Boston Flora

Tag: Babson College

  • First Fridays, March 7 – June 6, 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm – First Friday Passport Kitchen with After Hours’ Kevin Kelly

    Led by After Hours founder Kevin Kelly, this four-session Berkshire Botanical Garden series, held on the first Friday of the month from March 7 to June 6 from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., is designed to bring excitement and invite curiosity about the culinary world. Through hands-on, experiential learning, we’ll cover the basic techniques and flavor affinities from across the globe. In each of the four sessions, we will work with local and seasonal produce to explore internationally-influenced cuisine. Each session will focus on two to three curated dishes and will conclude with a family-style meal for all participants. The series will cover cuisines from the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East that we will bring to life with locally sourced ingredients.

    Kevin Kelly is the founder and owner/operator of After Hours. Growing up in Great Barrington, and having lineage to the Southern Berkshires going back more than 10 generations, Kevin has grown with a unique opportunity to experience and understand business dynamics in the Berkshires. Initially starting his restaurant career at Allium Restaurant and Bar in Great Barrington, he was quickly hooked on the upbeat and lively atmosphere of the food industry. Over the next 10 years, he would hold nearly every position in the restaurant industry, notably cooking in some of Boston’s most highly awarded kitchens. After his stint in Boston and graduating from business school at Babson College, Kevin was left searching for his next steps in life. What originated as an idea to travel the world and immerse in global culinary experiences quickly transitioned to a homeward journey in attempting to open a restaurant in his hometown.

    Can’t do the entire series? Sign up for individual classes. Members: $100/Non-Members: $120. Links are below.

    March 7, 5 to 7:30 p.m.

    April 4, 5 to 7:30 p.m.

    May 2, 5 to 7:30 p.m.

    June 6, 5 to 7:30 p.m.

  • Friday, December 1, 6:45 pm – New England Botanical Club Meeting with Dr. Alden Griffith

    The New England Botanical Club will meet Friday, December 1 at 6:45 pm and will host Dr. Alden Griffith, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Wellesley College. Meetings at Harvard University are held in Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (door to right of Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance). Free and open to the public.

    Dr. Griffith is an ecologist focusing on invasive plant population dynamics and environmental influences. His work is conducted at the Boston Area Climate Experiment (BACE) in Waltham, MA and uses Persicaria lapathifolia as a model species. An important goal is to explicitly link environmental factors to population performance using integral projection models. This work is a collaboration with Vikki Rodgers at Babson College. Also, he studies the capacity for invasion of Bromus tectorum (‘cheatgrass’) in east coast dune systems. There has been much research into the invasion of B. tectorum in the Western U.S., but there is very little known about its potential in the east. This work is being conducted at the Cape Cod National Seashore and focuses on relating population success to factors of both the abiotic environment and the background plant community. Another area of inquiry is the population-level consequences of positive interactions among plants. Interactions among plants are often assumed to be negative (e.g. competition), but there is growing interest in the importance of positive interactions, or plant-plant facilitation, in ecological systems. His research, in collaboration with Ray Callaway at the University of Montana, examines the overall importance of facilitation by neighboring plants for Smelowskia calycina populations at high elevation in Glacier National Park.

    For more information visit www.rhodora.org. Image of dock leaved smartweed by David Cameron courtesy of our friends at New England Wildflower Society’s Go Botany!