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
Fat choy This may be one reason why some commercially available fat choy has been found to be adulterated with strands of a non-cellular starchy material, with other additives and dyes. Real fat choy is dark green in color, while the counterfeit fat choy appears black. The last two syllables of this name in Cantonese sound the same as another Cantonese saying meaning "struck it rich" (though the second syllable, "coi", has a different tone) -- this is found, for example, in the Cantonese saying, ""Gung1 hei2 faat3 coi4"" (恭喜發財, meaning "wishing you prosperity"), which is often proclaimed during Chinese New Year.