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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Archive: November 2012

This Weekend: Segue into Winter

Posted in Around the Garden on November 23 2012, by Matt Newman

Hope everyone had a filling, drama-free Thanksgiving! And now, if you’re not rolling around in a turkey-induced malaise, or elbowing your way through a mob of frantic shoppers, there’s all the opportunity in the world to scoot your way up to the Bronx and escape that post-holiday madness! The NYBG is open both today and throughout the weekend, with a full schedule of holiday programming and late fall explorations on deck–and not a sink full of dishes or shopping cart in sight. Quite the opposite, in fact.

With the Holiday Train Show now entering its second week, crowds are still small and the weather is perfect for a trip to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Inside, our miniature city of familiar architecture and zippy model trains is growing by the year, with fresh New York landmarks added to the collection and a few stunning wonders of the world tucked into our expanded Artist’s Studio. Paul Busse has pieced together this meticulous world over the course of more than two decades, and his New York microcosm only continues to grow with his imagination.

Outside, the Garden is still a landscape painted with the occasional fall hue, especially in the Forest. So get out there and join our expert Garden Tour Guides for a tour of the 50-acre woodland, the only old growth, native forest remaining in the five boroughs. You might even catch a few vibrant leaf displays before autumn doffs its hat. And even if much of the color is drifting off, not all of the season’s beauty is wrapped up in the trees: heads up for the many graceful, singsong, or just plain comical flyers to be seen cruising the branches during Debbie Becker’s weekly Bird Walk.

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Morning Eye Candy: Line-Free

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 23 2012, by Matt Newman

There are countless differences between the NYBG and your local department store. Today, the fact that there aren’t hordes of people here trampling each other for a shot at an $8 waffle iron–well, it’s a pretty compelling one. The Garden is open on this particular Black Friday, and there’s a sale on soothing frayed nerves.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Morning Eye Candy: Gobble, Gobble

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 22 2012, by Matt Newman

What’s the difference between a Garden turkey in summer, as you see here, and a Garden turkey in fall? Not a whole lot! They’re both content in the knowledge that they’re safe for the holidays.

The NYBG is closed today, but the gates will be open tomorrow if you feel like escaping the holiday shopping rush. Here’s to a happy, safe, and filling Thanksgiving from everyone here at The New York Botanical Garden!

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Weekly Greenmarket Preview: The Best for Last

Posted in Programs and Events on November 20 2012, by Matt Newman

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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Good Old Days

Posted in Gardens and Collections on November 20 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

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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