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Leaflet eNewsletter
November 2015 Edition
In This Issue
Letter from the President
Festival of Trees
November Hort Hints
New tractor will help staff
Book Review
Calling All Young Horticulturalists!
Winter Workshops and Classes
Rediscovering the Historic Herbarium Collection in Our Mass Hort Library
Essay: 400 Down, 1200 to Go
Catching Up with the Last Half Century, Part 10
Notes from the Vegetable Garden
The Homemade Kitchen
Upcoming Mass Hort Events

Tue Nov 17 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Heirloom and Native Plants: A Living History

Wed Nov 18 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Cooking from the Garden with Alana Chernila

Thu Nov 19 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Tree Care for Autumn

Fri Nov 27 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sat Nov 28 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sun Nov 29 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Wed Dec 02 @ 4:00PM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Thu Dec 03 @ 4:00PM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Thu Dec 03 @ 4:00PM - 05:00PM
Children's Horticulture Workshop

Fri Dec 04 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sat Dec 05 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sun Dec 06 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Wed Dec 09 @ 4:00PM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Thu Dec 10 @ 4:00PM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Thu Dec 10 @ 4:00PM - 05:00PM
Children's Horticulture Workshop

Fri Dec 11 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sat Dec 12 @10:00AM - 08:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Sat Dec 12 @11:00AM - 12:00PM
Children's Horticulture Workshop

Sun Dec 13 @10:00AM - 06:00PM
Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Mon Dec 21 @10:00AM - 12:00PM
Winter Solstice Walk

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Our Friends Events



November 15, 2015
NEHLDA Fall Reception
Ikenobo Ikebana
Saturday, November 14, 2015     First Parish Church, 50 Church Street, Waltham MA    9:30 am - 2:30 pm
  



 Letter from the President                      

  Donate

Greetings!,

 

I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season.

 

At Mass Hort we are working to bring a magical event for the whole family to enjoy-- the Festival of Trees.

A special thank you to our Festival of Trees Committee, Gretel Anspach, Penni Jenkins and Holly Perry, who are busy with the details of the Festival, orchestrating a wonderful family event that will run from the day after Thanksgiving (November 27) through December 13. Bill Meagher, the donor and designer of "Snow Village," is working on his exhibit of models trains and holiday village vignettes that will triple in size for this year's enjoyment. Be prepared for "wow!"

 

Although the gardens have been put to bed for the season, a new piece of equipment has arrived...a tractor. Graciously funded by a foundation, our new tractor will help staff with the heavy horticultural work required to keep our gardens and grounds in good order for visitors.

 

Planning is underway for a great 2016 season in the gardens and in the classroom for you enjoy and learn more about this great pursuit of gardening. I hope you will spread the word about gift memberships  for people who would like to come, learn, and grow.

 

Please help us grow!

 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

 

Kathy 

 

Festival of Trees and Snow Village                              

Plans for the 2015 Festival of Trees are in full swing. This annual event takes place in the Hunnewell Building (trees) and in the Education Building (Snow Village) at Mass Hort's headquarters at The Gardens at Elm Bank. Opening day is the day after Thanksgiving, November 27. 
  
The trees are donated by individuals, organizations and businesses and the trees are usually decorated following a theme of the donor's choosing. Visitors 'vote' with raffle tickets for the tree(s) they wish to win. Many families divide their tickets among their children and it is fun to watch the kids try to select the tree they want the most. At the end of the event, the lucky ones take home their trees and decorations. We invite our readers to participate as well. To learn more, click here for flyer
  
The Snow Village became an enchanting addition to the Festival of Trees in 2014 when it was generously donated by Bill Meagher of Needham. This year it has been moved to a larger space, and Bill and other volunteers are busy building it. Model trains wind their way through villages and vignettes. Fenway Park is featured as well as a ski mountain, lots of skaters, Santa in the sky and other locations, an amusement park, New England and Dickensian villages and much, much more. Thomas the Tank Engine is also featured. This wonderful display has something of interest for all ages and cannot be missed!

TO DONATE OR SPONSOR A TREE:
Full information about how to donate (or sponsor) a tree is available at www.MassHort.org/Festival-of-Trees.  You can also call (617) 933-4988.
TO VOLUNTEER AT THIS EVENT:
Please CLICK HERE to volunteer at the event.
Betty SandersNovember Hort Hints

By Betty Sanders

www.BettyOnGardening.com

It's really fall now.  The leaves are going, going and soon gone.  But keep their goodness around.  Mow them into the grass to feed the lawn areas or, if you must gather them up, put them in your compost pile.   Shredded leaves will not suffocate grass or other plantings.  Chipped or shredded leaves will compost even faster and be at work improving your soil and helping to feed your plants next spring and for years to come.  You can also put shredded leaves under trees and shrubs and over perennial beds to help protect them from freeze and thaw cycles.

Mowing leaves into the lawn rather than raking adds nutrients to the soil
Mowing leaves into the lawn rather than raking adds nutrients to the soil
Planting bulbs
.  If you are like me, you may remember where you planted bulbs, but not what variety or even how many.  This year I'm planting over 1600 bulbs on my new property.  As you plant, make notes ("200 narcissus Arkle along front wall, 100 narcissus Hawera by viburnums, 50 Hyacinth Blue Note along the patio...")  then, in the spring, you can judge who looks the best, did the best or maybe did not grow the way you hoped.

Cleanup or not?  Remove plant material yes, but also leave some behind.  The seed heads of many perennials such as rudbeckia (black-eyed susan), native grasses, monarda (bee balm) and eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) provide fall and winter seeds for the birds.  You may have a few more volunteer plants in the spring, but you'll have more hungry birds ready to eat the new crop of insects that will be hatching.

Container gardens.  Our summer containers are gone, and our fall containers won't be looking so good after a couple of hard frosts.  It's time to empty them out and clean them for next year.  Reusing old potting mix may seem the frugal thing to do, but it's not built to last for years and may harbor diseases
Consider leaving up some of your seed-bearing perennials to provide extra food for birds
 or insect eggs.  Toss it and clean the container by brushing out the remaining soil and then washing it in a 10% bleach solution (a cup of bleach to a half gallon of water).  Allow it to dry and then store it in a garden shed, garage or basement and you are ready to plant it again in the spring.

If you have containers with evergreens planted in them, keep watering them until they freeze to help the plants survive the winter.  Use cut greens to fill pots too large to move to help brighten the area for winter.  But remember, you will still need to clean the pot before putting in new plants in the spring.

Summer bulbs.  All your summer bulbs - gladioli, dahlias, cannas and the like - should have been dug, dried off, bagged and tagged (what color was that one?) and stored for the winter. There's still time to put in spring blooming bulbs.  The daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths and other spring beauties you put in now will greet you with welcome color come April and May.  Just remember that the deer and rabbits think tulips are their Easter candy so choose your planting location with the need for protection in mind.
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You can see more of Betty's horticultural advice at www.BettyOnGardening.com.  Betty is also the 2015-2017 President of the 11,000+ member Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts.
 
 

New tractor will help staff maintain our beautiful gardens and grounds
 An addition to our tool kit
                              Tractor
In early October, Mass Hort staff was thrilled to learn that a foundation awarded Mass Hort a grant to purchase a tractor for our heavy horticulture work.   
Book Review                              

The Invention of Nature:  Alexander von Humboldt's New World
By Andrea Wulf
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015
  
Reviewed by Pamela Hartford
  
Alexander von Humboldt was an insatiable explorer and a natural scientist with a mania for data. Born in 1769 to Prussian parents, he was raised in Berlin and home schooled by tutors chosen by his conventional mother. Restless and chafing at the bit, he nevertheless dutifully fulfilled her expectation that he engage in traditional employment. Becoming a mining inspector for the Prussian Ministry of Mines, he indulged his interest in geology, engineering and travel, which fueled his passion for science and rewarded his penetrating curiosity.
  
When his mother died and he came into his inheritance, Humboldt was set free at age twenty-seven with a no-strings expense account.  On a ship loaded with forty two instruments - compasses, thermometers, altimeters, telescopes, a cyanometer, microscopes and several all- important barometers - he set sail for Venezuela.  The unexplored tropics beckoned.
  
Andrea Wulf's exhilarating biography knits together the varied and seemingly loose threads of Humboldt's scientific quests within a detailed narrative of his exploits. As an English educated German, Wulf pored through Humboldt's journals, thousands of letters, articles, speeches and research notes in both German and French (his preferred language for professional discourse). She mastered his cramped handwriting, and sifted through pages and pages littered with the nineteenth century equivalent of Post-It notes that short-handed references and ideas sourced from conversations and data. We learn how he connected the dots across the natural world, observing the relationship between flora, fauna, geology and climate, grasping the cause and effect of nature's and man's processes. These observations, based on his own data often collected under extreme circumstances, represented breakout big-picture thinking, a global view that we now take for granted, but was profoundly innovative at the time.
.
A section of Humboldt_s Naturgemalde_ illustrating the ecology of the Chimborazo volcano in the Equadoran Andes.
A section of Humboldt's Naturgemalde, illustrating the ecology of the Chimborazo volcano in the Equadoran Andes.
  
On September 14, 1869, the centennial of Humboldt's birth, commemorations were held across the globe. In Boston, Louis Agassiz gave a two-hour speech, sponsored by the Boston Society of Natural History, describing Humboldt's pursuit of knowledge in terms of American ideals. The celebration continued as a multitude of Boston's brightest lights repaired to Horticultural Hall to wine and dine before a preserved palm leaf that had graced Humboldt's coffin. (excerpted from New Yorker magazine, October 26, 2015)   Emerson declared Humboldt to be "one of the wonders of the world."
  
Humboldt was universally recognized as a visionary.  His pursuit was unusual and singular - he wanted to untie the "Gordian knot of the processes of life" for the sake of understanding, rather than gain.
  
Today, not quite two hundred and fifty years after Humboldt's birth, there are more places, plants, animals, minerals and natural phenomena named after Humboldt than any one else. Geographers, environmental historians, naturalists, geologists, botanists, ecologists, climatologists and oceanographers all know of Humboldt's path-breaking contributions to their respective disciplines.
  
John Muir enviously declared, "How intensely I desire to be a Humboldt." We would be living in an infinitely better world had Humboldt's vision lead to the paradigm change we so desperately need now.
  
  
  
Pamela Hartford is a landscape historian, writer and preservation consultant living in Salem, MA.

Calling All Young Horticulturists!                               

Mass Hort wants young growers to enter the Junior Competitions at the upcoming Boston Flower and Garden Show! Did you know there are Junior level competitions in photography, amateur horticulture and floral design?

We are excited to prepare young growers to bring a plant to show in this year's Am Hort competition. Children between the ages of 8 and 16 can attend one of three workshops being held during Mass Hort's Festival of Trees. Mass Hort educators will lead will show children how to take cuttings, prepare those cuttings to create new roots and then transplant them as they get larger.

Children will be sent home with two already rooted cuttings with instructions for their cultivation and care. They will also be encouraged to enter their young plants in the Amateur Horticulture competition at the 2016 Boston Flower and Garden Show! All materials, including two new plants to take home, are provided.

Learn more and register by following these links! Three workshops are being held on the evenings of Thursday, December 3 and December 10, as well as Saturday morning, December 12. You need to attend only one!
All materials are provided. Workshop fees include the price of admission for one adult to the Festival of Trees. $15/children or grandchildren of members, $20/children or grandchildren of non-members.
Children under 12 require a chaperone.

Register today online or call Katie Folts, 617-933-4973.
  

  
Winter Workshops and Classes                               

It's dark, and the urge to hunker down for the winter has already started. Bring some color and life to your winter. Learn something new and get out of the house! Join us for a class or workshop at Mass Hort.

We are excited to host Alana Chernila, cook book author and writer. Alana's second cookbook, The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure, was published last month. Come to her book signing and lecture at our site on November 18, from 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Alana will talk on how to help our children become more confident, able, and independent in the kitchen. She will share exciting ideas, strategies, and simple ways to empower kids in the kitchen. This night will be useful for parents, caregivers, and educators of children of all ages.

Register now! $20/members, $25/nonmembers.  Light refreshments will be provided.

We have two more lectures in our Thursday Night at the Hort Series this year. On November 12, 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Betsy Williams will present "Prepping for the Holidays." Learn how to select and use fresh produce, woody herbs and locally grown evergreens to decorate your home for the holidays. The talk will cover gathering, preparing and using seasonal plant material as well as mechanics and containers. Register now or at the door.

Scott McPhee of Harrison McPhee, Inc. and the 2014 recipient of the Massachusetts Arborists Association VISTA Award will give you the checklist to prepare your trees for the onset of winter. He'll show you how to troubleshoot common issues, and tell you when to call in the professionals. Register now for "Tree Care for Autumn," November 19, 7:00 p.m.-8:30pm.

We will also run several children's workshops during the Festival of Trees (read more about that in "Calling All Young Horticulturists!") and a pair of walks given around the winter solstice. Mark your calendars!
 
Rediscovering the Historic Herbarium Collection in Our Mass Hort Library                              

A garland of seaweed with shell flower oramentation
A garland of seaweed with shell flower oramentation
by John Forti,  Director of Horticulture and Education
  
For centuries, herbaria have been made as educational tools to connect people to the plants in the natural world around them. As samplers made by young women displayed a toolkit of stitches, letters, numbers, and a depiction of place, herbaria were created as artful interpretations of the plants around them.

In the 19th Century, Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau kept herbaria that help us better understand climate change and plants of place in the 21st century.  Most herbaria were collected and created by young people at a time when domestic botany required that they knew thousands of plants for food, medicine and textiles.  In the process of collecting, pressing and mounting specimens for herbaria, the young naturalists gained greater knowledge through conversation as they 'botanized'. They documented specimens with their common and Latin names, quite often stating the location where they were gathered and how the plant was used.
Detail of a century old specimen of pressed milkweed and a companion illustration
Detail of a century old specimen of pressed milkweed and a companion illustration
  
Throughout my career, I have used the skills of making an herbarium as a way to engage kids in their own back yards and schoolyards.  At a time when studies show children know fewer than 10 animals and plants in their own back yards, I have found revisiting this lost art offers teachers and families a free and fun way to learn together about the natural world.  Joining our own horticultural knowledge and the world of online resources, this ancient garden craft has new relevance as a tool to bring the generations together around a love of the landscape.
 
Julie McIntosh Shapiro examing a rare herbarium bound in a shell
Julie McIntosh Shapiro examing a rare herbarium bound in a shell
Mass Hort's Librarian, Maureen Horn, and I retrieved our Herbaria and seed collections from the archives, knowing that they would serve as primary sources for our Massachusetts based gardens, landscapes and educational programs.  Julie McIntosh Shapiro, Digital Carpologist from the Harvard University Herbaria project, helped us to assess the 8 boxes from our collection.   They included binders focusing on the 'botany of the back bay', single and bound specimens and corresponding illustrations, boxes of seeds with corresponding teaching aids, and some very touching notes from the past.  More time will be necessary to consider the best way to document the collection, but our hope is that we will be able to digitize the collection as has been done with our botanical prints.
 
400 Down, 1200 to Go        

 
By Neal Sanders
Leaflet Contributor
 
There is an unwritten responsibility that one spouse is expected to be supportive of the other.  You're supposed to see their point of view, offer them encouragement, and be their cheerleader.  If they come home one day and say, 'I think we ought to move to Paris', you should hear them out.
This week, I am exploring the limits of supportiveness, and at what point it
We had duffel bags full of bulbs
becomes, well, enabling.  You see, I am now helping plant 1600 spring bulbs.
It all began back in the halcyon days of early September when all things were possible.  Betty sat down with bulb catalogs and a map of our property.  She read the breathless descriptions ("Poeticus Narcissi, traditionally known as the 'Poet's Narcissi', are fragrant favorites with very large, white perianths with small, dainty cups in contrasting colors. Great naturalizers from yesteryear!) that invariably conclude with the uplifting, "Narcissi are The Art & Soul of Spring."
She would read me a description and show me a photo.  I would agree that I was looking at the most beautiful daffodil/hyacinth/allium ever bred.  She would say, "Wouldn't that look great outside the kitchen window," or "That would be perfect in the Magnolia bed," and I would aver that she had chosen the ideal bulb for the perfect location.
Even after Betty tallied up her bulb 'wish list' and said, "You know, we're looking at more than a thousand bulbs here," I continued my reassurance that we were not overreaching. 
"We've got all autumn to plant the bulbs," I said.  And promptly forgot about the whole thing.
There is a point, though, where 'being supportive' becomes 'enabling'.  Betty finished her bulb order and submitted it.  I know I crossed the line because, on October 20, three enormous boxes appeared in our driveway, accompanied by a few choice words from our UPS driver.  Each box weighed more than 60 pounds.  Inside were duffel bags full of bulbs.
As the whole world knows by now, we are installing a new landscape at a new house.  As such, it is reasonable that we are buying inordinate numbers of things like spring bulbs because, well, we have a lot of space to fill.  And, we're filling those spaces in unusual ways. 
I removed the soil_ Betty planted
I removed the soil, Betty planted
Here's how it works: using a rake, Betty will sketch out an amoeba-shaped plot for bulbs.  My job is to remove the soil in that plot down to a depth of eight inches; leaving, of course, at least an addition inch of soil so that the bulbs have a 'cushion' for their roots to sink into.  After a top layer of mulch is pulled aside, I carefully shovel out the soil and place it in seven or eight large tubs, breaking up any clods I might encounter.
Betty's job is to place the bulbs, overspread about two inches of soil, add lime and fertilizer, and then refill the balance of the bed and re-place the mulch.  On a good afternoon, it will take about 90 minutes start-to-finish to excavate, plant, and re-fill a 100-bulb bed.
That assumes, of course, that there's nothing to go through but soil. Back in May we paid a landscaping contractor to excavate out the 'builder's crud' from our new home and replace it with high-quality loam.  'Builder's crud' is almost too kind a term: what we had on our property was a mixture of large and small rocks with just enough soil to disqualify our site as a quarry.
In a short-sighted effort to save a few dollars, I didn't press the landscaper to dig
This 8-foot long trench along the retaining wall took 3 hours to dig and yielded 3 cairns of rocks
This 8-foot long trench along the retaining wall took 3 hours to dig and yielded 3 cairns of rocks
as close as feasible to a retaining wall at the front of the lot.  Instead, I said, "Oh, six feet from the wall is fine.  We're just going to plant some shrubs there."  We left that particular strip of crud in place.
As we began planting shrubs this summer, we realized that the area atop that retaining wall is our 'welcome to the garden' statement.  Each day brings hundreds of walkers, joggers, and cyclists by our house and the plants atop that wall are the first thing everyone sees.  We put considerable effort into making that area beautiful with an array of shrubs and perennials.  And now we have several hundred bulbs earmarked for that area.
If it takes 90 minutes to excavate and plant an area that is pure loam, how long does it take to excavate an area that is pure rock?
On two afternoons I have devoted multiple hours to digging out a few pathetic feet of crud.  Just shoveling out the debris is arduous after which each shovelful has to be sifted for rocks, roots, metal rods, unexploded ordnance, and whatever else was deposited on the site.  As of this writing, there are about 100 bulbs planted along the wall.  By the time it is completed, the number of hours consumed for that one area will be almost as much as that required for the rest of the property.
But there is unmistakable beauty in what we are doing.  Beginning in April, 200 crocus will begin blooming, to be followed quickly by nearly a thousand daffodils and then 400 muscari and hyacinths.  For six weeks, our property will be a riot of color and texture from those bulbs, after which the shrubs and perennials take over.
Sometimes, being supportive is accepting that your spouse's vision is better than your own and, if it becomes 'enabling', then so be it.  Yes, there's a lot of backbreaking work to execute that vision, but then that's what autumn is for.
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Neal Sanders is the author of nine mysteries.  His tenth, 'How to Murder Your Contractor' will be published in early 2016.  You can find Neal's books at Amazon.com and in bookstores.
 
Catching up with the Last Half Century                          
Maureen Horn, Librarian

Part 10 - 1980, a Time for New Ideas
 
     
Horticultural Hall_ Boston_ MA
Horticultural Hall, Boston, MA
The 1979 celebration of the Society's 150th anniversary unleashed an energetic spirit that directed its leaders and members towards a desire for change.  To guide them in their decision making, they hired the O'Donnell Development Company to interview constituents and make a report on what administrative steps they should take.  Roger Dane, the Executive Director had already set his goals: He wanted to create a surplus fund for 1980.  He also wanted to coordinate activities with other non-profit organizations to avoid overlap and to cooperate rather than compete.
     
President W. Robert Mill announced that in the new year he would appoint a committee to look into the role of the volunteer in the programs of the Society.  The Treasurer, Walter Pressey, emphasized the importance of a successful magazine in the future visibility to the programs, but interviewers reported that their survey of 250 "men-in-the street" revealed that Horticulture was not familiar to them.
     
The development company's president, John O'Donnell, asserted that to achieve success, the Board must be more involved in fund raising. Passivity would be discouraged in the future. Specifically, the O'Donnell Report concluded that 1/3 of the annual fund should come from the Board because foundations are impressed by 100% participation from the Board. The firm cautioned, however, against allowing Trustees to control programs with their money. An important note was about the need for an in-house development person at the Society.
     
By April, Director Dane's dream of a surplus seemed to be a reality.  The attendance at the Spring Flower Show was 129,000, breaking the 1946 record that was achieved in the euphoria following the end of World War II, and its revenue came in at $180,000.
     
The 1979 celebration was the catalyst for maximum participation from the membership.  President Mill oversaw the formation of seven committees, each with an average of eight people: Long Range Planning, Volunteers, M. H. S. and the Arnold Arboretum, Board Giving, Special Gifts, Corporate Giving, and Membership, the last four established at the suggestion of O'Donnell Report. The president also envisioned a new mission for the Society, as a source of fine plants. For this purpose, a Plant Propagation Committee would raise unusual plants and offer them for sale in the Gift Shop.
     
The 150th anniversary seems also to have been a spur towards jettisoning some of the long-held attachment to material possessions.  It was in 1980 that the Society sold several of its rare books and undertook serious inquiries into the sale of Horticultural Hall. A general discussion revealed that Board members regarded the condition of its headquarters as a major issue, requiring priority attention.  The Long Range Planning Committee declared that out of a sense of duty, they would inform their immediate neighbors, such as Symphony Hall and the Christian Science Church that a analysis of the building's value was being undertaken.
 
Notes from the Vegetable Garden                              
By Susan Hammond

 
How long is the gardening year?  As long as you want it to be!
 
Normally, by the time the November Leaflet is published, we are done with harvests and can give you our harvest totals for the year.
 
But this year, we can't do that yet - even though October 29th was the last of our scheduled, twice a week food pantry harvests. That's because this season, we made some changes to our garden.  Instead of timing all of our crops to end in October, we planted some crops that are very cold tolerant, and are using other season extension
 techniques in the garden so that a mid-November harvest can be made.
 
Even though we didn't take everything, we still
 had plenty to harvest on the 29th - everything from baby lettuce to traditional "storage" crops like beets, salsify, and Danvers carrots. 
 
And earlier in the month we harvested some of our new specialty crops, like the Yacon (Bolivian Sunroot), which produces sweet, juicy tubers.   This plant is grown like a dahlia, and we're hoping to nurse the tubers through the winter in a cool, dark place so we can plant them again next spring.
 
We know that we are at around 3500 pounds so far, and that total would not be possible without our dedicated garden crew.  We have everything from Lifetime Master Gardeners to community volunteers who were new to vegetable gardening this year.   And they do everything from planting, watering, and weeding, to preparing produce for distribution.  Washing produce can be a messy job, and we're very fortunate to have a volunteer willing to take it on week after week!
 
Even though we are no longer working in the garden twice a week, there's still plenty to be done. We're cleaning up the remains of crops that are finished, planting cover crops, and adding compost to beds. We're packaging up seeds that we've saved from our own crops, so we can plant them next year. We're also working on next year's garden plans, and will be planting garlic soon.
 
What will our final harvest total be?  Look for that in the December issue of the Leaflet.

The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking and Pleasure                               

 
Mass Hort welcomes Massachusetts author, Alana Chernila at 7:30PM, Wednesday November 18th, as she talks about including your kids in the kitchen and working with the freshest local foods. A native of Great Barrington, MA, Alana grew up cooking in her grand parent's Inn, where the need to be creative with what you have at hand honed her unique cooking style. A young mother with a passion for cooking with unusual ingredients, Alana started conveying origina
l recipes to customers while working at the Great Barrington Farmer's Market for Indian Line Farm, where she is a CSA member. 

This quickly morphed into a
popular blog, Eating From the Ground Up, and a successful first cookbook released in 2012 that presented fun and easy recipes for foods people would normally buy in a grocery store. Her second book, The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure, hit the stands this fall with a focus on do-it-yourself projects and making the most of fresh local harvests. Don't miss the chance to spend an evening with this engaging speaker learning simple techniques for making your favorite staple foods!  Sign up today!