Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Programs and Events
Posted in Programs and Events on August 12 2013, by Matt Newman
We’ve made our way through cucumbers and gin, berry-tinged tequila, and the finest in Italian jazz, and as we near Thursday night’s final Cocktail Evening & Summer Concert of the Wild Medicine exhibition, we’re changing it up one more time. If you’re as much a fan of the smoky nuance of bourbon as I am, you’ll want to clear your evening schedule.
This round’s specialty cocktail is “Strawberry Fields,” a balanced mix of Crème Yvette, bourbon, ginger ale and lime—all matched to the tenor of Michéal Castaldo, our guest singer. Backed by his string quartet, he brings the classic standards of his Italian homeland to our stage for one night only.
Preface your evening out with a quiet walk through our Wild Medicine displays in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, strolling around the Italian Renaissance Garden and the many medicinal plants growing in our glasshouse. Afterward, grab your complementary cocktail and a few samples from Mike’s Deli and the Bronx Beer Hall, or bring a blanket and pick up a picnic dinner to enjoy the concert from the Conservatory Lawn. Those looking to keep the night moving will find a cash bar with wine, beer, food, and other refreshments available.
For MasterCard holders, we also offer a champagne pre-party beginning in the Shop in the Garden and moving on to Wild Medicine. We even offer discounts at famed Arthur Avenue restaurants nearby for those holding Cocktail Evening tickets. Because why wouldn’t you make a full night of it?
With only a few days remaining between now and our last Cocktail Evening on August 15, not to mention tickets dwindling, you may want to think about registering as soon as possible. You just bring yourself—we’ll bring the drinks!
Posted in Programs and Events on August 9 2013, by Matt Newman
Got your Family Dinner tickets yet? This Sunday, August 11, we launch into the second of three top-notch culinary adventures as a new batch of Mario Batali’s finest chefs team up to treat your appetite. Top billing this round goes to Chef Andy Nusser of Tarry Lodge and Chef Anthony Sasso of Casa Mono, with a rich, varied menu of fruits, vegetables, and savory dishes that make artful use of the grill. Time is running out, and so are open spots, so make a point of visiting Priceless NY to get your tickets.
Elsewhere in the Garden, Wild Medicine is only getting better with the flush of summer’s greenery. The Italian Renaissance Garden in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a daily-changing landscape festooned with the therapeutic plants, trees, and flowers of Italy’s garden at Padua. In the Ross Hall, we’re spotlighting the Music and Dance of the Renaissance with the talented bards of Early Music New York and The New York Historical Dance Company. The Library is a haven for history buffs right now with The Renaissance Herbal‘s collection of centuries-old botanical tomes. And in the Home Gardening Center, we’re going practical with water-wise gardening tips and plant placement advice. Whether you’re revisiting your seaside garden with new resolve post-Sandy, or just not sure what to plant in your backyard, our horticulturists have the answers.
We’ll see you out there!
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Posted in Mario Batali's Edible Garden on August 8 2013, by Matt Newman
From the Mozzarella di Bufala to the Pistachio Olive Oil Cake, the three-course, family-style meal cooked up by Chefs Cruz Goler and Frank Langello during July’s Family Dinner was a summer highlight for food lovers. But with different chefs come new and unique dishes! And without missing a beat, we’re leaping headlong into our second Family Dinner this Sunday, August 11, with the talents of another pair of Mario Batali‘s renowned chefs at the ready. With Chef Anthony Sasso of Casa Mono and Chef Andy Nusser of Tarry Lodge manning the grill, this is an unmissable al fresco experience.
Heirloom tomatoes, Shrimp al Ajillo, grilled apricots—there’s a lot going into this round’s menu. But I won’t spoil it all for you if you don’t want to see it; you can always find the full listing here. In the meantime, you’ll be greeted with expertly paired wines, sparkling Italian water, bookend cooking demonstrations set up around the dinner schedule, and hands-on gardening activities to keep your little ones occupied while the food is cooking up.
These photos from our July 28 evening, courtesy of Andrea House, should give you a taste of what you’ll enjoy this Sunday.
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Posted in Programs and Events on August 6 2013, by Jennifer Caplan
Jennifer Caplan is an intern for the NYBG Greenmarket this summer season. She is an environmental studies and international affairs double major at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is interested in gardening and cooking the fruits and vegetables purchased at the NYBG Greenmarket and her local market.
The New York Botanical Garden Greenmarket is in full swing this summer! The weather has been incredibly hot until recently, but that hasn’t stopped the farmers and the patrons from coming to the market, showing how important local food and healthy living is to the Bronx community. Each week, vendors and farmers come together under white tents at the base of Tulip Tree Allée, each excited to share their fresh-picked produce and delicious baked goods with the local community.
Every week at the market is a surprise! For months people had been waiting for those ruby red tomatoes to come in. Then one day they finally arrived at the market in all different shades and sizes, and they stay in season until September. Last week Migliorelli Farm showed up with cantaloupe—something no one was expecting! It is obvious that Mother Nature is the one who decides what produce will be coming in each week. SPOILER ALERT: Fingerling potatoes should be coming in soon!
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Posted in Programs and Events on August 2 2013, by Matt Newman
Water lilies are a summer staple here that you really can’t overlook. The Conservatory pools are replete with reds, yellows, purples, whites, and pinks, each bloom bobbing up from below to create a mosaic of unique hues. Surrounded by the tall (and enormous) lotus blooms bordering the pools, it’s a singular experience. But however majestic these flowers are, they’re not out of reach for the home gardener, even here in New York.
Join us this weekend at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for a home gardening demonstration focusing on the quirks and qualities of the water lily, discovering new varieties, container planting methods, and tips on how to keep your aquatic collection thriving.
Over in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, we’ll be hosting demonstrations of a different, slightly more palatable form—literally. Each Saturday & Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m. you can join Family Garden staff for cooking demos in the Whole Foods Market Kitchen. In summer, we’re especially fond of the sweet and stinky elements of the vegetable patch, so expect to touch on garlic and onions while you’re there. Chances are you’ll be able to follow your nose if you get lost!
Beyond our hands-on activities, you’ll find elements of our ongoing Wild Medicine exhibition woven into almost everything taking place in the Garden, whether it’s the Italian Renaissance Garden in the Conservatory, the classical music and dance in the Ross Hall, or the time-worn pages of ancient herbal manuscripts in the Library. So even if you’re just coming for a stroll in the Forest, make room in your schedule for a little bit more—you won’t regret it.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on July 31 2013, by Matt Newman
Can you guess what’s starting up in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections? It’s a time-consuming but rewarding process, best undertaken with a deliberate hand and a keen eye (not to mention years of training). And it lands this fall.
Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on July 30 2013, by Matt Newman
I might drum up a debate with this declaration, but the dream summer dining experience isn’t about a.m. iced coffees or candlelit cafe dinners under patio umbrellas. It is about noon brunch served on the balcony, tailed by an outdoor stint with the grill. It’s about eggs benedict, fresh fruit salad, and a tall Bloody Mary in a highball glass. And while I can’t say we’ll have the vodka or the Worcestershire sauce on hand at our Greenmarket, we’re all set with the tomato juice.
Ditto for the eggs, and plenty of baked foundations for that hollandaise-drenched staple. Though if the prepwork is too much for you, you could always leap on one of the savory quiches that have been showing up with Meredith’s Bread over the last few weeks. And for a late lunch, our other vendors are pulling their weight on the grill lately with potatoes, onions, corn, tomatoes, and so much more. All of which you can preface with the salsa verde you make from the plump tomatillos on sale, cozied up in their leaves like little presents.
While we can’t be sure just what will show up on the tables at this week’s Greenmarket, summer is a gift for gourmets, so don’t waste these mild temperatures ordering in with the blinds drawn. Instead, load up on fresh produce, put your kitchen to work, and get outside! How often do you have an excuse to wear sunglasses at a meal, anyway?
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Posted in Programs and Events on July 29 2013, by Matt Newman
This week, we’re joining ConEdison as a supporting partner in their Plug Into Summer Fun contest, an opportunity for you and your friends to win daily prizes at locations around New York City. Better yet, we’re the Grand Prize Partner this week! If you missed out on any of our recent evening activities, such as Sunday’s Family Dinner with Mario Batali’s Chefs or our last Wild Medicine Cocktail Evening, this is your chance to laugh all the way to the bank with free trips to our upcoming events. Pair that with tickets to one of our Halloween adventures in October, and you’re staring down a prize worth $600! Considering you could easily enter this contest while lying on your couch, the cost/benefit tally is definitely leaning in your favor.
Being the weekly grand prize partner has its perks, too—you don’t have to wait until the end of the week to enter, for one. You can enter up to three times a day from now through Friday, August 2, to give yourself the best possible chance of taking home the reward. And because each entry also puts you in the running for the daily prizes offered by ConEd’s other partners, there are plenty of chances to land some winnings. All told, the contest is offering 36 prizes in total and runs until August 23!
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Posted in Programs and Events on July 26 2013, by Matt Newman
As I write this, it’s barely lunchtime on Friday and already our stomachs are grumbling for Sunday night’s Family Dinner with Mario Batali’s Chefs. But if you saw the menu, you’d have no cause to blame us for jumping so far ahead of schedule. Chef Cruz Goler of Lupa and Chef Frank Langello of Babbo will be here and in rare form, slinging gourmet dishes in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden and talking shop with cooking demonstrations both before and after the meal. It’s a pretty well-rounded approach to highlighting everyone’s favorite pastime—eating well! And with plenty of crafts and activities to keep the kids happy (and perfectly paired wines to give your own mood that much more of a boost), it’s the quintessential al fresco dining experience.
There may only be two days until the event kicks off, but we still have a few tickets left for you to snap up, so don’t wait until the last minute. For more information on Family Dinners and everything happening during our summer Edible Garden events, head through to our official page—or zip right over to MasterCard’s Priceless NY registration page to grab a spot for Sunday night!
We’ll be prefacing our gourmand experience with an entire weekend of music, poetry, and hands-on activities centered around our ongoing exploration of Wild Medicine. Join us in the Ross Hall on Saturday, July 27, for the heights of lyricism hosted by visiting poets. The likes of Terese Svoboda and Rafael Campo will be joining us for dramatic readings of 16th-century classics, proving that the art of botany moves well beyond the beauty of the flower itself.
For the DIY dynamos among you, the Home Gardening Center should be high on your list of destinations, too. We’ll have an NYBG expert on hand to answer your questions on the pride of so many summer gardens: the hydrangea. Whether blue, pink, or somewhere in between, we’ll teach you how to grow and maintain these flower puffs to your liking.
There’s a whole lot more going on this weekend than I can jabber on about here, so head below for the schedule and we’ll see you on the grounds!
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Posted in Programs and Events on July 24 2013, by Matt Newman
Four days and counting! We’re ticking off the calendar squares ahead of summer’s first Family Dinner with Mario Batali’s Chefs, and with good reason: we’ve had the menu for weeks and it’s making us unbelievably hungry. Simple, right? Of course, the seasonal flavors and aromas are anything but. This Sunday, July 28, Chef Cruz Goler of Lupa Osteria Romana teams with Chef Frank Langello of Babbo, creating a kitchen super group in the NYBG‘s own Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.
If Mozzarella di Bufala, marinated strip steak, pistachio olive oil cake, and the fresh, kaleidoscopic flavors created by two of New York’s best restaurants pique your appetite, this MasterCard® Priceless event isn’t something you’ll settle for missing.
The three-course, family-style meal doesn’t skimp, providing expertly-paired wines, sparkling Italian water, and all the fixings necessary for a picture perfect night around the table. But it wouldn’t be a proper Garden event without some extra variety, so we’ve gone ahead and flushed out the evening with a romp in the Family Garden. Expect plenty of hands-on gardening crafts and activities to keep the little ones occupied, while we encourage adults to get their hands dirty, too. We’re also bookending the dinner service with cooking demonstrations by Mario’s Chefs, giving you a glimpse into the expertise that creates each gourmet recipe. Even better, you’ll be able to ask them questions as they go!
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We’ve made our way through cucumbers and gin, berry-tinged tequila, and the finest in Italian jazz, and as we near Thursday night’s final Cocktail Evening & Summer Concert of the Wild Medicine exhibition, we’re changing it up one more time. If you’re as much a fan of the smoky nuance of bourbon as I am, you’ll want to clear your evening schedule.
