It’s that time of the week again: Meatless Monday!  While the initiative has recently become popular once again, Meatless Monday is actually a pretty old-fashioned idea!  It was first encouraged by the USDA during World War I in an effort to conserve food for US troops fighting overseas, along with Wheatless Wednesday.  The campaign was brought back for the same reasons during World War II, along with sugar and gasoline rations.

We might not be in war-time conservation mode right now, but the country’s current climate bears many similarities: Everyone is looking for ways to conserve and cut back.  We’re also eager to contribute towards ways to win a different kind of battle, that is, the one against global warming.  Many people are even growing their own Victory Gardens!

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The Victory Garden concept is going through a well-deserved revival, currently fueled by First Lady Obama’s White House garden plantings inspired by the Eat The View campaign. 

As I write about in this month’s Hobby Farm Home, Victory Gardens today redefine what “patriotism” can be, bringing self-sufficiency and healthy, local eating back into the realm of national pride that just might take us back to where we were over sixty years ago, when 30 million Americans grew about 40 percent of the vegetables consumed nationally.

Victory Gardens today hold opportunity for deeper creativity and self-expression.  Sure, we garden for everything from fresh flavor and health benefits to cost savings to the family budget.  But this season, give your garden an extra eco nudge by defining a “mission” for your growing efforts.  What bigger planetary issue do you hope to address by working the soil?

Such a garden mission can be private, something just you know and keep in your heart as a motivator when the mercury rises and you need an extra reminder of why you garden.  Or you can take your mission public, using it as an education tool to help others make the connection between a radish seed and transforming the world.

Here are some sample missions to get you started:

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ABC news’ Brian Hartman has reported what many have been wishfully waiting to hear for months: the Obamas will soon plant an organic vegetable garden on the White House South grounds.

Following a 60 Minutes interview with Chez Panisse chef, renowned slow foodist and activist for improved national eating habits in the US, Alice Waters, on Sunday March 15th, wherein she called with continued clarion for an organic garden at the White House, First lady Michelle Obama talked of her plans for the garden in an interview for Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine that will feature in its April issue.

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[Digging a Victory Garden. Creative Commons photo by Tavis Ford]

Last Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack began turning a stretch of pavement at the Department of Agriculture into a garden. They dedicated the land on the 200th anniversary of the USDA founder’s birth: Abraham Lincoln. Not only are they working on a garden at USDA headquarters, but Vilsack announced plans to start community gardens at all USDA offices across the globe! Is this the Obama administration’s answer to petitions from Eat the View and the WHO Farm on Change.org?

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The “Freedom Garden” borrows its name from the Victory Garden movement (but dropped its the militaristic overtones). Victory Gardens were popular during World War II, during which many Americans ramped up local food production as a means to bolster the economy and support the war effort. (Hard to believe anyone ever considered gardening to be patriotic.)

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[Creative Commons photo via Eat the View]

They’re calling the White House “America’s House” and asking the new administration to lead by example. They see a food garden on the White House lawn as a first step towards “a new National Victory Garden Program.”

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of 

Not too long ago, Eat the View (ETV) founder Roger Doiron wondered here how to push the idea of creating a new White House Victory Garden further into the public sphere. At the time, he hoped to see Obama and McCain say on camera whether or not they’d follow in the footsteps of Eleanor Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and allocate a portion of the First Lawn to food production. Thus far neither presidential contender has addressed the notion, but much of the rest of the country is going to learn about it very soon… thanks to the Vimeo.com Climate Matters Video Contest.

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of

If you’re a regular Eat.Drink.Better. reader, then you’re probably familiar with the clever, non-partisan Eat The View initiative to put vegetable gardens in high profile places like the White House lawn.

With the economy and the forthcoming presidential election top-of-mind, a status report seemed in order. After all, we will very soon have an answer to just who may receive the petition to restore the White House victory garden at the very moment in which tens of millions of people may be thinking about gardening as a means of survival.

In short, we Americans need Eat The View to succeed!

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of

Meeting people…really interesting people…is the most satisfying aspect of my blogging experience thus far. Among the many folks that I’ve met online is Susan Wittig Albert, a prolific and talented novelist based in Texas.

Many people contemplate a life well-lived in the country surrounded by books, beloved animals and rewarding activities like gardening, writing, and knitting. Albert has created just such an existence. Moreover, through her assorted web sites and blog, she covers a bounty of topics–ranging from her many bestselling books to cultivating herbs–for her devoted fans. Recently, she began chronicling the outcome of her decision to embrace the victory garden concept on her blog, which celebrates the ecologically diverse region in which she dwells.

But of all I’ve read of her work this summer it was a snippet in one of her weekly email newsletters, All About Thyme, that proved the most bewitching to me.

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A couple of weeks ago, I contemplated the role personality might play in how one approaches the creation and cultivation of a contemporary Victory Garden.

Because one reader expressed interest in a simple guide to creating a garden, I wanted to follow up with a couple of recommendations.

Keeping in mind the over-simplified contrast of messy vs. tidy (a contrast that I first started to contemplate by looking at these two books side-by-side!), allow me to suggest two very fine books for the newbie gardener’s shelf.  Together with Heather Flores’ outstanding Food Not Lawns, they are my favorite go-to resources.

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Rummaging through old WWII-era Victory Garden pamphlets online earlier this week, I was struck again by how dry and formulaic the advice was. Often, gardeners of the day were told to create a space of a certain size and plant a specific combination of plants.

Granted, there was a sense of urgency that left little room for error: a national food shortage was a very real possibility. Homegrown produce was needed to supplement rations, so it was not an ideal time for experimenting with novelty produce items or unfamiliar techniques.

Meanwhile, a great number of people–many of whom had never gardened previously–needed quick, efficient solutions in order to participate fully in the national Victory Garden initiative.

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of Red, White & Grew, a blog devoted to “Promoting the Victory Garden Revival and other simple, earth-friendly endeavors as bipartisan, patriotic acts in an age of uncertainty.”

As mentioned here last month, folks short on fertile land but eager to grow their own vegetables can opt for container-based Victory Gardens with astonishing results.

Below are four more clever garden alternatives worth exploration. Some are old, some are new…but each illustrates that, when it comes to cultivating food, we humans are remarkably imaginative beings.

Just as our parents, grandparents, and grandparents adapted best practices in growing their own food during WWI & WWII, our concept of the modern Victory Garden movement can (and should) include a variety of strategies to ensure success!

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of

If you’re a full-fledged foodie, then you’re well aware of this weekend’s Slow Food Nation ‘08. Sandwiched as it is between the nation’s political conventions, the first-ever SFN promises to be a palate-cleanser for those of us who regard good food and sustainable agriculture as bipartisan paths to unity. According to the official web site, SFN conventioneers will be invited to Celebrate, Learn and Act this weekend to create a “deeper connection to our food.”

Not surprisingly, and as Kelli Best-Oliver reported here earlier, many SFN events are already sold out. And the major networks won’t be providing round-the-clock coverage for the San Francisco-based convergence (drat!).  But don’t feel left out of the party! There are several ways you can stay connected both with the convention goings-on and general spirit.

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of Red, White & Grew, a blog devoted to “Promoting the Victory Garden Revival and other simple, earth-friendly endeavors as bipartisan, patriotic acts in an age of uncertainty.”

A few decades ago, Americans would have learned how to raise peas, carrots and corn under the watchful eye of a family member. That still happens, of course, in many rural areas. Alas, it happens too infrequently in suburban and urban communities. Sure, there have been pockets of progress. Community and school garden advocacy groups have helped nurture new gardeners nationwide.

But when it comes to launching a successful, full-fledged victory garden revival, one that can help ensure access to fresh grown food in tight times just as previous efforts did in WWI & WWII, the country will need legions of experienced gardeners working to educate newcomers.

Are you an accomplished green thumb? Does the idea of teaching new veggie gardeners the ropes appeal to you? If so, here are three mentoring options to explore:

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Guest contributor Pamela Price is the founder of Red, White & Grew, a blog devoted to “Promoting the Victory Garden Revival and other simple, earth-friendly endeavors as bipartisan, patriotic acts in an age of uncertainty.”

Vegetable gardens are making headlines this summer.

From local and regional press reports about a rise in garden-related sales in the face of the economic downturn to the Internet buzz generated by those San Francisco-bound locavores eager to see the city’s new civic center victory garden, there’s plenty to spark interest in getting one’s dirt under one’s nails.

Yet if you’ve got only a small lot or just a patio to work with, you may feel out of the loop with the home garden craze. Prepare to join in the fun: a surprising amount of fresh produce can be grown in ordinary pots and planters.

Just ask Shannon & Jason Mullet-Bowlsby of Seattle.

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Ever encountered a video, blog or web site online and thought to yourself, “Oh, yeah…that’s gonna be hay-uge!”?

I had that reaction recently upon viewing YouTube.com’s “This Lawn is Your Lawn“. The short and quirky video illustrates how Kitchen Gardeners’ International founder Roger Doiron was inspired to launch EatTheView.org, an online campaign to plant vegetable gardens in high-profile locations like the White House Lawn.

Although I signed on to the ETV initiative weeks ago (as well as the related OnDayOne.com petition), seeing Roger’s video was still a personal A-ha! moment. For bloggers, authors, foodies and gardeners like me hoping to spark a bipartisan national victory garden revival, it’s great fun…satisfying even…to watch Roger dig up part of his front lawn online and then make the case for why the new president should follow suit next spring.

Think about it…a presidential vegetable bed would go a long way to educating the public about the environmental and health benefits of home gardens and local produce. The yield could be delivered to Washington-area charities, underscoring the value of urban and suburban gardens in providing food security.  Personally, as a garden-lovin’ foodie, I’m hoping that the new administration will also sponsor a harvest-themed supper and serve it, formal state dinner-style, to a diverse cadre of ordinary Americans once a year.

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No, this isn’t a pipe dream prompted by the current era of high fuel and food costs. “These statistics rang true in 1943 during World War II during the peak of the Victory Garden era,” explains Rose Hayden-Smith, a garden historian and leading expert on this amazing period of self-sufficiency over sixty years ago. “Victory Gardens provided multiple benefits back then, including improving American health and showcasing the nation’s stability and high morale.”

But Hayden-Smith isn’t a historian stuck in the past – she’s an advocate championing bringing the Victory Garden concept back to create a sustainable food system for future generations.

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