Bryan A. Connolly, State Botanist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, will speak to the New England Botanical Club on Friday, February 1, beginning at 6:45 pm, on The Amazing Antioxidant, Apogamous, and Amorous Genus Aronia. The meeting will be held in the Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, of the Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge. The meeting is open to the public. For more information, visit www.rhodora.org. Image from 5400squarefeet.blogspot.com.
Learn how to make syrups and shrubs from cultivated fruits such as raspberries, strawberries, currants and rhubarb, at this Berkshire Botanical Garden class to be held Saturday, November 3, from 10 – noon. Also consider berry essences and elixirs made with native plants such as elder flowers, milkweed and aronia. This workshop will focus on how to make syrups and shrubs at home. Enjoy tasting various combinations of products and making shrubs from a 19th-century recipe. Each participant will take home a finished bottle of red currant, raspberry or strawberry shrub, a recipe for a vinaigrette-made shrub, as well as cocktail recipes for using shrubs.
Participants should also bring wide-mouth, quart-size glass jars that they will fill in class, take home to age and then turn into shrub from a simple recipe included with each jar.
Kate Keravian is owner of Bug Hill Farm, Ashfield, MA. They grow and make berry essences and elixirs made with native plants such as elder flowers, milkweed and aronia. Their signature concoction is “Kiss of Cassis†an alcohol-free cordial made from whole pressed black currants slightly sweetened with local honey. Their products are made from whole fruit and flowers. Cost is $22 for BBG members, $27 for non-members, nad you may register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.
Bryan Connolly is the Massachusetts State Botanist for the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. He will speak at Elm Bank on Friday, October 19, beginning at 6:30 pm, on Seed Saving.
Bryan is also researching the taxonomy and uses of the native plant genus Aronia or Chokeberry for doctoral dissertation. He is the author of “The wisdom of plant heritage” the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s handbook on small-scale seed production, and a co-author of “Breeding Organic Vegetables Step By Step Guide” NOFA-NY, and “The Vascular Plants of Massachusetts: A County Checklist, First Revision”. His professional experience includes being a botanical consultant for the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, surveying rare plant populations for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, coordinating a volunteer invasive plant survey at the New England Wild Flower Society, growing for FEDCO seeds, and instructing botany classes at Connecticut College and the University of Connecticut.
Cost – $10.00 for Mass Hort members, $12.00 for non-members.
Reservations may be made by calling 617-933-4943 or ordering online at https://www.masshort.org/secureforms/OnlineRegistrationForm_G2T.php. You may also pay at the class.
