Boston Flora

Tag: Edible Plants

  • Friday, March 27, 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm – How to Grow and Cook Native Edible Plants

    Join Dan Wilder for a two-part series sponsored by the Ecological Landscape Alliance dedicated to growing and cooking some of his favorite native edible plants. In the first session Dan will introduce viewers to various edible plants and discuss growing conditions, sustainable and seasonal harvest, and ecology. The following session will be centered around one or more in-season plants where Dan will guide viewers through various preparations. From scrambled eggs with wild leeks, to groundnut chips, to cocktails full of bee balm, viewers will learn how to create garden-to-table fare with native plants!

    You MUST register for each class separately. https://www.ecolandscaping.org/new-events-calendar/

    $10 for members
    $20 for non-members

    Dan Jaffe Wilder is an ecologist, horticulturist, and botanist with over fifteen years’ experience working with native plants and their associated ecology. His work has ranged from classrooms to nurseries to botanical gardens to wildlife refuges specializing in native plant ecology, propagation, wildlife habitat construction, and native edible landscapes. Dan is currently the Director of Applied Ecology for the Norcross Wildlife Foundation whose mission is to protect, enhance, and expand wildlife through conservation, education, and support. A prolific photographer and author Dan’s book Native Plants for New England Gardens was released in 2018.

  • Sunday, September 1, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Plant Foraging at the Arnold Arboretum

    Did you know you can eat staghorn sumac berries? What about stinging nettle? Join local foraging expert Tyler Akabane at the Centre Street Gate of the Arnold Arboretum on Sunday, September 1 at 2 pm for a plant foraging walk to look for wild edibles in the Arboretum landscape, and learn how to identify and safely prepare a wide variety of wild edible plants. Register at https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/

  • Sunday, June 9, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Medicinal (and Edible) Plant Walk

    Join local herbalist and arborist Alex Klein on June 9 for a walk around New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill to discover the bounty of medicinal plants, both those grown in the garden and those sprouting up of their own accord as weeds or forest understory. You may be surprised to find just how many useful medicinal herbs are common to our local landscape. While on the walk we will discuss basic identification techniques so you can become familiar with some common and useful medicinal plants. We’ll also cover historic and modern uses of these herbs, the spectrum between poison, medicine, and food, how to harvest ethically and safely, and how to process and use some of these plants for home healing.

    Come prepared to walk around the gardens including on stone and dirt paths. Instructor Alex Klein describes himself as an intermediary between people and plants. After beginning his work as a landscaper in Boston and New York, his desire to connect to nature more meaningfully changed his perspective on plants from something mostly aesthetic to something directly useful to him and the people around him. Alex has since botanized and wildcrafted up and down the East Coast, getting to know well the flora of the region, as well as the historical and modern uses of hundreds of food and medicine plants. Along the way, he trained as a clinical herbalist at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine and the Ithaca Free Clinic. His passion for herbal medicine led him to do herbal First Aid, volunteering his time at Asheville Street Feet, a free Foot Clinic for those in need, and at various wilderness gatherings. Alex currently practices as an herbalist in Boston, striving to use only plants he has gathered himself or grown in his garden. For his day job, Alex is an Arborist at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown.

    $40 for NEBG members, $55 for nonmembers. Register at www.nebg.org

  • Sunday, August 9, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Ornamental and Edible Native Plants Online

    Join horticulturists, garden designers, and artists Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano on August 9 from 11 – 1 to explore outstanding and edible native plants. They will share the magnificent diversity of American plants, showcasing highly ornamental and edible varieties that ought to be used widely in American gardens but are often not seen anywhere but botanical gardens and arboreta. This Berkshire Botanical Garden online program will include a lecture with visuals as well as a question and answer period. 

    Allyson Levy & Scott Serrano are two obsessed gardeners who garden all year long. Their goal has been to create a botanical garden that can serve as an educational resource for the public, as well as a “living textbook” of the diversity of plant life that can be grown in the Hudson Valley. Both are botanical artists who began buying plants for their artwork. When they realized they were buying and planting the same plants, they began to design a garden that is now the Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Garden.

    BBG members $10, nonmembers $15. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/ornamental-and-edible-native-plants-online

  • Thursday, June 7, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Gardening for Us and Them: How Native Plants Can Feed Both Pollinators and Humans

    People typically begin to create gardens for aesthetic reasons. However, many soon find that they want more than simple beauty and look to incorporate plants that contribute on multiple levels. On Thursday, June 7 at 7 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, Dan Jaffe will address a current trend (one that we hope is lasting) for gardening with pollinator-friendly and edible plants. He’ll explain which flower shapes and colors attract insects, which edibles are more resistant to diseases and pests, and how to provide for pollinators across the growing season. Armed with a bit of knowledge and a selection of low-maintenance native plants, you can create a multi-tasking garden that nourishes the needs of both humans and pollinators. Dan’s book with co-author Mark Richardson, Native Plants for New England Gardens, will be available for purchase and signing. Fee is Free for Arboretum members; $10 nonmember. Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

    Image result for Dan Jaffe

  • Wednesday, June 24, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Edibles in the Landscape – Foraging and Growing Your Own

    Edible wild plants offer opportunities for people to connect to nature via their taste buds, thereby building enthusiasm and support for land stewardship. Reconnect with the many edible plants that are all around us.

    Join tour guide, Russ Cohen, to view plants in the landscape through a new lens. Russ Cohen’s “day job” is serving as the Rivers Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration. He is also an expert forager and the author of Wild Plants I Have Known… and Eaten, published by the Essex County Greenbelt Association. For more than 25 years, Russ Cohen has been teaching foraging and leading foraging walks each year at a wide variety of venues throughout the Northeast, including talks for the Garden Club of the Back Bay.

    On this Wednesday, June 24 early evening walking tour of the landscape at Mass Audubon’s Habitat property in Belmont, Russ will point out which commonly found native and non-native plants have edible potential. Russ will discuss how adding edible plants to a landscape can boost biodiversity as well as “spice up” the experience for garden visitors. Learn about dozens of tasty native and non-native plant species that area landscapes have to offer, some of which may already be growing on your property. If your landscape is not rich with edibles yet, let this presentation be your inspiration to add edibles to your landscape this season. Register ($15 ELA members, $25 nonmembers) and see more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/edibles-in-the-landscape-foraging-and-growing-your-own/#sthash.S7t4kEYV.dpuf  Photo below of the Habitat property from www.everytrail.com.

  • Monday, April 13, 10:00 am – Backyard Foraging

    Backyard Foraging presented by Ellen Zachos, master forager, author, NY Botanic Garden teacher, will take place at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on Monday, April 13, beginning at 10 am as part of the  Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Horticultural Morning series.

    Spiderwort, spruce, daisies and sedums – what do these backyard favorites have in common? They are deliciously edible! You only need to step outside your door to forage edible plants. A dynamic teacher, Ellen will teach us which backyard ornamentals are edible and how to recognize plants we should never eat.

    Cost: $5 donation (GCFM members), $10 at the door (guests)
    Contact: Betsy Williams Chairman 978-470-0911 or betsy@betsywilliams.com

  • Monday, January 25, 10:00 am – Eat Your View: Native Edible Plants for Your Gardens

    Expand your palate as well as your concept of food’s place in the garden with native edibles planted in blended garden displays.  In this illustrated lecture New England Wild Flower Society’s Botanic Garden Director Scott LaFleur takes us behind the design and installation of the Garden in the Wood’s new edible plant garden – designed to help change the way we look at the food production system here in the U.S., where most of our daily foods are non-native and produced in mass quantity using fertilizers and pesticides.  Using all native plants, Scott weaves together design approaches, horticultural techniques, and culinary uses that you can translate to your own home.  Scott discusses the concept of a blended landscape, using ornamental plants and edible plants in a design that blurs the lines between a beautiful and a functional garden.  Blended landscapes truly allow you to Eat Your View.  The program will take place at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden on Monday, January 25, beginning at 10:00 a.m., and is co-sponsored with the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Junior League of Boston Garden Club.  WCFH, Arnold Arboretum, and NEWFS  members $15, non-members $18.  The course number is HOR 10 060, and you may register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or by emailing horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    Persimmons by Henna Lion.

  • Saturday, July 11, 2 – 5 pm – Foraging for Wild Edibles with Russ Cohen

    Set along the shores of a 200-acre lake, Tully Lake Campground in Royalston offers modern conveniences and superb recreational opportunities in a beautiful natural setting. Paddle around Tully Lake or take a day trip to nearby waterfalls and scenic overlooks. Or explore miles of hiking and mountain bike trails, including the 22-mile Tully Trail. For any outdoor adventure Tully Lake is your close to home wilderness getaway! The Tully region is home to more than 100 species of edible wild plants, many of which are more nutritious and/or flavorful than their cultivated counterparts. Join author and expert forager Russ Cohen on Saturday, July 11, from 2 – 5,  for a Trustees of Reservations  ramble in and around the Tully Campground to learn about at least two-dozen species of edible wild plants.  Free program, but pre-registration requested.  Telephone 978-249-4957, or email central@ttor.org.