Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Thursday, August 1, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Curious About Canning?

    Want to learn how to preserve your garden produce? Cookbook author Marisa McCleellan will walk you through the steps of pickling and boiling water bath canning in this two-hour hands-on Dilly Bean workshop, sponsored by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and taking place Thursday, August 1, from 6 – 8 at Elm Bank in Wellesley. You’ll learn how to tackle a mess of beans and have the opportunity to ask all your burning preserving questions.

    Marisa McClellan is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated pickler who lives in Center City Philadelphia. Her first cookbook, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round is now available. Find more of her jams, pickles, and preserves (all cooked up in her 80-square-foot kitchen) at her blog, Food in Jars. (www.foodinjars.com).  Cost – $50.00 for Mass Hort members, $55.00 for non-members.  Reserve on line at www.masshort.org.

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  • Wednesday, July 24, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create The World’s Greatest Drinks

    Who knew that horticulture was such an intoxicating subject? In The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create The World’s Greatest Drinks, the follow-up to the New York Times bestsellers Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart explores the odd, unusual, and surprisingly common plants that have produced the world’s greatest spirits. The Drunken Botanist uncovers the enlightening botanical history and the fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers, trees, fruits, and even a few fungi. Join Amy on Wednesday, July 24, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum for a fun and enlightening lecture, followed by a tasting of locally crafted beverages (must be 21 or older). Fee $30 Arboretum member, $40 nonmember. Register on line at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Sunday, June 23, 3:30 pm – The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History

    More than half of Americans now live within 50 miles of ocean, but should they? John Gillis (Rutgers University), in his new book The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History, argues that an inadequate understanding of the natural and human history of our shores has left communities unprepared for coastal dwelling.  John will speak at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, on Sunday, June 23 beginning at 3:30 pm.  For more information visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php.  Regular Museum admission rates apply.

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  • Wednesday, June 26, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Going Local Without Going Crazy: 25 Tips to Increase Your Local Footprint

    Julie Shanks will help us understand how to bring healthy, local foods into your kitchen and stay on budget too, in this Massachusetts Horticultural Society workshop on Wednesday, June 26, beginning at 6 at Elm Bank in Wellesley.  Julia has a passion for and an expertise in locavorism, and is eager to share easy ways we can all make change that connect us to the food and farmers in our own communities. The world is changing as more people are supporting local, small businesses and returning to homemade food to avoid the unsavory health and social consequences associated with processed foods. Join Julia for a discussion, Q & A, complete with recipes, ideas, and a healthy dose of delicious fun. Julia is the co-author of The Farmers Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Enjoying your CSA and Farmers’ Markets Foods. Their book has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Taste of the Seacoast, and Growing for Market, and was cited as a reference in Michelle Obama’s American Grown.

    Cost – $20.00 for members, $25.00 for non-members.  Sign up at www.masshort.org.

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  • Thursday, June 27, 8:00 am – 6:30 pm – The Gardens of Westport

    Take a day trip with the  Friends of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens on Thursday, June 27, from 8 am – 6:30 pm.  Travel by car south to special garden spots in and around Westport, Massachusetts, including a farm tour and lunch with Eva Sommaripa, Wellesley College ’63, and Didi Emmons, author of Wild Flavors: One Chef’s Transformative Year Cooking from Eva’s Farm, a book about Eva’s Garden, Eva, her way of life, her plants, and how to cook with them.  You will learn about the little known herbs Boston and New York chefs are discovering, as well as coveted and cultivated weeds, greens, and edible flowers. The book will be available for sale and signing at $30 a copy.  After lunch visit Westport River Winery in Westport, Massachusetts, owned and operated by the Russell Family.  These fourth generation vintners are best known for their extraordinary sparkling wines and white varietals.  You will have a short tour and tasting to learn about this special location for growing grapes and making award-winning wines.  Finish the day at a local private garden with lemonade and cookies before journeying back to Wellesley.For more details contact 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.  Friends price $50, public $65.

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  • Wednesday, June 12, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – The Hermit in the Garden

    Author and historian Gordon Campbell tells the engagingly eccentric tale of the eighteenth century craze for ornamental hermits – the must-have accessory for the grand gardens of Georgian England and beyond. Campbell traces the garden hermit’s history from Imperial Rome, to unwashed hired “hermits” in specially built hermitages, to the modern garden gnome. This quirky story is sure to be interesting.  Gordon will appear at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Wednesday, June 12, from 6:30 – 7:30, and there is no additional charge beyond the garden admission fee for the event.  You may register on line at www.towerhillbg.org.

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  • Saturday, June 8, 4:00 pm – Tasting Terroir: A Story of Earth, Wine, and Human Hope

    Consider the role of terroir throughout the history of wine. While highlighting the essential role of earth in the terroir that many people believe characterizes fine wine, author Paul Lukacs and wine merchant Jim Nejames will present a lecture and tasting. Based on his new book, Inventing Wine: a New History of One of The World’s Most Ancient Pleasures, Paul will present the intriguing investigation of terroir: its facts and fictions. Wines featured will demonstrate the significance of terroir. Paul’s new book will be sold following the lecture, and showcased wines will be available for order.

    Paul Lukacs is the author of American Vintage and The Great Wines of America. A James Beard, Cliquot and IACP award winner, he has been writing about wine and its cultural contexts for nearly 20 years. He is a professor of English at Loyola University of Maryland, where he directs the University’s Center for the Humanities. Jim Nejames, a wine merchant, owns Spirited, a retail wine store located in Lenox, MA. He finds and sells great wines from around the world and specializes in wine consulting, stocking wine cellars, wine classes and wine tastings.

    This unique program will take place Saturday, June 8, beginning at 4 pm at Berkshire Botanical Garden.  BBG member price $25, nonmembers $30, and you may sign up on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

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  • Thursday, May 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Physical Fitness of Leaves

    Every organism must contend with its immediate physical environment, a world that both limits what organisms can do and offers innumerable opportunities for evolving ways to challenge those limits. Steven Vogel, author of The Life of a Leaf, will explain these interactions, using the leaf as example, on Thursday, May 30 from 7 – 8:30 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum. In exploring the leaf’s world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own. He’ll answer questions about how objects get much hotter than air when in sunlight and far cooler when beneath a clear night sky; how air movement matters even when we can’t feel it; how objects such as trees avoid damage from storms; and ways leaves acquire the essential resources for growth and reproduction. Join us to learn about some of the extraordinary designs that enable a leaf to adapt to its physical world. Fee $10 Arboretum member, $15 nonmember.  Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Sunday, June 2, 2:00 pm – Rick Darke: The Wild Garden

    The Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, along with its park partner The Beatrix Farrand Garden Association and The Landscape and Arboretum Program at Bard present the 7th Annual Bellefield Design Lecture on Sunday, June 2 at 2 pm at the Henry A . Wallace Visitor Center at the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Historic Site and The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, 4079 Albany Post Road in Hyde Park, New York.  There will be a garden reception with book signing, an heirloom plant sale and a garden boutique sponsored by the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association to follow in the Garden at Bellefield.

    Rick Darke, renowned author, photographer and landscape consultant will present his recently expanded edition of William Robinson’s influential book, The Wild Garden. first published in 1870. Robinson’s approach inspired Beatrix Farrand throughout her career, and now Darke reintroduces this groundbreaking text on the creation of sustainable landscapes to a new generation of gardeners.

    Tickets are $35/$30 for Beatrix Farrand Garden Association members. Visit http://www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org/events.html to purchase tickets.

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  • Tuesday, May 14, 7:00 pm – Backyard Foraging: 65 Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat

    Porter Square Books, located in the Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street in Cambridge, will host author Ellen Zachos, who will speak about her new book Backyard Foraging: 65 Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, on Tuesday, May 14, beginning at 7 pm.  Following her talk she will sign copies of her book as well. Ideal for first-time foragers, this book features 70 (not 65 – who knew?) edible weeds, flowers, mushrooms, and ornamental plants typically found in urban or suburban neighborhoods. You’ll be amazed by how many of the plants you see each day are actually nutritious edibles.  Full-color photographs make identification easy, and tips on where certain plants are likely to be found, how to avoid pollution and pesticides, and how to recognize the plants you should never harvest make foraging as safe and simple as stepping into your own backyard.

    Zachos leads foraging walks and currently teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, where she received her certification in Commercial Horticulture and Ethnobotany. She writes two blogs, which can be found at “downanddirtygardening.com” and “gardenbytes.com” and has written numerous gardening books and contributed to publications including Horticulture and Better Homes & Gardens.

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