LFGC Meetings

 

 

 

GCA Club Photography Show and Luncheon

 

Thursday, 

December 5

11:00 a.m. Meeting

11:30 a.m. Show  

Luncheon following

Onwentsia Club

 

Click here for the full schedule.

   

 

Thursday, January 9

9:00 a.m. Coffee

9:30 a.m. Meeting

 

Hosted at Gorton Community Center

 

"Whom Does Our Fundraising Serve?"
  

 

 

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS  

 

 

CARBONFUND.ORG
Holiday Season Environmental No-Brainer


SHOW OF SUMMER

 June 20-22, 2014

Chicago Botanic Garden

Photography Division Schedule Information

You may want to

work on an entry over the next several months. There will be a class with weather, a class with farmers markets, festivals and foods - no

plant material required in either. There will also be a class including natives or prairie, a manipulated photo with plants, an architectural treasure (no plant material), a diptych with two views of the same garden, and a class with trees. Please pass this along to fellow photographers. The complete schedule will be out soon.

Happy shooting.

Debbie Ross

Chairman, Photography Division,

Show of Summer


Hort Schedule
Information
 

Click here for the 

 full schedule.

Barbara Kehoe, Chairman,
Horticulture Division, Show of Summer
 and Garden Guild of Winnetka member 

 

__________

 

 

GCA VISITING GARDENS

Springtime in the Bluegrass: Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky

May 18-22, 2014

From the rolling bluegrass-covered hills of this legendary horse country and the grandstands of two of America's most storied thoroughbred

racing tracks to the Bourbon Trail, you will come to appreciate Kentucky's

unbridled spirit and the beautiful countryside lying between Louisville

and Lexington. Click here for additional information.

 

Europe: The Low Countries in Bloom

June 15-27, 2014

The flourishing gardening tradition of the Low Countries

is perhaps insufficiently appreciated worldwide and this unique tour -

specially designed for members of the Garden Club of America -

should be an eye-opener for even the keenest visitor of European gardens.  Click here for additional information.

__________

  

October Meeting: Page Dickey

How her garden changes with life's passages

Host, Louellen Murray with   guest, Page Dickey

Page Dickey, a dear friend of Craig Bergmann's, came to us from upstate New York to expound upon her garden at "Duck Hill" and her eighth book entitled, Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden.  

"Duck Hill", located in North Salem, NY, 60 miles north of NYC, was humbly and humorously named for the resemblance of its rolling topography to a duck. The 29-year-old garden is ever-changing with Page's knowledge of plant material, life, the climate, pet personalities and a new husband. Her journey reminds me of something that I learned years ago from J. Lidden Pennock, a very well known florist and gardener in the Philadelphia area: Gardens are works of art that continually evolve as we change and grow. Thus, Page's garden has evolved many times.

Throughout her presentation she showed slides of niches that she had completely transformed two, three or more times. She took out an entire area of woodies and herbaceous material and enthusiastically started all over again. The audience gasped at the slide that showed the beauty of the "before" garden, but then "ahhhed" at the slide of the new garden. In other areas, such as around the pool, she gave up and just let the natives intertwine with the roses. She seems to be content for now and refers to her garden as, "blowsy, no longer crisp." I particularly enjoyed hearing her say she sees herself as the steward of the garden and not the owner. She is a true gardener, who enjoys sharing her knowledge learned through trial and error.

Her garden is open to visitors many times throughout the year. She met Craig during a Garden Conservancy Open Days tour. She also befriended Gregg Lowery, proprietor of Vintage Roses in California. Gregg attended our meeting and enjoyed seeing Page's slides of the many roses purchased from his collection. Some of the varieties were as follows:

• Rosa pimpinellifolia (Burnett Rose): pretty hips with red branches in winter
• Rosa glauca: prominent plum/grey green leaves and pink flowers
• Rosa dupontii: white flowers, plum-like hips
• Sarah Van Fleet: a rugosa hybrid
• Seagull: a climber
• City of York Rose
• Rosa villosa (Apple Rose): grey leaves and beautiful hips

We also enjoyed hearing how Page incorporated her new husband's need for a space of his own in the garden. He is an avid gardener and loves to cook so, it became quickly apparent that Page needed to modify the garden again. A charming new sanctuary with office was built a short distance from the original farmhouse, overlooking a working vegetable garden and providing ample head and elbow room for the charming new husband. The happy marriage evolves just as the garden continues to adjust to Page's life's changes.

The enthusiasm for her garden and her love of sharing her journey through her books and presentations were well received by all who attended. It is wonderful and calming to know that we are not the only ones struggling with what to plant and the need for change. Page embraces her mistakes and does not feel guilty ripping out swaths of garden as it becomes overgrown and inhospitable. Gardening is a process, full of personal challenges and made more enjoyable through sharing. Page exemplifies this and what gardening is all about, an ever-changing form of art.

Submitted by Charenton Drake

Edited by Louellen Murray

November Meeting: Joel Brammeier 

Alliance for the Great Lakes 

Joel Brammeier  Conserving the Great Lakes

"The mission of the Alliance for the Great Lakes is to conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource using policy, education and local efforts, ensuring a healthy Great Lakes and clean water for generations of people and wildlife." Joel Brammeier, President and CEO, discussed the quality of life available to us thanks to the vast natural resources of the Great Lakes. He addressed the most critical threats to the Great Lakes and the acute need for local collaboration as the most effective means to achieve conservation goals. Cooperation on both sides of the aisle is imperative to protect resources whose importance to man transcends politics. Joel's program was compelling and delivered clearly and concisely. He welcomed questions throughout the program and our well-informed and conservation-minded members did not disappoint.

Lake Forest Beach from Forest Park

Discussion of sediment plumes suffocating the Great Lakes, zebra and quagga mussels depleting the nutrients in the water and destroying fish species, Asian carp lying in wait at the gateways to the Great Lakes and the hazards of proposed crude oil shipping over these inland lakes seemed particularly alarming from where we sat overlooking such beauty. But Joel spoke with a sense of optimism based on stewardship projects that have shown success. He urged greater cooperative involvement from communities on the Great Lakes and emphasized that the conservation of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff's ravine and bluff ecology can be one link to improved health for the lake we need and cherish. Ravines, lakes, ecology, conservation and LFGC...sounds like an ideal match to me. 

Submitted by Maggie Coleman

Lake Forest Garden Club History Book

Kim Coventry presentation at December Meeting

Kim Coventry will present a short program at the December 5th meeting, preceding the opening of the Photography Show and Christmas Luncheon. Kim is managing editor of the forthcoming LFGC history being written by Distinguished Member, Arthur Miller. The production of the book was announced at the December 2012 meeting and for over a year Kim, Art and the book committee of Pam Hull, Tica Marquardt and Ellen Stirling have been thoughtfully and diligently at work on the project.

Kim is a native of Northern California, she received a BA in Art History from the University of Redlands, and an MA in Art History (with a focus on ancient art) and Museum Studies from the University of Southern California. After moving to Chicago in 1986, Kim worked in museum administration at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. She later worked in the university's department of rare books and manuscripts, where she oversaw exhibitions and conservation.

In 1992, Kim founded The Coventry Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the publication of quality books. For twenty years she has collaborated with an eclectic group of clients on wide a range of publications including: Barrington Hills Country Club, John H. Bryan, Corwith Hamill, Crab Tree Farm Foundation,First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, Museum of Science and Industry, Newberry Library, Northwestern University, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Robert D. Stuart, Jr., University of Chicago, and the Woman's Athletic Club.

She was recently named Executive Director of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. She serves on the board of the Poetry Foundation. She is also active in the Caxton Club of Chicago (whose exhibitions committee she chaired and publications committee she cochairs) and was past president of the Classical Art Society at the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim collects illustrated books of poetry and pursues her strong interest in the history of Chicago, especially of arts patronage and collecting.

Kim is author of Printing for the Modern Age: Commerce, Craft, and Culture in the R.R. Donnelley Archive (2006), The History of Crab Tree Farm (2012), and Cairo to Chicago: The Courtship and Marriage of Emily Birnie Smith and Harold Cornelius Smith (forthcoming). She coauthored, with Arthur Miller, Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest: Architecture and Landscape Design 1856-1940 (2003), and Walter Frazier: Frazier Raftery Orr & Fairbank Architects: Houses of Chicago's North Shore, 1924-1970 (2008).  

Projects

Market Square

Provide funding for the planting and maintenance of 3 seasons of containers; a LFGC civic beautification project since 2001.

Chicago Botanic Garden - Green Youth Farm

The Garden at Elawa Farm

Funds to support its Stewardship Saturday Program. Held the last Saturday each month, volunteers work on projects to beautify Elawa Farm and benefit the environment. This grant will be used to obtain plant material, soil amendments and other supplies to augment the herb and pollinator gardens and build bentwood trellises used throughout the site. Visit their website for more information.

Linking environmental education with physical  activity and literacy

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods 

(formerly Friends of Ryerson Woods)

Funding to launch StoryTrail, a program linking environmental education with physical activity and literacy. Pages of a book are transformed into signs and laid out on

A story board for StoryTrail

Allendale Green House and Horticulture Program

Funding to support student green house activities including plants and amenities such as classroom stools and benches.

Lake Forest Open Lands - Center for Conservation Leadership

Funding to expand educational and internship opportunities made possible by the LFGC's previous gifts. CCL would like provide its students additional interaction with Lake Forest College's Environmental Studies Department, launch in-school "re-greening" programs in neighboring communities, identify and place students in paid internships with other conservation organizations and increase educational opportunities with other regional conservancies. CCL programs for students encourage a practical understanding of conservation and responsible stewardship. Visit their website for more information.

Conserve Lake County

A grant to underwrite its growing Conservation@Home program. The program provides free visits and instruction to Lake County property owners interested in learning how to care for their gardens and lawns in more nature friendly ways, enabling owners to make choices that will result in clean water, rich soil and resilient ecosystems. Certification is awarded to property owners who reach a threshold of nature friendly landscaping features. Visit their website for more information.

Openlands Chicago

Funding to support monitoring at the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve, a 77-acre nature preserve located on the former Fort Sheridan military base, where the Bartlett Ravine has become an example for ravine restoration. Aspects of the 2014 monitoring program include continued evaluation of vegetation transects, tree canopy measurements, light level calculations, bird migrations and assessment of new taxonomic groups such as bats, lichens/fungi, butterflies and other species. Visit their website for more information.

Lake Forest Open Lands Association                                                         

Continued support for ongoing native habitat restoration along the bike path from Westleigh Rd to north of Ryan Place and from the McCormick Ravine entrance north to Westleigh Road. The initial clearing of this area was made possible with a 2012 LFGC grant. Visit their website for more information.

Leslie Dhamer and Stevie Boggess

Memberships and Scholarships

Alliance for the Great Lakes                       

Chicago Botanic Gardens                       

Chicago Open Lands                                   

GCA Scholarship Funds                         

GCA Judges Education

Lincoln Memorial Fund

Lake Bluff Open Lands

Lake Forest Open Lands

Lake Forest Preservation Foundation           

LF/LB Historical Society

Student Conservation Association

Submitted by Leslie Dhamer, Treasurer and Chairman Appropriations Committee and 

  November comes 

And November goes, 

With the last red berries 

And the first white snows.

With night coming early, 

And dawn coming late, 

And ice in the bucket 

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn 

And the kettles sing, 

And earth sinks to rest 

Until next spring.

Bien Fait Voyageur Rendezvous!

Maggie Coleman, Chair, Beth Kiernan,  Co-Chair, Molly South and committee member, Tricia Wood

October 19th was a blustery autumn evening. It was the perfect setting for a hearty meal and a warm and welcoming member Rendezvous!

Outside, the Onwentsia Club was lit with torches and a bonfire, and inside it glowed with 10 foot branches covered in colorful leaves, shimmering tall grasses, painted teasels and the flickering light of oil lamps.

Members arrived as trappers, Indian guides, Indian princesses and here and there a

woodsman or hunter. Whether the costumes were elaborate, silly, authentic or

minimal, every one added immense color and colorful conversation to the evening.

Cocktails were served in the Voyageur Rendezvous living room which was bedecked with Indian paintings and woodland prints, animal skins, trophy heads of antelope and deer, Hudson Bay blankets, bobcats, bearskins and regal looking birds of the north country. Each and every artifact was lent by generous members, including; Prue Beidler, Maggie Coleman, Jody Elting, Nancy Isham, Margaret Marshall, Ann Miller, Betsy Norton, Jane O'Neil, Consie Pierrepont, Karen Stensrud and Tricia Wood.

After cocktails Rendezvous revelers made happy tracks into the dining room apparently just as some north woods creatures had made tracks across the burlap tablecloths. The tables also had trails blazed of exotic mosses and pudding stone directly imported from Canada by Jody Elting. The miniature canoes that graced the tables were created by floral "guide" Betsy Hough. They were enchanting, complete with their nut and berry stands.

The Living Room decor was spectacular!

The menu was a Voyageur's dream starting with a beet salad, followed by pheasant pot pie and spicy carrot cake. Even after this some hearty Voyageurs rendezvoused after dinner for further refreshment, not wanting the evening to end.

The host committee of chairman, Beth Kiernan, vice chair, Molly South and committee members extrordinaire Alicia Crawford, Jody Elting, Elizabeth Pruett, Tricia Wood, Ann Miller, Marina Vernon, Gay Georgi and Sarah Georgi, want to extend a grande merci beaucoup to our members for their outstanding support and good humor! This event's net profit was over $27,000.

We share our hopes for future grand adventures and extend a wish for your moccasins to make happy tracks until the next LFGC "rendezvous".

Submitted by Beth Kiernan

"Trying to make things work in the government 

is like trying to sew a button on a custard pie."

Prue Beidler

A Legacy of Service

August 2012  Prue Beidler  Community Outreach for the   Forest Park Project

Prue has been recognized for her dedication to the work of the garden club with a Club Appreciation Award for the Market Square 2000 project with Crissy Cherry, the Zone Historic Preservation Award 2001 also with Crissy and the Willamay Benton Memorial Award.

She is a lifelong volunteer; a hospital candy striper at 14 and by her mid-20s she was joining nonprofit boards. She has served the Chicago-area whether as a donor, a nonprofit board member, or a speaker singing the praises of philanthropy and volunteering.

Among the not-for-profit organizations she has served as chairman are Chicago Children's Museum, Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, Jane Addams Hull House, the YWCA of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, the Chicago Wellesley Club, Lake Forest College Women's Board, Market Square 2000, and The Chicago Community Trust. In our town she serves on the Lake Forest Cemetery Commission, is an Elder and a lay liturgist at the First Presbyterian Church and serves as a board member of the Forest Park Project.

Prue has been honored many times, including the Mary Ann Hodgkins Volunteer Award in 1997, the Illinois Women of Achievement Award in 2002, Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area's Dr. Marvin Rosner Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2003, and the Chicago Foundation for Women 2009 Action Award. 

It is always a pleasure to celebrate the service of our members and to be able to say thank you for giving to the garden club and the community.

Submitted by Maggie Coleman

Let Us Give Thanks

by Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are;

For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as blossoms;

For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us we had them.

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as brussel sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends as complex as cauliflower and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening time, and young friends coming on fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind themselves around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.

For all of these we give thanks.

Ladies of the Club,

Here we are in that unusual time of year when the Halloween candy corn, available since the week after Labor Day was replaced by candy canes and chocolate Santas days before the actual night of trick or treating. Presumably some brown paper turkeys will find their way in front of the jingle bells to remind us of that present and sort of candy free holiday, Thanksgiving! Amidst this uninterrupted flow of marketing that assaults us from Labor Day through Christmas, it is difficult to find a way to remember what Thanksgiving and Christmas really mean. And then there's the opportunity to accelerate our intake of calories, even as our gardens go to sleep and we no longer have the opportunity to burn calories from weeding, digging and planting!

As we approach Christmas and the opportunity to entertain, it is important to keep in mind the useful advice of NYC Party Columnist, Marshall Heyman, when planning a holiday party; "When in doubt, don't hire a marching band."

And then there's another reminder from a Houston girl, Lynn Wyatt, which I suppose could be for party prep or just life in general; "Powder and paint make a girl what she ain't."

So, here's to the season of good intentions, making better lists, remembering, "Less is more" and being grateful for the bounty in our lives from our families and this wonderful community. As my mother would say, "We have a lot to say grace over." 

With thanks,

Robin

 ___________________________

Good Things

"I date everything before I freeze it, so I know when to throw it away."

 

David Peake's Milk Punch

a New Haven favorite

 

For each drink:

1 jigger Bourbon

2-3 tsps. sugar

1 jigger Myer's rum

some milk

some nutmeg

 

This is all to taste, some might prefer more rum and bourbon and less milk, but then it wouldn't be much of a milk punch, would it? Although there would be plenty of punch.

 

My father would fill a crystal pitcher with about 6 cups of milk and then add the good stuff. This made for a very jolly Christmas Day!     PRINT RECIPE  

Grammy's Spice Cookies

Melissa Clarke

 

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

210 grams sugar (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

240 grams all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)

10 grams baking soda (about 2 teaspoons)

5 grams ground cinnamon (about 1 teaspoon)

3 grams ground ginger (about 3/4 teaspoon)

3 grams ground cloves (about 3/4 teaspoon)

3 grams fine sea salt (about 1/2 teaspoon)

454 grams confectioners' sugar (about 3 3/4 cups)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons heavy cream or milk, more as needed

1 to 2 tablespoons Irish whiskey, optional

 

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick liners.

 

2. Using an electric mixer, beat 12 tablespoons butter with the sugar, molasses and egg until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Slowly beat in flour, baking soda, spices and salt.

 

3. Shape dough into walnut-size balls and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake until firm, about 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.

 

4. To make the icing, beat remaining 4 tablespoons butter with confectioners' sugar until smooth (go slowly so you don't create a sugar storm). Beat in vanilla and enough cream or milk, and whiskey if using, to make a spreadable frosting. Use on fully cooled cookies.

 

YIELD: About 3 dozen     PRINT RECIPE 

 

Champagne Mustard

Submitted by Kate Morris

 

3 eggs

2/3 c dry mustard

1 c sugar

 

Mix all in a GLASS double boiler; I use a Pyrex bowl in a regular pan.

 

Add 2/3 c champagne vinegar.

 

Whisk until thickens. Refrigerate. It continues to thicken when cool. Store in small jars in the refrigerator to give as gifts.      PRINT RECIPE 

___________________________ 

December 23, 1933

 

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS REMINDER

 

Since much of the additional waste during the holiday season comes from gift wrap and packaging, why not consider these alternatives:

 

Old maps

Sheet music

Colorful ads/pages from magazines

Baskets

Reusable tins

Scarves and Handkerchiefs

Leftover fabric or fabric gift bags

Lightweight wallpaper

Newspapers

Funny pages

Cake pan, pie plate or baking dish