Boston Flora

Tag: apples

  • Thursday, October 1, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Apples, Apples, Apples

    Spend a morning at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts with Betsy Williams, proprietor of The Proper Season in Andover.  Apples, one of our most ancient and useful fruits, have played important parts in fall and winter celebrations for centuries.  Learn the history of this ancient and important fruit.  Make an apple candle to decorate your seasonal table, a spicy apple pomander, fragrant mast balls, apple-cinnamon ornaments, and two quarts of spicy Autumn Apple Potpourri.  Please bring floral scissors and an apron to class – this is a messy class, so be sure to wear old clothes!  Betsy will be giving a separate class in the afternoon (Glorious Autumn Pot), so plan to have lunch at Twigs and spend the day.  Cost of the Apples, Apples, Apples program is $50 for Tower Hill members, $55 for non-members.  Register on-line at www.towerhillbg.org.

    http://www.candlebay.com/candlepics/med/7.jpg

  • Sunday, September 20, 3 pm – Preserving the Harvest: Kimchi

    Fall has officially begun; cooler temps, the kids back to school — and definite, if subtle, changes at the farmers markets. Alongside the later tomatoes and peaches, apples & root vegetables have arrived, and the winter greens are making a re-appearance, too.

    So what’s next in Slow Food’s Preserving the Harvest series? Fermentation! The staff at Slow Food tempted chef Didi Emmons and her trusty assistants into teaching  two kimchi preparations: a chunky, traditional-style kimchi and a more delicately cut local Macomber turnip version.

    Kimchi is simple to learn and incredible delicious (especially when homemade). Plus, it’s good for you! Fermented foods have topped the headlines over the past few years for their nutritional and healing properties.

    You’ll start class discussing the nutrition side of things, with Didi highlighting the importance of incorporating live macrobiotic foods into our diets, and then use veggies fresh from local farms to prepare the kimchis to take home and ferment.

    And you’ll get to taste some previously made kimchis at the end of class, too! Fee is $40, advance registration required.  Click on to www.slowfoodboston.com to register.

    Directions:
    Haley House Cafe is located at 12 Dade Street (immediately off Washington Street) in Roxbury. Directions can be found on their website.

  • Pick Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

    Looking to pick your own blueberries, raspberries, apples, peaches, pumpkins, vegetables, etc.?  Log on to www.pickyourown.org and search for a farm near you.  There are Christmas tree farms, corn mazes, picking tips, easy canning directions, canning supply locators, equipment guides, and recipes.  Make strawberry jam, blueberry pie, ice cream – the site is updated daily.  Readers post comments.  Links give directions, and information on whether the farm is organic, whether credit cards are accepted, and hints for dressing for the occasion.  Some farms offer eggs and chickens as well.  You can search by product or location.  Enjoy the harvest experience and meet your farming neighbors.  The website provides a page for every state in the US and six other country pages, plus lists of fall festivals, Halloween festivals, and special events.

    pumpkin patch in the field

  • Saturday, April 25 – Sunday, April 26 – Fruitlands Opening Weekend

    Fruitlands Museum, home to the eclectic collection of Native American, Shaker, and American art, celebrates its 95th season with the much-anticipated opening of The Nature of Apples: Art & Memory. This new exhibition of thematic paintings drawn from a private collection, features the enduring beauty of this American icon and its role in the farming economy of Central Massachusetts’ Nashoba Valley. Continuing through November 2009, the exhibit shows artists ranging from Currier & Ives to renowned Provincetown contemporary painter Karl Knaths. A fascinating enhancement to the exhibit, Farmers Voices is a collection of compelling recorded oral histories by local farmers and orchard growers, collected and produced by exhibit cosponsor Freedom’s Way Heritage Association.

    Continuing at Fruitlands is sculptor Joseph Wheelright’s astonishing Tree Figures installation, featuring eight monumental, lifelike figures, created from actual trees. With their own distinct personalities the figures are carefully sited throughout the property and greet the visitor in grand style. Wheelwright has exhibited at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and the Boston Sculptors Gallery. Also on view is Branching Out, a thirty-year retrospective of Wheelwright’s smaller sculptures in the Ell Gallery at Fruitlands Farmhouse.  102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, Massachusetts. For more information, log on to www.fruitlands.org.