WASHINGTON—The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture presented its ninth annual Book of the Year award on Jan. 10 to children’s author Susan Grigsby for First Peas to the Table. The book features a group of children learning about gardens and peas and about Thomas Jefferson’s gardens at Monticello.

Grigsby, who lives in St. Louis, teaches creative writing in schools, museums and nature centers, often integrating the lessons with science, social studies and art.

“I sometimes help students set up their own school gardens and am always inspired by the sense of wonder that develops as the children discover the infinite number of variables involved in turning one tiny seed into a plant that can feed a family,” she said. After reading Jefferson’s journals and agriculture-related correspondence, she noted, “I was struck by the passion that he and others had in regards to experimenting to figure out which plants, previously grown on other continents, would grow best in each of the diverse environments” of a new nation. “I wrote the book to celebrate how every gardener, young and old, learns through experimentation, through failures and success and with a joy for the wonders of nature.”

In a Jan. 20 article on the AFBFA website, Eleanor Gould, Monticello curator of gardens, said the historic estate’s community was “delighted” to learn that First Peas to the Table has been recognized. Jefferson grew many varieties of peas at Monticello, including 15 varieties of English peas.

Grigsby’s book shares its title with a friendly competition among Charlottesville’s elementary schools to produce the first peas each year in school gardens. Students are scheduled to start seeds the second week of February for this year’s competition. In 2015, Jackson-Via and Johnson elementary schools received mini-grants from the Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom program to help fund their gardens.

The AFBFA Book of the Year award springs from the foundation’s effort to identify accurate agriculture books. It maintains a database of nearly 500 works that accurately cover agricultural topics at agfoundation.org/recommended-pubs.

Media: Contact Will Rodger, 202-406-3642, or Kari Barbic, 202-406-3672, American Farm Bureau Federation communications.