Boston Flora

Tag: Mayor Menino

  • Thursday, October 27, 6:00 pm – 4th Annual Sustainable “Farm to Fork” Chef Dinner

    The Trustees of Reservations invite all who are interested to attend The Inn at Castle Hill’s 4th Annual sustainable “Farm to Fork” Chef Dinners, the first of which is being held on October 27th on The Crane Estate in Ipswich, located at 280 Argilla Road. Connection with local foods is a simple but important theme for this year’s series, in which top area Chefs will create a unique blending of the freshest local produce and meats from Appleton Farms.The Pre-fixe Four-Course dinners will be prepared by some of the top chefs in the region who have generously donated their time for this sustainable event series.

    The Thursday dinners will begin with an open bar and the first course of hors d’oeuvre served fireside in the Tavern located next to The Inn at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate at 6 PM, followed by a three-course meal with paired wines served at The Inn at Castle Hill. The event, including tips and taxes, is $125 per person, and features Marco Suarez (below), Executive Chef at Jamaica Plain’s newest neighborhood spot, Canary Square. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Proceeds will go to the ongoing preservation of The Crane Estate.

    Suarez is a member of Mayor Menino’s Urban Agriculture Working Group, which serves as an advisory board to the city on green and sustainable practices. Suarez’ background in urban agriculture plays a significant role in the sourcing and purveying of ingredients and greatly influences his culinary creations. His expertise on sustainability ties in with eco-conscious practices of Canary Square.Suarez began his culinary career washing dishes at a local restaurant in his hometown, Greenwich, Connecticut. After high school, he went on to train at the Culinary Institute of America. At the young age of 25, Suarez earned the top spot at Eastern Standard Kitchen in Kenmore Square. Most recently, Suarez was the Executive Chef at Bon Savor in Jamaica Plain. For reservations and questions, please call The Inn at 978-412-2555. Trustees of Reservations members are being offered a special $99 stay at the Inn on the night of the dinner, subject to availability. Visit www.theinnatcastlehill.com for room details, or to become a TTOR member.

  • Saturday, August 6, 10:30 am – Nightingale Community Garden Grand Opening

    As the interest in community gardens continues to grow rapidly nationwide and around the Boston area, Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN) will celebrate the grand opening of Nightingale Community Garden — the largest community garden to open in Dorchester — on Saturday, August 6, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon at 512 Park Street in Dorchester. Mayor Thomas M. Menino will join gardeners, neighbors, partners, and supporters to celebrate the first planting season of this remarkable new 1.5-acre garden in the heart of the city’s largest neighborhood. All are invited to come learn more about this new community treasure and enjoy music and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.

    Once the site of the former Boston Public Florence Nightingale School, and long gardened by a small group of local residents, Nightingale Garden was acquired by BNAN in 2006 as a permanent community garden. BNAN is a Boston-based nonprofit that works to preserve, expand, and enhance urban open space, including community gardens, greenways, and urban wilds throughout the City of Boston. After years of advocacy efforts and a thorough community planning and design process, renovations to Nightingale Garden began in earnest in late 2010 and were completed in June.

    BNAN has significantly expanded Nightingale Community Garden from 30 to 132 plots and raised beds under cultivation by more than 150 resident gardeners who represent a wide array of cultures and generations. The new garden features healthy, nutrient-rich soil, fully accessible paths, a complete irrigation system, benches and picnic tables, a tool shed, bulletin board, and a common gathering area with gazebo sun shelter that also captures rain water in barrels. The gardeners began planting on July 1, and even with the late start due to construction constraints, Nightingale Garden is already demonstrating its bountiful potential. Blueberry bushes were saved from the old garden and fruit trees will be planted in the fall. Nightingale is quickly becoming the hub of community gardening and urban agriculture in Dorchester, hosting programs focused on cultivating fresh healthy food, including gardening, cooking, and fitness workshops, as well as concerts throughout the summer. All programs and events are free and open to all gardeners and the public to enjoy.

    “Nightingale Garden is a real community success story,” says Valerie Burns, president of Boston Natural Areas Network. “The project represents years of steadfast efforts by residents, the city, BNAN, and many donors and partners to create a permanent garden where the community can gather and grow healthy food for years to come.”

    This garden renovation is part of a Dorchester-wide program called Boston Is Growing Gardens (BIGG), which BNAN founded in 2009 for the purpose of doubling the growing capacity of community gardens in the neighborhood and promoting the health and wellness of its residents. The BIGG program combines improved and expanded gardens with no-cost programs to build interest, participation and skill in growing fresh vegetables and inspire healthier eating and more active lifestyles. Through coordinated outreach and skill-building and mentoring programs, BIGG works to connect Dorchester residents to these new gardening programs and resources.

    “The opening of the Nightingale Community Garden in Dorchester signifies a big step forward in community-building, neighborhood renewal and preservation for the City of Boston,” Mayor Menino said. “Community gardens add many dimensions to our open urban space as they provide a viable source of inexpensive and healthy food and also promote regular physical activity and a rewarding personal experience.”

    Major funders for the project include the Boston Public Health Commission through its Community Putting Prevention to Work program, Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development Grassroots program, the Manton Foundation, the Claneil Foundation, the Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund, the Towards Sustainability Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Cabot Trust, and the Boston Foundation. Boston University School of Public Health provided in-kind services to insure healthy soil.

    If you would like to learn more about BIGG or how to get involved in community gardening in your Dorchester neighborhood, please contact BNAN at info@bostonnatural.org or call the BIGG Project Manager, Grantley Payne, at 617.542.7696 x21.

  • Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest 2011

    The July 15 entry deadline is almost upon us – enter Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest 2011, a citywide celebration of urban gardening, generously sponsored by Comcast and the Boston Herald.  All Boston residents, businesses, or organizational gardens are eligible, as long as the gardener is an amateur.  Gardens will be judged on the basis of general appeal (natural or formal), use of color, definition, neatness, the variety and quality of plant material, and garden hardware, furnishings, and art.  Submit photo of the nominated garden to Mayor Menino’s Garden Contest, Boston Parks and Recreation Department, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02118, along with your name, address, telephone number and email address, or apply online at www.cityofboston,gov/parks/gardencontest.  Categories:  Porch, Balcony, Deck or Window Box Garden; Shade Garden; Small Yard Garden (250 square feet or less); Medium Yard Garden (250 square feet – 500 square feet); Large Yard Garden (larger than 500 square feet); Community Garden; Vegetable or Herb Garden; Storefront, Business or Organization Garden.  Photographs or images submitted to the Boston Parks & Recreation Department become City of Boston property and may be used for press or marketing purposes.  Gardeners may only win one category per year.  For more information, call 617-961-3051.  Chitose Suzuki’s photo of South End garden below courtesy of www.townhousecenter.org.

  • Sunday, May 8, 10:30 am – 1:00 pm – Duckling Day Parade

    The Friends of the Public Garden will celebrate Mother’s Day with Boston-area families during its annual Duckling Day Parade on Sunday May 8th. Registration will begin at 10:30am at the corner of Beacon and Park Streets, and the parade will begin at noon. Based on the classic Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, Duckling Day is an annual event where children and their families retrace the steps of the beloved characters, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their family of eight ducklings. Led by the Harvard University Band, the parade will begin at the Boston Common on the corner of Beacon and Park Street. Children will parade through Beacon Hill dressed like characters from the story and end in the Public Garden near the famous duckling sculptures.

    Prior to the parade there will be plenty of family entertainment including a face painter, balloon artist and a magician. Mayor Menino will greet families at the end of the parade and actors from the Wheelock Family Theater will do a dramatic reading from the book. A donation of $25 per family is requested for all participants. For more information log on to www.friendsofthepublicgarden.org.  Robert E. Kennedy’s Make Way for Ducklings print, pictured below, is available through www.kennedyartgalleries.com.

     

  • Wednesday, March 23, 12:00 noon – Groundbreaking Ceremony at Brewer Fountain

    The Friends of the Public Garden, in association with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Boston Parks Commissioner Antonia Pollak, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of construction of the Brewer Plaza and surrounding green space near the Brewer Fountain by Tremont Street on Wednesday, March 23, at noon.

  • Wednesday, April 6, 6:00 pm – Urban Agriculture, the City, and Perceptions of Public Space

    Boston University presents Rachel Eden Black, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Gastronomy Program, in a free lecture on Wednesday, April 6 beginning at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, entitled Urban Agriculture, the City, and Perceptions of Public Space.  A reception will follow the talk.  Reservations are required – please call 617-353-9852.  The program is part of BU’s series “Taking Food Public.”  Food is a focus of highly intimate and personal behaviors, while at the same time serving as a central force in political, social, and economic behavior and discourse.  “Taking Food Public” epitomizes the slogan that “the personal is political” while exploring all the ways that people explicitly produce, consume, exchange, or construct meanings with food in public spaces.  Image of Mayor Menino at ReVision House, Inc.  from www.theepochtimes.com.

  • Saturday, September 25, 6:30 pm – Esplanade Centennial Gala

    Join honorary chairs The Honorable Governor Deval L. Patrick and First Lady Diane B. Patrick, and The Honorable mayor Thomas M. Menino and First Lady of Boston Angela F. Menino, and The Esplanade Association on the banks of the Charles River to celebrate the Esplanade’s 100th year of nature, culture and recreation.  A spectacular evening on the Esplanade will support the vital programs and projects of The Esplanade Association, including Children in the Park, Kids Fishing Club, Dancing Under the Stars, Yoga on the Esplanade, Four Season Walking Tours, Esplanade 2020, Community Boating Dock Replacement, Tree Care and Turf Improvement, Park Amenities, Historic Granite Landings Restoration, Esplanade Collection (Tree Adoption, Bench Sponsorship and Flower Planting).

    The Arthur Fiedler Achievement Award will honor Maestro Keith Lockhart, Conductor of the famed Boston Pops. Sponsorship opportunities ranging from $25,000 – $3,000 are available, and individual tickets are $750.  For more information, please contact June Mattioli at 617-227-0365, or email jmattioli@esplanadeassociation.org.

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  • Twilight Garden Party 2010

    We thank all the sponsors and volunteers for making the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s Twilight Garden Party 2010 such a success.  We especially thank Mayor Thomas Menino for gracing us with his presence.  A more complete description of the evening will follow, but we thought you would enjoy a few glimpses of the event, captured by member and photographer Calla Jean Schaefer-Adams:

    Mayor Thomas Menino, Garden Club Co-President Jolinda Taylor, and Twilight Garden Party Co-Chair Jessica Seth

    Goethe Institut, Decorated with Photo Murals of Back Bay in Bloom

    Mayor Menino with Magnolia Award Recipients from the Vendome Condominium

  • Saturday, May 22, 10:30 am – 2:30 pm – Victorian Spring Jubilee at Titus Sparrow Park

    Join The Friends of Titus Sparrow Park for an all day Victorian Spring Jubilee on Saturday, May 22. In honor of Randolph Fuller, whose generous donation made the new fence around Titus Sparrow Fence and the Union United Methodist Church possible, The Friends of Titus Sparrow Park is hosting its grandest event ever!

    Inspired by Boston’s 1872 World Peace Jubilee, you will travel back in time and celebrate the official unveiling of the fence with a Victorian festival. Come and learn how to dance to a Johann Strauss, Jr. waltz and be awed by magic tricks from this era. Sensational live music and dance groups will delight the audience  throughout the day while The Wheelmen dazzle you with their historic bicycles. Mayor Menino will make a special appearance to honor Randolph Fuller and his continued dedication to the preservation of Boston’s arts and historic beauty.

    10:30-11:00 – Union United Methodist Church Choir
    10:30-1:30 – Pony Rides
    11:00-12:00 – Period Games
    11:00-1:00 – Richard Potter Victorian Magic Act
    11:00-1:00 – Wheelmen Association on Vintage Bicycles
    11:00-1:00 – Face Painting
    11:00-1:00 – Horse Drawn Carriage Rides
    11:00-2:30 – Victorian Society Members in Costume
    12:00-1:00 – Waltz Lessons & Demonstration
    1:00-1:30 – Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
    1:00-2:30 – The Orchestra of Opera Boston, conducted by Gil Rose, Music Director

    The Park is located on 1.5 acres on West Newton Street in the South End, was reopened in 2005.  For a fascinating history of the Park, and its saving, log on to www.titussparrowpark.org.

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  • Saturday, April 24, 8:30 – noon – Alley Rally

    What’s a good way to get to know your neighbors and work in a little exercise as well? The Back Bay Alley Rally! This annual neighborhood cleanup will take place on Saturday, April 24th, in conjunction with Mayor Menino’s Boston Shines. Volunteers of all ages gather with Chairs Ellen Rooney, Chris Mitchell and Roseann Colot at the Clarendon Street Playground at 8:30 am to fortify themselves with juice, coffee and doughnuts provided by our local stores. We then divide into teams and — using the rakes, shovels and brooms provided by the City of Boston — volunteers fan out to clean the alleys and side streets. Your labors will end at noon, when everyone returns to the playground for a picnic lunch, with food donated by our local businesses.  Bring your own fashionable gloves, of course.

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