Fall is in the air, and The Edible Garden’s season of celebrity chef cooking demonstrations is fired up! The star-studded Columbus Day Weekend (Saturday through Monday, October 9–11) lineup at the Conservatory Kitchen includes television chef and acclaimed cookbook author Lidia Bastianich, restaurateur and school lunch reform advocate Bill Telepan, and Wholesome Wave CEO and Dressing Room chef and owner Michel Nischan. All of the chefs will be cooking with pumpkins, squash, or gourds, and their children or grandchildren will join them on stage to share in the culinary excitement.
There will be plenty of delicious samples of sustainably produced food on the Tasting Terrace, booksignings by chefs and gardeners at the Cookbook Collective, guided tours of the four kitchen gardens, and musical performances to round out your visit!
An added bonus is the kickoff of Halloween Hoorah —a frightfully fun journey with creepy crawlies, pumpkin patches, spooky scarecrows, and more in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, on through October 31. New this year, artist Michael Anthony Natiello has carved and sculpted more than 500 pumpkins into a ghoulish menagerie—scarecrows, snakes, and spiders, oh my! All day all weekend, get hands-on with applesauce making, seed sorting, and apple stamping, and stop off for a play break in the pumpkin playhouse. Plus, there’s even more fun scheduled each day, including cider pressing, the family favorite Pumpkin Parades, and performances by the Alice Farley Dance Theater.
Even Shop in the Garden is dressed for the season, with new items such as Katchkie Farm Thunder Pickles, Acorn Windbells, and the NYBG in Flower 2011 Calendar. Save 20% off anything in the fall category when you shop online and use the promo code SHOPFALL through October 31.
Get the Kids to Help You, Says Award-Winning Michel Nischan
Michel Nischan is CEO of Wholesome Wave, sustainable food pioneer, and James Beard Award-winning chef and author. He will present a cooking demonstration atThe Edible Garden Conservatory Kitchen on Monday, October 11, at 1 p.m. and sign copies of his book Sustainably Delicious after the presentation.
I am so looking forward to my Edible Garden presentation on October 11. And this time I am bringing two of my sons: Ethan and Chris.
In my book Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place, One Recipe at a Time, from Rodale, I talk about my experience with my kids in the garden. There is one passage that describes how Ethan discovered the amazing and sweet taste of young carrots pulled directly from the earth. And while my oldest son, Chris, complains about having to turn compost in the summer, I have heard him telling his friends how much it helps the soil and how good the food from our garden tastes.
In “The Sustainable Family” section of Sustainably Delicious, I explain how important it is to bring that same philosophy into the kitchen. Get the kids to help you, and set aside time on a weekend morning or afternoon. Divide and conquer and see how much food gets prepped for weeks to come. These can be happy hours spent working together. While the kids may grumble at the beginning, I guarantee, in the end they won’t mind much. Talking and joking while you work is easy, and you might be surprised at how much fun you end up having. When it’s time for supper, everyone will be eager to taste the fruits of their labor.
Celebrity Chef Prepares Italian Dishes, Signs Books Columbus Day Weekend
Get Your Tickets Risotto with Winter Squash and Shrimp Risotto alla Zucca e Gamberi
By Lidia Bastianich, chef, acclaimed cookbook author, and restaurateur
Makes 6 generous servings
Ingredients
1 pound small shrimp (about 35–40 per pound)
1 pound butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup minced onions
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 cups Arborio or Carnaroli rice
½ cup dry white wine
6 ½ cups hot vegetable stock or water
1/2 teaspoon salt, or as needed
1/2 cup chopped scallions, greens included (about 6), plus additional garnish if desired
Pinch of ground nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits
Freshly ground black pepper
Pumpkins will be center stage this month: at The Edible Garden Conservatory Kitchen, at a brand new display during Halloween Hoorah in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, in the Pumpkin Patch across from the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, and in a special showcase of champion giant pumpkins.
This weekend (October 2–3) don’t miss Classy Parker of Just Food and Jason Weiner of Almond restaurants whip up dishes with pumpkins (and potatoes, too!).
Columbus Day Weekend (October 9–11) brings more pumpkins and cooking with kids at a harvest celebration featuring celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich, crafts, tasty treats, and music.
Halloween Hoorah begins October 9—and runs all the way through October 31—treating visitors to a frightfully fun journey through a setting of hundreds of jack-o’-lanterns, parades, cider pressing, and more. Get a sneak peek of the spectacle, and learn about Michael Anthony Natiello, the artist who created the pumpkin sculptures.
The Pumpkin Patch has been growing all season, and now’s the time to see it at its best.
Some of the winning pumpkins from the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-ins will be at the Garden beginning October 22—last year a world record of 1,725 pounds was set! Bring your camera for great photo ops.
So make sure to “carve out” some family time to come to Garden this month. It’s so fun, it’s scary.
Chef Stephanie Inspired by Childhood Influences and Using Herbs
Chef Stephanie is executive chef at Don Coqui. She will present a cooking demonstration atThe Edible Garden Conservatory Kitchen on Saturday, September 25, at 1p.m. as part ofFiesta de Flores y Comida.
Having grown up on a farm in Indiana, the process of growing my own produce is basically genetically linked. I come from a long line of “farm women”: My mother, Linda, and both my grandmothers worked the farm and prepared fabulous meals from its bounty to nourish our family. Nothing makes me happier than going to the garden, plucking from the vine or stalk what’s at its peak, and cooking it up simply to create a gourmet meal.
I started gathering from the garden at an early age. When I was five years old, I would get up early to cook breakfast for my parents, first gathering produce to incorporate into my scrambles. My mother and father would awaken to breakfast in bed—and a HUGE mess from my “creations” waiting for them in the kitchen. Not much has changed except now I have a staff to help with cleaning.
Now as a chef living just outside New York City, the land, space, and time isn’t available for me to grow my own crops. Local farmers markets have replaced the need to grow crops for the freshest of ingredients. It’s refreshing to know where the food on your plate comes from, too. Farmers markets are the best! I am a big advocate in supporting local farms. I always try to create from the best the season has to offer.
Every day during The Edible Garden: Growing and Preparing Good Food cooking demonstrations are presented at the Conservatory Kitchen, a special place set up on the lawn in front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
It’s a wonderful way to see your favorite chefs in person in action—often creating original dishes. You can take notes during the demos, but you can save time by looking up the recipes on the Garden’s Web site, where they are posted the week following the event.
So impress your friends and family by whipping up some of these seasonal, delicious inventions. Bon appétit.
With cooking demonstrations every day, a Greenmarket filled with regional foods, a festival honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, and other food-related programming during The Edible Garden, the Botanical Garden is the place to be to kick off and participate in Eat Drink Local Week.
This second annual celebration of local foods is more than a restaurant week—and it’s more than a week! From September 26 through October 6, this statewide event co-produced by Edible magazines and GrowNYC, is a time to get to know your neighborhood markets and area farmers.
Wine tastings, lectures, garden tours, farm-to-table dinners, and many other events, including edible programming at the Botanical Garden, will be held throughout New York during Eat Drink Local Week.
The Garden’s Fiesta de Flores y Comida Weekend, September 25 and 26, features flowers, food, dancing, cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, home gardening demonstrations, food and wine tastings, cookbook signings, and family activities.
And on Tuesday, Mingle with Martha at a Champagne Cocktail Party
The Garden’s newly renovated Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill will be open to the public again this Saturday and Sunday for a second and final weekend. Visitors can view the landmark building and tour the Stone Mill precinct, which is one of the largest, most varied historic landscapes in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley.
In addition, this weekend visitors also can delight in cooking demos and fall activities for families as part of The Edible Garden as well as enjoy A Season in Poetry and more (details below)! You’ll also want to save the date Tuesday, September 21, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. to mingle with Martha Stewart at a Champagne Cocktail Party in the Garden.
Kip Wilcox is a chef at Moosewood Restaurant. She will present cooking demonstrations at The Edible Garden Conservatory Kitchen on Saturday, September 18, at 1 and 3 p.m. and will sign copies of her book, Sweetness and Light, following each demonstration.
Fennel is not exactly a household word. Indigenous to the Mediterranean, it is gaining greater visibility on the shelves of supermarkets and in the stalls of farmers markets on this side of the Atlantic. Often labeled with the misnomer sweet anise, a fennel bulb looks a bit like short, broad, greenish-hued, tightly packed stalks of celery with delicate leaves reminiscent of dill. In fact, fennel is a relative of anise and dill as well as cumin, cilantro, and caraway. As an ingredient in cooking, both the fennel bulb and seeds have many of us stumped: How do you slice it or cook the bulb? What does it taste like? What kinds of dishes can include fennel? How do you use the seeds?
There are two kinds of edible fennel. Common fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a hardy perennial herb that grows in the wild and is invasive in Mediterranean climates. It reaches about five feet tall with wispy leaves and beautiful yellow flowers that produce greenish-brown seed-like fruits. Its taproot is long and tenacious, not something you would want to eat. The oil from common fennel’s seeds has been used for centuries as a digestive, diuretic, cough suppressant, soothing eyewash, and breath freshener.
Sutton Exhibition at Garden and two Other Shows Launch Concept
Robin A. Jess is Executive Director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, which has its national office at The New York Botanical Garden. She has had a long relationship with the Garden as a freelance botanical illustrator and as the first coordinator of the Botanical Art Certificate program.
It occurred to me earlier this summer that the opening of three major exhibitions of contemporary botanical art in New York City during the same week (September 13–17) would be cause for celebration. I thought that by combining the star power of the three and declaring “Botanical Art Week in NYC,” we could draw more attention to these exciting exhibitions. The hosts of the three exhibitions—Jeff Downing, Vice President for Education at the Botanical Garden, Chris Murtha at the Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY), and Francesca Anderson of Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG)—all agreed that it was a great idea. And so, Botanical Art Week was born.
This fall in New York offers an in-depth immersion in beautiful art that accurately portrays the world of flora. You’ll find works in these shows by noted contemporary botanical artists such as Jean Emmons, Derek Norman, Lizzie Sanders, and Jessica Tcherepnine. You’ll also find the work of talented artists who trained or who teach in NYBG’s Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program. Get inspired by viewing the work and then take a course at the Garden to begin your own creative journey.
An opening reception for the exhibition Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection will be held on Thursday, September 16, from 5 to 8 p.m. in theArthur and Janet Ross Gallery at the Botanical Garden (RSVP to 718.817.8598). Since his first acquisition in 1998, Brooklyn’s Isaac Sutton has continued to acquire or commission works, amassing the largest privately owned collection of contemporary botanical art in North America. Working with Curators Susan Frei Nathan and Alice Marcus Kreig, Sutton selected the pieces shown for their ability to raise awareness of our environment.
Star-Studded Edible Garden Cooking Demos, Halloween Hoorah Kickoff
