What a strange world we live in. First came the news in March that the President of the USA was digging up part of the South Lawn outside the White House to make a vegetable garden. It was reported in the New York Times that while the Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the White House roof, the Obamas’ garden will far transcend that, with 55 varieties of vegetables — from a wish list of the kitchen staff — grown from organic seedlings started at the Executive Mansion’s greenhouses. They also breathlessly went on to note that it was “the first vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II.” The White House blog has since published images of the First Lady Michelle Obama, spade in hand working on the garden.

[Click here for slideshow]

This morning the British press is full of stories about how the Queen has turned a corner of the palace backyard into an allotment. Once again quoting World War II -  “decades after she dug for victory in wartime Britain Queen Elizabeth gives the royal seal of approval to the grow-your-own movement”

Garden Organic’s chief executive, Myles Bremner, said: “The fact that this is the first time that food has been grown at the palace since the second world war will undoubtedly bring about the Dig for Victory analogies, but the challenges for self sufficiency and a need to re-skill a generation in how to feed itself resonate even now. What is important is to put people back in touch with food and how to grow, and hopefully the palace allotment will be a driver getting more people to achieve this.”

It’s official then … the barganews vegetable garden is not just in tune with the times but also just slightly ahead of it.

So who should walk in to the garden this week but an academic from Istanbul, Turkey who is studying in London and researching for her PhD and wants to use Barga, barganews and the barganews vegetable garden as the centre point for her doctorate thesis on food and tradition.

Billur Dokur will be visiting Barga at least 4 times this coming year as she documents how food, tradition and seasons are intertwined, related and how as society changes just how the relationship between these things moves and mutates.

Click on the link below to hear a short interview with her (in English) recorded in the barganews vegetable garden this week.

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