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What the Carters Requested from the White House Chefs

Nearly 40 years ago, Jimmy Carter, a onetime peanut farmer and former governor of Georgia, was elected president of the United States. Since leaving the Oval Office, the former president has engaged in philanthropic work around the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his lifelong efforts. In his recently published autobiography, A Full Life, Jimmy Carter reflects on his public and private life through the lens of his faith.

Now, at 90 years old, the former president embraces the pleasures of farm life with his wife, Rosalynn. Being a farmer, he rises very early and then meets Rosalynn around 7 a.m. for breakfast. They enjoy fresh honey, sweet corn and other bounties from his boyhood farm in Archery, Georgia.

"The favorite meal is country food. When we got ready to move into the White House, Rosalynn went in—one of our staff members did—and asked the cooks and so forth at the White House, 'Do you think you can make the kind of meals that the Carters are going to enjoy?'" President Carter tells Oprah. "And their response was, 'Yeah, we've been cooking that kind of meal for the servants for the last 20 years.'"

Watch the video above to learn more about the former president's favorite pastimes, and find out what's on his reading list.

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