All Upcoming Events
Spicy Sauces and Piquant Powders :
A Cooking Workshop with Jonathan Soma
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
 
Get ready for the barbeque season by learning how to make hot sauces from peppers you can grow on your own windowsill. The workshop will begin with a tour of hot sauces across the world, starting with Louisiana's Tabasco sauce and ending up with Korean gochujang. After we have a fix on the different kinds of hot sauces and how heat can be balanced with sweetness and flavor, we'll move on to making our own concoctions. We'll uncover the history of sriracha and make a batch of our own version of the fiery Asian condiment, then move on to a more subtle fruit-based hot sauce inspired by Caribbean cuisine. We'll also survey spice blends from the East and West, mixing together a few of our own. Participants will be taking home 2 varieties of homemade hot sauce.
Jonathan Soma founded the Brooklyn Brainery in 2010 to help hobbyists everywhere get a leg up on their passions. He co-hosts the monthly food culture lecture series Masters of Social Gastronomy where he covers the science and culture of everyday foods. A culinary dabbler, Soma also leads classes on everything from Thai cuisine to homemade soda.
Doors open at 6:00pm;
Workshop starts at 6:30pm
Hort Members $30; non-members $50
Register online or email programs@thehort.org for more information
The Drunken Botanist
A Talk with Amy Stewart
Thursday, June 6, 2013
 
Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn. Thirsty yet? In The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol.
Of all the extraordinary and obscure plants that have been fermented and distilled, a few are dangerous, some are downright bizarre, and one is as ancient as dinosaurs--but each represents a unique cultural contribution to our global drinking traditions and our history.
This fascinating concoction of biology, chemistry, history, etymology, and mixology—with more than fifty drink recipes and growing tips for gardeners—will make you the most popular guest at any cocktail party.
Join us for a fun-filled evening as we host Amy Stewart and pour a few choice cocktails to celebrate.
Amy Stewart is the award-winning author of six books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers, The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential. She lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown. They own an antiquarian bookstore called Eureka Books and tend a flock of unruly hens in their backyard.
Amy has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines. She is the co-founder of the popular blog GardenRant and is a contributing editor at Fine Gardening magazine.
Doors open at 6:00pm;
Lecture starts at 6:30pm
Free and open to the public
Email programs@thehort.org to RSVP
Beginner's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables:
A Talk with Marie Iannotti
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
 
Why did Angela Nardiello sew pepper seeds into the hem of her skirt before setting sail from Italy, bound for America? Heirloom vegetables often have intriguing stories behind them, but in the end it all comes down to the flavors gardeners and cooks couldn't imagine being without. There is so much more to heirloom vegetables than tomatoes. These vegetables have traveled the world, yet you won't find many of them in the produce aisle. From the citrus notes of 'Aunt Molly's' ground cherries to the refreshing bite of 'Rat's Tail' radish, there are thousands of delectable vegetables waiting to be grown and enjoyed. Whatever your taste, there are surprises in store - tangy mouse melons, earthy white eggplants, mellow chestnut squashes. Marie brings us the fascinating stories, but more importantly, she tells us which varieties are the easiest to grow and the tastiest to eat, along with tips on how to cultivate each one successfully. If you've never tasted the meaty and gratifying 'Red Russian' kale or the unexpected sweetness of 'Apollo' arugula — or if you have tasted them and want more — The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables will tempt you into the garden.
Marie Iannotti has been growing, writing and talking about gardens since she planted her first radish seeds, as a child. She is the former owner of the heirloom seeding business, Yore Vegetables, where she did a lot of sampling. Her writing and photography has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and she has been featured on numerous radio shows and podcasts, including Organic Gardening, The Heirloom Gardener, Martha Stewart Radio and National Public Radio. Marie is a longtime master gardener and a former Cornell Cooperative Extension Horticulture Educator. She is the former editor of The Mid-Hudson Gardener's Guide, the current Guide to Gardening for About.com and she writes about her own garden at PracticallyGardening.com. Her next book, on northeast vegetable gardening, as well as the eBook and app, "A Gardener's Tour of the Hudson Valley", will be out later this year.
Doors open at 6:00pm;
Lecture starts at 6:30pm
Free and open to the public
Email programs@thehort.org to RSVP
To Eat:
A Talk with Joe Eck
Monday, June 17, 2013
 
For years, Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd lived and worked together, tending to North Hill, their spectacular garden in southern Vermont, which each year draws visitors from around the world who delight in exploring its seven carefully cultivated acres; and collaborating on books that centered on their passions for plants and animals, and for the soil that nourishes them both. To Eat was, unfortunately, fated to be their last collaboration: they were at work on this book when Winterrowd passed away in 2010.
To Eat is a celebration of their life together, a tribute to the garden they both loved and to the man who spent his life reveling in the fruits—literal and metaphorical—of his labor. As Eck and Winterrowd move through the seasons, considering the edible plants and vegetables appropriate to each, what shines through above all is their connection to the land and to each other. This is a celebration of life and the life cycle, of eating seasonally, of cultivating a meal from the ground up. It’s about abundance and also scarcity; about living in harmony with the world and accepting its offerings.
Informative, funny, and, above all, tenderly moving, To Eat is a fitting capstone to a profound partnership.
Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd are the coauthors of Our Life in Gardens, The Year at North Hill: Four Seasons in a Vermont Garden, and Living Seasonally: The Kitchen and the Table at North Hill. They are cofounders of the garden design firm North Hill. Eck lives in Readsboro, Vermont; Winterrowd died in 2010.
Doors open at 6:00pm;
Lecture starts at 6:30pm
Free and open to the public
Email programs@thehort.org to RSVP
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