Reading “Living Sunlight”

On Wednesday, June 30, we were delighted to host Mrs. Christie Vilsack, the wife of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, at an event for our AFAC vegetable garden at Central Library.

Mrs Vilsack, who announced that our garden has been named one of 450 USDA People’s Gardens across the United States, also brought us a book from her own collection: Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life.

County Board member Walter Tejada was on hand, to introduce Mrs. Vilsack to the watching audience, and to help harvest the broccoli and basil:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrg-HryeQR8]

USDA’s Don Weber, along with Puwen Lee from AFAC, has been instrumental in the planting and cultivating of our garden. So on Wednesday Don brought us Spotted Pink Lady Beetles to release into the garden, as a form of organic pest control:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk3lq_RTT14]

Before she went inside for storytime, we had time to ask Mrs. Vilsack and USDA’s Doug McKalip about their favorite things to read (Duck for President was mentioned):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXzPSRR7nV4]

You can see more photos of the garden and the beetles on our flickr page.