It’s a bittersweet Tuesday afternoon at The New York Botanical Garden. On the one hand, we’re sitting square in the turkey-shaped shadow of what is undeniably my favorite holiday. On the other–and I say this with my own little chorus of sighs–2012′s weekly Greenmarket comes to its delectable end on Wednesday, November 21! I know, it’s a heartbreaker. But if you’re going to draw the curtains on your farmer’s market (or put it on hiatus, as in this case), there’s no better time for a food-centric going away party than the day before the year’s most extravagant meal.

If you haven’t already run your obligatory supermarket gauntlet, think about skipping this year’s cavalcade of canned goods and making your way to the Garden for a selection of the freshest fruits and vegetables you’ll find anywhere. Add the Greenmarket’s gourmet pies, breads, and other baked goods to the mix, and all you’ll need to hunt down is a turkey (figuratively speaking, of course–our wild turkeys are of the “look but don’t touch” variety).

Last week’s penultimate Greenmarket highlighted squash, scallions, chard, turnips, apples, pears, spinach, and a rainbow of potatoes. On the baked front, we enjoyed plenty of pies and cookies, cupcakes, muffins, a selection of jams to smear on them, and apple cider to wash it all down. And that’s just what I could fit into this brief post without going overboard; there’s more than enough left of the fall harvest to set your Thanksgiving table and then some.
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.

Sassafras albidum

When I was a kid, there was an old-fashioned candy store in a nearby town. The counter was lined with glass containers full of candy canes in every flavor you could possibly imagine, along with curiosities that have become harder to find as the years have passed. Original birch beer, black cherry soda, and old-fashioned root beer were a few of the “unusual” drinks available in this candy store, full of reminders that our diet was once intimately connected with the land and its bounty.

As I strolled through the Forest in The New York Botanical Garden, I found a woodland area full of ingredients from the past. At the edge of the Forest are many stately black cherries (Prunus serotina). These trees reach 50 to 60 feet tall, making them hard to miss. In the spring, the flowers are a haven for hungry bees, and in the fall, the black cherries are covered with edible–if bitter–fruit. These are generally used as flavoring for soda, liqueurs, and preserves.
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I know we said that this year’s kiku exhibition would only run through Sunday, November 18, but we’ve had a change of heart; the display is just too popular to draw the curtains on it! For now, the Bourke-Sullivan Display House will keep its doors open to the public through at least this Friday, November 23.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen