Boston Flora

Tag: Roots

  • Sunday, October 4, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm – Preserving the Harvest

    In this October 4 Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop focusing on simple, shelf-stable preserving practices, we’ll move through three straightforward recipes–a pickle, a jam and whole-preserved fruit–and discuss safe ways to modify flavors. We’ll review the principles of hot water bath canning, and you’ll leave with a basic knowledge of how to replicate the process at home and adapt the recipes to your taste. All Berkshire Botanical Garden cooking classes are sponsored by Guido’s Fresh Marketplace.  The time is 11 – 2, masks required, and registration ($40 for BBG members, $55 for nonmembers) is available at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/preserving-harvest

    Janet Reich Elsbach, a home cook inspired by seasonal food, the particular cravings of those she loves to feed and the idea of bringing people together at the table writes about how the numerous things going on in the average life collide with making dinner on her blog A Raisin & A Porpoise. Her book, Extra Helping: Recipes for Caring, Connecting and Building Community One Dish at a Time, was recently published by Roost.

  • Monday, October 23, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Be as a Tree Planted by the Waters: The Magic of Roots, Leaves, and Everything in Between

    Hope Jahren, PhD, Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics, University of Oslo, will speak on Monday, October 23, 7:00–8:30pm at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretm. Trees are the oldest, biggest, and most successful creatures in the world. Using energy from the sun, and carbon from the air, they have thrived on land for more than four hundred million years. Hear about the amazing and unique methods that plants around us use to establish, grow, flourish, and defend themselves. Learn how plants are much more than food, medicine, and wood — they form the living, striving foundation of Planet Earth.

    Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist and the author of Lab Girl, her revelatory treatise on plant life and a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. Fee: Free Arboretum member, $20 nonmember. Member-only registration through October 15; open registration thereafter. Space is limited. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Monday, November 16, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Understanding Roots: Exploring Plants Underground

    In this Ecological Landscape Alliance webinar based upon Robert Kourik’s two books on the subject, Understanding Roots: Exploring Plants Underground uncovers one of the greatest mysteries below the soil surface―the secret lives and magical workings of the roots that move and grow invisibly beneath our feet.

    Roots do more than just keep a plant from falling over: they gather water and nutrients, exude wondrous elixirs to create good soil, make friends with microbes and fungi, communicate with other roots, and adapt themselves to all manner of soils, winds, and climates, nourishing and sustaining our gardens, lawns, and woodlands. During the presentation, Kourik will share enchanting and revealing root drawings, from prairies, grasslands, and deserts, as well as drawings based on excavations of vegetable, fruit, nut, and ornamental tree roots. Through detailed illustrations, Kourik will describe how roots work their magic to improve soil nutrients and will discuss soil microbes and their mysterious relationship to roots. This presentation will also explore the question of whether deep roots really gather more unique nutrients than shallow roots. Kourik will explain the latest research about the mysteries of mycorrhizal (good fungal) association. Practical tips will provide guidance on the use of inputs such as fertilizer, compost, water, and mulch to help plants flourish.

    Robert Kourik credits the School of Hard Knocks for much of his early life skills training (and numerous continuing-education credits). He learned various horticulture-related skills from the inside-out by working with clients throughout California and the rest of the country for over 25 years. During that time Kourik took on design projects of all sizes, shapes and textures—water gardens, paths and patios, elegant arbors, habitat gardens, innovative home playgrounds, outdoor barbecue areas, deer-resistant gardens and low-profile, attractive deer fences, to name just a few.

    In the late 1970s, with only a high school diploma, Kourik wrote a landscape book which has become a classic in its field and helped to define the genera of gardening now known as edible landscaping. Kourik believes that it was a lack of formal college training in horticulture that allowed him to envision and interpret this new interdisciplinary and original approach to gardening and landscaping. Throughout his career, Kourik has focused primarily on organic, natural, sustainable, integrated systems, permaculture and appropriate horticulture methods. Kourik is the author of several books including: Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally; Roots Demystified; Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates; and just published, Understanding Roots. Robert writes and interacts with landscapes in the San Francisco Bay area in California.

    Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers – See more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/understanding-roots-exploring-plants-underground/#sthash.YkPAX7nt.dpuf

  • Sunday, December 21, 6:00 pm – Roots

    In Roots, seasoned cookbook author Diane Morgan focuses on the overlooked history and uses of root vegetables, and how they can be used to great effect in all cooking, from savory to sweet. During a visit to a farmer’s market in Portland, Oregon, Morgan was struck by her wide eyed unfamiliarity with burdock root. This moment set her on a course to learn more about familiar and unfamiliar produce growing down in the dirt. She proclaims she wrote the book for selfish reasons, wanting a definitive, comprehensive reference book and cookbook containing simple and creative root vegetable recipes, and she’s done just that. In over 225 recipes that spread across 432 pages Morgan delves into the history and lore of 29 major root vegetables and provides practical insight from nutritional information to basic use & storage to seasonal availability. In her search to learn more about root vegetables, Morgan has created a book that is plainly insightful and powerful. Simply put, following her advice about the diverse range of root vegetables available will enhance your cooking confidence and satisfy your hunger, making the book an indispensable tool in your kitchen.

    A copy of Roots is included in the $185 price of this Stir Boston class, to be held at 102 Waltham Street in Boston on Sunday, December 21 at 6 pm. To better serve its guests, Stir is no longer accepting reservations over the phone. Please email reservations@stirboston.com with your class reservation requests. Emails will be responded to in the order in which they are received and should include the information listed below:

    First and Last Name

    Telephone number

    Classes you would like to request / Number of guests in your party

    Reservations are not confirmed until you speak to a member of the Stir Team and he or she collects your payment information.

  • Monday, July 18, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Herbal Dyes and Inks

    Spend a practical day on Monday, July 18, from 9 – 5 at Plimoth Plantation dyeing with wool and silk for embroidery, and preparing ink.  Under the guidance of renowned herbalist Christina Stapley, you’ll use fresh and dried dyes to illustrate dyeing methods and techniques and their results, while experimenting with leaves, roots, flowers, and barks of plants such as madder, woad, sumac, tansy, elder tree, logwood and elderberry.  You’ll look at the importance of herbs in embroidery, needlework, and tapestry design.  Bring your sketch pad.  Fee for Museum members: $95; nonmembers: $120.  Register at www.plimoth.org, or call 508-746-1622, ext. 8359.

  • Monday, August 31, 3 pm – One Long Table

    On Monday, August 31, come to a fabulous collaboration between Bay End Farm in Buzzards Bay and The Blue Room in Cambridge.  Know your roots!  Go back to the “farm to table” movement – the Bay End Farm is putting one long table back in the middle of the farm.  Join them amidst the beautiful farm of organic vegetables.  You will be sitting anywhere from just a few feet to a few miles from where your dinner will be sourced and only yards from where it will be prepared.  The hosts will be setting up the table out in the field and under the sun on a gorgeous late afternoon to feast on what the earth has offered. A farm tour begins at 3 pm, and the four course menu paired with organic wines dinner begins at 4.  Cost is $75 per person ($65 if a Bay End Farm CSA member), and please note this is a bring your own plate event.  The Blue Room chef Jorge Lopes will present his best work, and all proceeds from the dinner will facilitate Bay End Farm’s efforts to build their farm stand kitchen.

    Click here to make RESERVATIONS online. You will be directed to the Blue Room’s reservation page – book for 3 PM. Or you may call 617-494-9034 for directions and to reserve.