Curated Cuisine is a monthly series examining all things edible, from the chefs cooking the food to the writers reviewing the recipes. Meet the people shaping the food industry, both local and national and enjoy a post-show bite inspired by the conversation. On Tuesday, May 30 at 6 pm Eastern, cookbook authors Margaret and Irene Li will speak at WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Doors open at 5:30 pm.
Before you throw out almost-expired milk, wrinkly fruit, or squishy vegetables learn all the ways you can use those ingredients in delicious stir-fries, smoothies and pancakes! Margaret and Irene Li, the acclaimed chef-sisters behind Mei Mei Dumplings, have written Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking. They’ll discuss how to cook flexibly and fight food waste. It is a book for those moments everyone has, whether you cook for one or a whole household. We all have moments standing before an overfull pantry or near-empty fridge, not sure what to do with an abundance of summer tomatoes or the last of the droopy spinach. Chock-full of ingenious use-it-up tips, smart storage ideas, and infinitely adaptable recipes, this book will teach you why smoothies are your secret weapon, how to freeze (almost) anything, why using your senses in the kitchen (including common sense!) is more important than so-called shelf-life. This cookbook/field guide is a crucial resource for the thrifty chef, the environmentally mindful cook and anyone looking to make the most of their ingredients.
WBUR environment and climate correspondent Barbara Moran moderates the conversation, featuring an onstage demonstration of how to make a food waste feast. In-person guests will enjoy a bite from the book after the conversation.
Please join The Boston Committee’s Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, April 13 at The Country Club, Clyde Street, Brookline, at 10 am. Author Nola Anderson will recount her personal story of restoring The Chimneys, a 28-acre estate in Manchester-by-the-Sea. The original Italianate gardens at The Chimneys were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. between 1903 and 1914. By 1991, when Ms. Anderson and her husband purchased the property, the gardens had been neglected for more than 40 years and she had never gardened a day in her life. The restoration and renewal of these historic seaside gardens became Ms, Anderson’s three-decade, hands-on personal passion, as she developed the expertise and horticultural proficiency for the evolving design and management. The Chimneys’ gardens are once again the centerpiece of the estate and a vibrant example of horticultural elegance. Using archival materials and sumptuous contemporary photographs, Ms. Anderson’s talk will offer rare views of one of the most beautiful private gardens in America.
$30 for the lecture only, and an additional $35 for the optional luncheon following. The book may be ordered in advance through the Eventbrite invitation, which will be sent to members of Clubs which participate in the Boston Committee of the GCA. The Garden Club of the Back Bay is one such club, and if you are a member, you will receive the invitation. If you are not already a member, and wish to join, visit https://bostonflora.com/
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is welcoming Jo Thompson, RHS Chelsea Flower Show multi-medal winner, over from England on her spring US tour. Inspired by her book The Gardener’s Palette: Creating Colour Harmony in the Garden, Jo will share her experience with finding, planning, and executing a garden color palette. Enjoy drinks (cash bar) and light bites for this exciting lecture during Mass Hort’s first ever Tulip Mania at the Garden at Elm Bank in Wellesley. Jo will be signing copies of her book, and it is available for purchase with your ticket. $55 – $70 – register through Eventbrite HERE.
When World War II began, the U.S. Navy was unprepared to enact its island-hopping strategy to reach Japan. Mary Sears, a marine biologist, was the expert they turned to, and she along with a team of quirky marine scientists were instrumental in turning the tide of the war in the United States’ favor. The Sears team analyzed ocean currents, made wave and tide predictions, identified zones of bioluminescence, mapped deep-water levels where submarines could hide and gathered information about the topography and surf conditions surrounding the Pacific islands and Japan. Sears was frequently called upon to make middle-of-the-night calculations for last-minute top-secret landing destinations and predicted optimal landing times and locations for amphibious invasions. In supplying these crucial details, Sears and her team played a major role in averting catastrophes that plagued earlier amphibious landings, like the disastrous Tarawa, and cleared a path to Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II.
This hybrid Massachusetts Historical Society event is free for virtual attendees, $10 for in person attendees (but free for MHS members). Author Catherine Musemeche will be the speaker.
Join WBUR senior environmental reporter Miriam Wasser for a conversation with author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben on November 21 at CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, or online.
McKibben founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent for climate action. He also recently launched Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice.
He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, and the forthcoming The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.
Signed copies of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Brookline Booksmith.
This series of lectures will take place in person at the Museum and virtually on four consecutive Wednesday evenings this fall beginning Wednesday, October 26, 2022. Register Here via Newport Art Museum’s Website Subscribe to the full series, or visit each lecture’s event page for tickets to individual lecture dates. NTC Members, use code NewportTree at checkout for a $5 discount per ticket. Nonmember price for entire series, live or virtual, is $80.
Discover America’s Eden: Newport Through the Ages with architectural historian and Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America, John Tschirch. Newport, Rhode Island has been often referred to as “The Eden of America.” This richly illustrated lecture series celebrates the publication of America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes Through the Ages (2022). Lectures will explore over three centuries of landscape design, literature, and art that have been created in this verdant place. With garden shovel and spade, pen, brush, paint, and camera, generations of gardeners, nursery owners, writers, and artists have literally and figuratively shaped the land. Among them were renowned figures such as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry James, the painter Childe Hassam, and pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. The result of their work is an extraordinary heritage, a vision of human-made Eden through the ages.
Lecture I on October 26 is The Colonial Landscape, an exploration of the development of Newport’s topography from colonial settlement through the 18th century, when classical ideals of landscape planning fused with practical horticulture. A view of period maps, rare literary works, and letters reveal this lost world. On November 2, explore The Genteel Landscape. Immerse in Newport’s rise as a fashionable seaside resort during the Victorian age, when the builders of summer cottages, nursery owners, and gardeners created an enclave of picturesque gardens while sight-seers and renowned painters and writers celebrated the city’s natural scenery and geological wonders. November 9 brings The Art of Scenery. Shaping the land as an art form became an evolving subject for both practice and theory during the late 19th century. The work of master landscape architects from Frederick Law Olmsted to Rose Standish Nichols are addressed in a series of gardens that combined both extraordinary trees with distant views of sea and rolling hills. Finally, on November 16, enjoy The Gilded Age. Monumental architecture and formal gardens made their dramatic appearance in Newport in the 1890s, when classical pavilions and parterres transformed the city’s windswept cliffs and meadows. This lecture examines the era’s elaborate gardens and the estate gardeners who formed a vibrant creative community.
John Tschirch is an architectural historian, writer, teacher and Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America. His latest books include America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages (2022) and Newport: The Artful City (2020), which received the Victorian Society of America Book Award in 2021. John received his M.A. (1986) in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. His thirty-year career in the preservation and study of historic landmarks and landscapes across the globe has led him on treks to French chateaux, English castles, Italian villas, Austrian palaces, Croatian fortresses, Argentinian mansions and the Gilded Age houses of America. Currently, he teaches the theory and history of design at Rhode Island School of Design, advises on historic preservation projects, and has entered the world of historical fiction writing, inspired by his travels, with the publication of Gods and Girls: Tales of Art, Seduction and Obsession(2019).
John’s work in preserving and interpreting historic places has been featured in the Magazine Antiques, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler and he has appeared on the A&E documentary series, America’s Castles. From 1986 to 2013, he served the Preservation Society of Newport County, first as Director of Education and later as Director of Museum Affairs and Architectural Historian, overseeing the curatorial, conservation, education and research activities at the organizations eleven historic house museums and gardens. He has published essays on history and socio-cultural issues for The Public Humanist (2018-19), “The New Thing at Newport: The Tiffany Glass Wall at Kingscote” in The Magazine Antiques (January 2013), the essay, “Newport Cottages” for The Encyclopedia of New England Culture (Yale University Press, 2005) and “Newport” in Parisian Palaces of La Belle Epoque (Paris 1992). He was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America in 2012 for his contributions to the research and restoration of historic landscapes. In recognition of his service to historic preservation, he received the 2013 Frederick C. Williamson Professional Leadership Award from the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission.
The preservation of heritage sites of international significance is of foremost interest to John. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad on architecture, landscapes and historic cities, from the Attingham Conference in London to Yale University’s Mellon Center Seminar on 18th Century French Design and the UNESCO sponsored conference on Architecture and Culture in Buenos Aires.
Have you ever wondered where your water comes from? Today, roughly three million people in Massachusetts enjoy water from the Quabbin Reservoir, but that has not always been the case. In Before the Flood, author Elisabeth C. Rosenberg explores the story of the Quabbin, the people who built it, and the residents who were displaced to make way for its construction.
Please join the Waterworks Museum on October 22 in welcoming Rosenberg for a discussion of this fascinating history, which will be followed by a book signing. This program will take place live at the museum, 2450 Beacon Street in Boston, and is free of charge. Doors open at 6:30pm. Masks are currently recommended but not required. Reserve your free ticket in advance to secure your place HERE. If seats are still available, walk-ins will be welcome on the day of the program.
Elisabeth C. Rosenberg is a writer and editor who focuses on the interplay between individuals, demographic groups, and disruptive technology. She has contributed to The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Fast Company, Harvard University Press, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. She divides her time between Washington, DC, and Amherst, MA.
Free Admission. The Garden Club of the Back Bay enjoyed a wonderful tour of the Museum during our “Water” year of programming, and we think everyone will enjoy the venue and the talk.
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, the renowned landscape architect and historian, shares anecdotes from his new book English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries(Mellon/Yale, 2022). Longstaffe-Gowan introduces a cast of obscure and eccentric English garden-makers who created intensely personal and idiosyncratic gardens between the early seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. With tales of miniature mountains, intriguingly shaped topiaries, exotic animals, excavated caves, and assembled architectural fragments, Longstaffe-Gowan highlights the follies and foibles of that personified these gardens and their makers.
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is an internationally acclaimed landscape architect with a practice based in London. He is gardens adviser to Historic Royal Palaces, lecturer at New York University (London), president of the London Gardens Trust, editor of The London Gardener, and author of several other books includingThe London Town Garden (Yale, 2001) and The London Square (Yale, 2012). He has developed and implemented long-term landscape management plans for the National Trust (Swindon, United Kingdom), English Heritage (Swindon, United Kingdom), and a wide range of private owners in the United Kingdom and around the world. Longstaffe-Gowan has had extensive input in the conservation and redevelopment of a variety of historic landscapes in London, including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace Gardens, and the Crown Estate.
Free. Advance registration for the Zoom transmission is required. The program is sponsored by The Clark in Williamstown, and you may register at www.clarkart.edu
The self-guided tour lets you wander through the Goodwin Park neighborhood of Portsmouth where tucked behind the 19th-century homes are a diverse representation of gardens. Once homes for laborers of local shoe manufacturing, the buildings date back to 1758. Plantings provide owners beauty from the sidewalk to backyard retreats. Ranging from classic to eclectic, gardens showcase the work of professionals and amateurs alike and include container gardening, native pollinator plantings, and hidden relaxing retreats. An easy one-mile walk with lots to see in eleven privately owned gardens along with the outdoor space of historic house museums. Musicians, artists, and garden educators are included along this self-guided tour.
In addition, there will be several educational opportunities. So plan to visit Portsmouth, the jewel of New England, to see for yourself.
John Forti, nationally recognized lecturer, garden historian, ethnobotanist, author of The Heirloom Gardener, and the executive director of Bedrock Gardens in Lee, NH, who will sign books and discuss native plants and our role in preservation.
Tori Hiney, co-proprietor and Pollinator Habitat Design Specialist at Bee the Buzz, and the Ecology and Horticulture Supervisor at the Rose Kennedy Greenway , who will share information on pollinator gardening.
Join Native Plant Trust Director of Horticulture Uli Lorimer, for the debut of his new book highlighting our region’s spectacular plant diversity and varied habitats. The Northeast Native Plant Primerprovides a roadmap to help you to include native plants in your garden, whether you are new to gardening or a seasoned professional. For those of us who care about the natural world, the decision to plant natives in the garden is one of the most impactful and important choices we can make. With so much under threat from a changing climate, invasive species, habitat loss and fragmentation, and declining numbers of birds and insects, planting natives in your garden shows you are trying to make a difference. Native plants have the power to heal our landscapes, welcome wildlife into our gardens, and inspire us.
The talk will be held at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on June 10 at 12:30 pm. $15 for NPT members, $18 for nonmembers. Register at www.nativeplanttrust.org
