from the first dig to the harvesting of hundreds of pounds of vegetables served to the First Family and guests in the White House Kitchen.

Michelle Obama‘s desire to teach children about the origins food was accomplished through her inviting children from D.C. area schools to participate in the planting, maintenance and harvesting of items from the garden and First Garden makes references to these experiences as well.

A children’s book that celebrates gardening may be an important step in another initiative Mrs. Obama is pushing, the move towards healthier, fitter children through her Let’s Move! campaign that pushes exercise while choosing wholesome foods. Regular gardening activities may make children increase their fruit and vegetable intake.

“As First Lady and as a mom, Mrs. Obama was concerned about the health of the American people,” Robbin Gourley, author of the book, writes. “She believed we should think about what we eat and where our food comes from. And she wanted her family–all families–to become healthier by eating more vegetables and fruits together at the table.”

First Garden contains a forward from sustainable food champion, chef and cookbook author Alice Waters.

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Russell Brand Chooses Gardening Over Sex

Vegetarian Star — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:24:37 +0000

Russell Brand has said in the past his goal is to be a celibate vegan.

His recent marriage to Katy Perry may make that goal a little harder to attain. So he’s revamped his development plan from “no sex” to “less sex, more gardening.”

Hey, that could be the national gardening associations’ new slogan.

“I can’t believe I used to have sex 20 times a week, especially now I’m married,” Brand said. “But now I’m a bloody good gardener.”

Guess Brand has discovered there is more than one good use for a ho(e)….whoa, okay, back to the gardening discussion.

If you’re starting a garden for the first time, congratulations. You’ll get the reward of learning how food is created, knowing where your food comes from and may even save costs in the long run by not spending as much on produce at the grocery store.

The Salisbury Post has written an article containing tips for gardening beginners and explaining common mistakes made.

For example, it’s important to test for fertility. No, not the kind of fertility test to determine why numerous romps in the garden haven’t led to offspring, but an examination of the soil to ensure it’s healthy. There are kits available for purchase that explain what conditions to test under and where to send the samples for accurate results.

Don’t forget the importance of light. Darkness may be sexy in the bedroom, but vegetables need 8 hours of sun each day for optimum growth.

More tips.

Photo: PR Photos

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Megyn Price Feeds Vegetarian Family Members With Backyard Garden

Vegetarian Star — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:25:56 +0000

Rules of Engagement actress Megyn Price feeds her family of mixed eaters from the garden in her backyard.

Price told Celebrity Baby Scoop: “We grow whatever’s in season, and as much as our garden will hold! I love to preserve foods as well, so I never mind if we have a bumper crop of anything. I’ve gone so overboard with arugula, that we have a wild patch now, covering our hillside. We’ve got the happiest bunnies in Southern California!”

Price told CNN’s Eatocracy that her family is made of vegetarians and non-vegetarians, so she’s learned to cook accordingly, especially during the Holidays.

“In my house, we have half vegetarians and half meat eaters,” she said.

“For the non-meat eaters, we have all kinds of totally delicious, basically kind of like side dishes, but they have enough protein that they could be meat dishes.”

Price’s favorite plant dish is her Celery Apple Walnut Salad, which consists of sliced celery, green apples, toasted walnuts and a homemade dressing of equal parts of Dijon mustard and lemon juice sweetened with honey.

While it’s easy to remember to make dishes for vegetarians in a mixed eating household, it may be harder to actually generate meal ideas that can please everyone.

Stick to main dishes that everyone can eat, like lasagna, lentils and vegetable ravioli. Certain dishes can also be made that easily accommodate the switch between vegetarians and non-vegetarians like pizzas topped with veggie toppings on one half, spaghetti without the meat added to the sauce and tacos that can be filled with veggie toppings instead of ground beef.

What’s your tip for cooking for a mixed eating household?

Photo: PR Photos

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Michelle Obama Writes Book On White House Garden For Charity

Vegetarian Star — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:48:36 +0000

Michelle Obama is penning a book about the White House Garden and her efforts to ingrain healthier eating habits in Americans.

The book is untitled as of now and Crown Publishing Group, a unit of Random House publishers, has set a release date for April 2012. Inside readers will find Obama family recipes and photos of not only the White House Garden, but gardens from communities and schools all over the United States.

The First Lady is donating all proceeds from the book to a charity not yet named and she received no advance for writing it.

Mrs. Obama is the first to revive the garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt did during World War II.

She has used the garden as a hands on approach to teaching, especially local schoolchildren, the value of consuming fresh produce and learning where food comes from. During it’s first year, the garden yielded approximately 1,000 pounds of produce that was utilized in the White House kitchen to feed the First Family, staff and guests who attended events there.

Source.

Photo: PR Photos

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Jake Gyllenhaal Grows Own Vegetables. San Francisco May Soon Follow His Lead.

Vegetarian Star — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:58:20 +0000

Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t worried about looking good for the nude scenes in “Love and Other Drugs” because he’s been eating a diet filled with plenty of fresh vegetables from his own garden.

“I don’t follow a special diet but I try and eat well, so I grow my own vegetables,” Gyllenhaal said.

The next best thing to growing your own is buying veggies from a neighbor or local community garden. San Francisco’s mayor and the city’s planning department has just introduced an ordinance to permit gardens in all areas of the city and to allow sale of veggies from that garden.

The legislation will allow San Francisco to be the first major city to allow this to happen, but first the group San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance would like a few changes made regarding the start-up fees and fencing requirements for the gardens, which could financially burden small projects.

“The Planning Department’s proposal is a great step forward, but some of the draft provisions could hinder the expansion of gardening that the City wants to encourage,” said Eli Zigas, co-coordinator of the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA). “Community gardens and urban farms operate on slim budgets and expensive fencing requirements and permitting fees can prevent a garden project from breaking ground. We encourage the Planning Commission to ensure that community groups and city farmers across San Francisco can afford to start gardens and urban agriculture projects in their neighborhoods.”

In addition to allowing the sale of produce, SFUAA also wants the sale of products from produce, such as jam made from locally grown fruit, permitted.

Photo: PR Photos

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