While planning my food contributions to this year’s Fourth of July picnic, I came across this article in Salon:

The table is set with an elegant fusion of Southern comfort food and fine French cuisine. The beef and lamb are grass-fed; the artisan smoked hams are from locally raised pigs. The produce is locally grown and, of course, organic. All this local bounty is enhanced by fine imports: Italian Parmesan, French wine, and extra virgin olive oil. No, you’re not sitting down to eat with Michael Pollan; you’re at the table of Thomas Jefferson, statesman and gourmand extraordinaire.

…

“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.”

Read the whole article about Thomas Jefferson, America’s first foodie, here.

Jefferson, Adams and Franklin were all avid farmers, each approaching the soil and its bounty in their own ways. I think they would be astounded at what happened to the food system in the Republic they left us. I think they’d be surprised that organic farming is considered the fringe, how we’ve let a number of seeds meet extinction since those days, and that drinking raw milk is a big deal (and a revolutionary act of its own). I wonder what they would think about Genetically Modified food. Would they be surprised that growing hemp is illegal, since they all grew it and the Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper?

Whatever your food views are, I encourage you to pursue them to the satisfaction of your heart, mind, body, and soul. Please, let no one dictate what you should eat.

I invite you to join me in my annual ritual of reading this glorious document.

In case you’re curious, here are Lexington and Concord, (as in, the shot heard ’round the world).

I also would like to thank Abigail Adams who was an important founding mother, an inspiration and confidant for her husband who also kept the family farm going in his long absences. She likely would have planted an organic garden at the White House and not think it was anything special!

A number of my farmers are actually going to take the day off this year and I hope they get some rest and enjoy the time with their friends and family while we enjoy the fruits of their labor at our picnics and barbeques.

Have a very happy Fourth.