White House Vegetable Garden heirloom seeds and 10 different herbs such as anise hyssop and Thai basil. Former presidents' favorite produce were also sown, such as President Thomas Jefferson’s preferred vegetables, “Brown Dutch and Tennis Ball lettuce, Prickly Seed spinach and Savoy cabbage” but beets were not grown because President Obama did not like them. Along with the vegetable garden, a beehive was added near the chef’s kitchen that is overseen by Charlie Brandts, a beekeeper and White House carpenter. Honey collected from the beehives has been used to brew White House Honey Ale. The contributing gardeners responsible for the early stages of the
Philip Choy Philip Choy Philip P. Choy (December 17, 1926 – March 16, 2017) was an architect and historian of Chinese American studies. He is the author of "" (2012), "Canton Footprints: Sacramento’s Chinese Legacy" (2007), and "The Coming Man: 19th Century American Perceptions of the Chinese" (1994). Choy has been a community activist known for landmark preservation in San Francisco. Choy was born in San Francisco, California on December 17, 1926. He grew up in San Francisco Chinatown and he was the fourth in a family of five children with three older sisters and a younger brother. During high school, Choy