You may have seen this floating around the internet lately, but the intrepid locavores who spearheaded the White House Organic (WHO) Farm movement have moved on to encourage all 50 states’ governors (and Washington’s Mayor Fenty, I presume) to serve local and sustainably sourced foods this Independence Day. Take a moment to sign the Food Independence Day petition and see if your governors have responded. Locally, Kim O’Donnel reports that Maryland Gov. O’Malley’s July 4th menu will feature, naturally, Chesapeake Bay crabcakes and salad greens from the first lady’s vegetable garden. Join the cause by declaring your own independence from the industrial food system (seen Food Inc. yet?) and plan your own locally-sourced July 4th meal.

5 Tips for A Local 4th of July Cook-out:

1. Make those burgers local and grassfed — and avoid worry over the latest e.coli beef recall.
2. Buy the buns from a farmers market vendor or local bakery — they’re fresher and most likely made without the high fructose corn syrup and preservatives of most supermarket brands.
3. Stick with seasonal veggies — sweet corn is just beginning to appear here, along with fresh from the field tomatoes, garlic and plenty of herbs for a homemade fresh salsa.
4. Skip the made-in-China, flag-covered disposables — take sheets outside or have the kids decorate a (recycled) kraft paper banner to use as a tablecloth — local and green.
5. Nothing’s more patriotic than domestic beer or wine; just skip the (now Belgian-owned) Bud Light and search for a local craft brewer or vineyard, or stir up a red, white and blue sangria with berries from the farmers market. (And reserve some of those berries for a family-friendly cobbler for dessert!)

Some favorite summer cook-out recipes from the archives, for added inspiration:

• Roasted Tomatillo Peach Salsa
• Patriotic Potato Salad
• Peach Berry Sherbet

My son has requested that we spend the holiday at the Farmers Market and the pool, and I’m happy to oblige — with perhaps a few minutes spent getting a fresh Pennsylvania cherry pie in the oven. What’s on your plate for the holiday?

(Submitting this to Fight Back Friday over at the Food Renegade – go check it out!)

We were one of the lucky few, er, 30,000 people to get tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll yesterday. As promised, it was full of activities to promote healthy, active kids lifestyles. From yoga lessons, soccer, jump roping and basketball activities to cooking demos from District and White House chefs (Art Smith, Jose Andres, and Spike Mendelsohn), First Lady Michelle Obama certainly did her part to shift the focus away from Easter candy binges to healthier living.

Of course, the traditional egg roll took place with enthusiastic children rolling, tossing and/or flinging their hard boiled eggs across the finish line. But beyond the egg roll and photo ops with favorite PBS characters* and a posse of Easter bunnies, other activities kept kids busy and moving around the South Lawn. (*I’m proud to note that the boy identified SpongeBob SquarePants as “Giant Cheese Man!”)

Sam Kass, assistant White House chef and gardener, proudly presented a fresh-picked rosemary sprig for a curious family to sniff. Standing watch at the temporary fencing, he answered questions about the White House organic garden, with herbs, rhubarb, chard and fennel plants springing up behind him. (The beehive was nearby, also fenced off from the crowds.)

Jose Andres (and daughters?) was his usual charismatic self, extolling the virtues of summer’s fresh tomatoes and demonstrating how to make gazpacho. (You can find Jose’s gazpacho recipe – which is actually his wife’s – here. It’s one of my favorite dishes at his local Jaleo restaurants.)

Among the crafts was a recycled egg carton decorating station, and the souvenir egg we took home was green too, and not just in paint color. According to the White House, they were made from FSC-certified wood and the ones available by mail order come packed in eco-friendly paper packaging. (Not sure how sustainable the hard boiled eggs were — a volunteer told us they cooked 100,000, though the White House fact sheet says only 13,000 — and the one commercial product placement came from the “Incredible Edible Egg” people, aka American Egg Board.)

There was an Easter candy display, but no candy available. No food at all, actually — nor were you allowed to bring food or drinks in. They seemed to only be confiscating open packages at security though, as we made it in with a few small snacks. Thank goodness, because five hours without a meal (after our original group was oversold, we had to wait an extra two hours(!) in line to get in) the toddler was feeling more than a little crabby. (More pictures here.)

One of the pitfalls of learning more about where your food comes from is the fact that the more you learn about the commercial food chain, the more hopeless things can seem. But organic consumers are making progress in getting major corporations to voluntarily reject artificial growth hormones in dairy products (rBGH), from Chipotle to Walmart and Kroger. Take a minute to sign the Food & Water Watch petition thanking these companies and let them know their responsible actions are appreciated.