Boston Flora

Month: July 2011

  • Saturday, July 16, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Secrets of the Tudor Stillroom

    Travel to Plimoth Plantation on Saturday, July 16, from 9 – 5, for a seminar led by renowned herbalist Christina Stapley, entitled Secrets of the Tudor Stillroom.  Learn about the activities of the Tudor still-house while making recipes from distilled aromatic waters, as well as scented powders, cough sweets, herb infused honeys, a salve, herb sugar, sweetmeats, vinegars, and more.  Featured herbs include rose, rosemary, elecampane, pot marigold, frankincense, marshmallow, yarrow, hyssop, betony, St. John’s wort, and angelica.  You’ll also learn about repelling pests, washing clothing, and herbal remedies.  Fee for Museum members: $95; nonmembers: $120.  Register at www.plimoth.org, or call 508-746-1622, ext. 8359.

  • Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 pm, and Thursday, July 14, 9:00 – 12:00 noon – Gardening with Native Plants

    Join author and native plant enthusiast Carolyn Summers for an evening lecture (Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 pm)  and morning workshop (Thursday, July 14, 9 – 12) on designing and gardening with native plants.  Based on her book Designing Gardens with the Flora of the American East, Ms. Summers will show how to increase biodiversity in our gardens, for beautiful, sustainable results which also benefit wildlife.  The events will be held in the Far Barn at the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, Martha’s Vineyard, and the cost to attend the Wednesday evening talk is $5 for PHA members, $10 for nonmembers, and the Thursday seminar will be $30 for PHA members, $35 for nonmembers.  For more information, log on to www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

  • Saturday, July 9, 2:00 pm, and Tuesday, July 19, 7:00 pm- Ancient Grains for Modern Meals

    Williams-Sonoma Copley, at 100 Huntington Place in Boston, will host a special book signing and cooking demonstration with Maria Speck this coming Saturday, July 9, beginning at 2 pm.  Maria will be signing copies of her cookbook Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.  This is a unique opportunity to meet a leading chef and author.  No reservations required, and the event is free.  Maria will also appear at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, on Tuesday, July 19 at 7. Food writer Maria Speck’s passion for propelling Old World staples such as farro, barley, polenta, and wheat berries to the forefront of new American cooking is beautifully presented in Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. In this inspired and highly personal book, Speck draws on food traditions from across the Mediterranean and northern Europe to reveal how versatile, satisfying, flavorful, and sophisticated whole grains can be.

    Speck grew up in Greece and Germany before moving to the US as a young adult. She is a writer and journalist, and has contributed to Gourmet, Saveur, and Gastronomica, as well as Marie Claire and Elle. Her popular cooking classes in Cambridge focus on the flavors and cooking styles of the Mediterranean.


  • Friday, July 15, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Kitchen Gardens and Herbs of the Pilgrims

    Using period sources like John Winthrop’s seed lists and a poem by William Bradford, Christina Stapley will explore the herbs the colonists felt necessary for their lives in the New World, at this Friday, July 15 seminar at Plimoth Plantation entitled Kitchen Gardens and Herbs of the Pilgrims.  The afternoon will include gathering herbs and preparing poultices, salves, powders, teas, and herb-infused honeys.  This great day (from 9 – 5)  will be filled with practical experience of plant recognition, making recipes, and sampling remedies, dyed materials, and skincare products.  A delicious lunch of 16th and 17th century foods made with popular period herbs will be served.  Fee for Museum members: $120; nonmembers: $150. Fee includes lunch. Register at www.plimoth.org, or call 508-746-1622, ext. 8359.

  • Friday, July 15, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Making Paper Garden Lanterns, Japanese Style

    Join popular instructor/artist, Nancy Moore Bess at the Berkshire Botanical Garden on Friday, July 15 from 10 – 4 in one of her inspirational workshops. Harvest a few feet of your favorite vines (wisteria, grapevine, akebia, etc.), cut a few narrow branches from your willow tree (think #2 pencil for maximum diameter), and prepare to make a lantern. Using these items from your garden and some cordage, rattan, and handmade papers, you’ll make lanterns. Using acrylic medium and methyl cellulose as an adhesive, allows participants to collage multiple papers into a single skin. Use this beautiful textured paper to cover the frame you will create with your vines and branches. Extra acrylic on the surface can hold dried seeds and pressed dried flowers in place. Participants will add the electrical elements (or LED lights) at home after the structure has dried completely. Materials list available upon registration. Instructor will provide supplementary materials, including willow.)  Lantern below from www.greenteadesign.com.

    Nancy Moore Bess is a master basket maker and exhibits her baskets worldwide. She has championed Japanese basketry in the west and is the author of Bamboo in Japan. She teaches basket making workshops throughout the United States including Haystack School of Crafts on Deer Isle, Maine. Her popular workshops always sell out. Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org (BBG members $75, nonmembers $85).

  • Saturday, July 16, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Feng Shui in the Garden

    Every gardener knows the joy of working with plants and soil, and how this creates a direct connection with the earth and its energy. A basic knowledge of Feng Shui can enhance your pleasure of working and being in your garden. Learn the basics of Feng Shui and how to apply the practice to your garden, how to make the most of the earth’s energy (Chi energy), and how to create pathways and plantings that enhance this. Make simple changes that have a profound effect, with any style of landscaping. This Boston Center for Adult Education class will take place Saturday, July 16, from 11 – 12:30 at 122 Arlington Street in Boston, and costs $30 for BCAE members, $36 for nonmembers.  To register log on to www.bcae.org or call 617-267-4430.

  • Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest 2011

    The July 15 entry deadline is almost upon us – enter Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest 2011, a citywide celebration of urban gardening, generously sponsored by Comcast and the Boston Herald.  All Boston residents, businesses, or organizational gardens are eligible, as long as the gardener is an amateur.  Gardens will be judged on the basis of general appeal (natural or formal), use of color, definition, neatness, the variety and quality of plant material, and garden hardware, furnishings, and art.  Submit photo of the nominated garden to Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest, Boston Parks and Recreation Department, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02118, along with your name, address, telephone number and email address, or apply online at www.cityofboston,gov/parks/gardencontest.  Categories:  Porch, Balcony, Deck or Window Box Garden; Shade Garden; Small Yard Garden (250 square feet or less); Medium Yard Garden (250 square feet – 500 square feet); Large Yard Garden (larger than 500 square feet); Community Garden; Vegetable or Herb Garden; Storefront, Business or Organization Garden.  Photographs or images submitted to the Boston Parks & Recreation Department become City of Boston property and may be used for press or marketing purposes.  Gardeners may only win one category per year.  For more information, call 617-961-3051.  Chitose Suzuki’s photo of South End garden below courtesy of www.townhousecenter.org.

  • Wednesdays, July 13, 27, August 10, and August 24, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Preserving the Harvest: Putting Food By

    We all love fresh food grown from the garden. But we live in New England and if we expect to eat as well in January as in August, we need to preserve the summer garden’s abundance for the lean days of winter. Learn about the techniques of putting food by, including water bath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, root cellaring and lacto-fermenting to create delicacies that will see us through the dark days and remind us of what awaits in the spring. An upcoming series of four classes at the Berkshire Botanical Garden will demystify all aspects of preserving food.

    On Wednesday, July 13, the class is entitled You CAN Do It! Hot water bath and pressure cooker canning is not just for jams and jellies (although it’s really good for those too). Learn how to put up your own salsa, chutneys and condiments. We will explore the many ways a canner can be put to use creating wonderful and unique gifts as well as enhancing your own food pantry. This class will also cover pressure canning and will demystify this useful method for insuring food safety. On Wednesday, July 27, enjoy Dry it – You’ll Like It & Baby It’s Cold Inside. Dehydrating and freezing as methods for preserving foods are perhaps the easiest for beginners. Learn how to use a dehydrator to make soup, snacks and delicacies to give as gifts or enjoy at home. Home-dried food has less salt and sugar, is far less expensive than the commercial counterparts and fabulous taste. Freezing summers bounty is another fool proof method for putting food by. Once mastered, the basics of blanching, chilling, air tight wrapping and freezing will provide a taste of summer in the depths of winter. These tried and true, simple techniques will be just like having Guido’s right in your house. Wednesday, August 10 brings We’re in a Pickle Now. Lacto-fermentation is one of the only food preservation techniques that actually enhances the flavor and nutrition of a food. Well learn about the chemistry and techniques of fermenting food on a small scale. Make every meal better with some kimchi. Finally, on Wednesday, August 24, we’ll learn What Lies Beneath. Think you can’t eat garden fresh food in the middle of winter? Think again! With a root cellar, you can enjoy carrots, beets, turnips, onions, potatoes, leeks and fruits like apples and pears all winter long. A well-made root cellar acts like a second refrigerator but needs no electricity. Use it to store wine, cider, lard and all those tasty lacto-fermented vegetables. We will explore what it takes to create a root cellar, how to prepare vegetables for their winter home and how to use the produce you store there.

    All classes are led by Kathy Harrison, who has been preserving food for over 30 years. She teaches classes on all manner of food preservation for many organizations and has presented trainings for NOFA and Mother Earth News. She is the author of several books. Her latest is  Just In Case: How to Be Self Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens. Kathy and her husband, Bruce run Barefoot Farm, where they raise bees, organic fruits and vegetables.

    Register on line (www.berkshirebotanical.org) for all four classes (BBG members $75, nonmembers $85), or register for any individual class ($22 for all.)

  • Saturday, September 17 – Sunday, September 18 – What’s Out There Weekend in San Francisco

    On September 17th and 18th in San Francisco, The Cultural Landscape Foundation will host What’s Out There Weekend, a series of interpretive tours that highlight San Francisco’s rich and diverse heritage of Modernist designed landscapes. Dubbed “Mostly Modern”, during the weekend members of the public will be able to visit any or all of a network of 25 publicly accessible sites around the City, to participate in free tours from expert guides.

    From Ted Osmundson’s Kaiser Center Roof Garden (below) in Oakland, to San Francisco’s Levi’s Plaza designed by Lawrence Halprin, to Robert Royston’s Santa Clara Central Park, San Francisco and the Bay Area has the broadest and most diverse Modernist landscape legacy in the country. Yet while local residents pass through these important Modernist landscapes on a daily basis, they often do not know their stories. The goal of “Mostly Modern” is to raise awareness about these valuable places and educate the public about the individuals who designed and created them.

    The What’s Out There Weekend initiative dovetails with the web-based What’s Out There, the first searchable database of the nation’s designed landscapes. While the database offers a broad and interconnected way to learn about a region’s historic designed landscapes, the What’s Out There Weekend gets people out into their communities, to actively experience the landscapes that they see every day but often overlook.  Tour and event details will be available beginning soon at www.tclf.org.

  • Wednesday, August 3, 7:00 am – 8:30 pm – Native Ferns of New England

    Learn about the life cycle of ferns and their evolutionary history, spanning 400 million years, from noted fern expert, collector and educator Don Lubin. From among New England’s 68 native species, we will examine twenty of those most commonly found. This survey will include detailed photographs, techniques for field identification, and a look at the adaptive niche that each species occupies. Don Lubin has been teaching about ferns for over a decade and he grows 44 species in his small yard in Allston. He has collected more than 50 herbarium specimens and has identified previously unrecorded taxa at several locales in Massachusetts.  Location : Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit  http://www.grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts.