Inside The New York Botanical Garden
family activities
Posted in Programs and Events on October 26 2010, by Plant Talk
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
The world’s heaviest pumpkin is calling The New York Botanical Garden home for just a few more days. And while its entrance was grand, its exit will be spectacular!
Beginning Friday, October 29, world-renowned pumpkin carver, and current holder of the Guinness Book‘s World Record for largest jack-o’-lantern, Scott Cully will be at the Botanical Garden to carve the 1,810.5 lbs beauty. The carving, which will take approximately one hour per 100 lbs. will continue through Sunday, October 31 (also known to some as Halloween!).
What will the pumpkin end up looking like, and will Cully break his own World Record? Only time will tell. But we do love daydreaming here at the Garden. So to get your imagination going about what the great pumpkin might end up looking like, we thought we’d share a few pictures of Cully’s past creations.
Learn more about the giant pumpkins here, here, and here. And to plan your visit for this fascinating Garden experience, click here.
Posted in Programs and Events on October 25 2010, by Plant Talk
| Justin Wollenhaupt is a Marketing Associate. |
Anyone who thinks Halloween Hoorah—The New York Botanical Garden‘s annual celebration of all things Halloween and pumpkin–is just for kids clearly did not see the look on my fiancé’s face on a recent Saturday. Maybe it was the generous wine samples we had just enjoyed at the Edible Garden’s finale weekend, or maybe it had to do with the fact that she’s been bringing up having children more often, and more insistently. Either way, her expression of delight as we walked through the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden was unreservedly enthusiastic, and, to a man who has been dealing with the daily headaches of having just moved into a fourth-floor walk-up, this change in mood was entirely welcome.
She had visited the Botanical Garden before, but never at Halloween Hoorah time, and we had a blast checking out the hundreds of carved and sculpted pumpkins lining the paths of the Children’s Garden. The artist who made them, Michael Anthony Natiello, must absolutely love his job. Either that, or he has nightmares of an endless conveyor belt of pumpkins.
Learn more about the Halloween Hoorah, the giant pumpkins, see a photo gallery, and a video after the jump.
Posted in Exhibitions, Programs and Events, The Edible Garden on October 8 2010, by Plant Talk
Star-Studded Edible Garden Cooking Demos, Halloween Hoorah Kickoff
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.
Plan your Columbus Day Weekend today. Get Your Tickets
Posted in Exhibitions, Learning Experiences, The Edible Garden on July 16 2010, by Plant Talk
 From digging in the Children’s Vegetable Garden to pretending to harvest fruits and vegetables at the Farm-to-Table play station, it’s easy for families to make a connection with food while having fun during The Edible Garden, which runs through October 17.
Explore nature in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
- Farm-to-Table play station inside the Bendheim Global Greenhouse
Tuesdays–Sundays, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Kids can pretend to “harvest” fruits and vegetables and then use them to “cook” delicious recipes at the “cafe.”
- Flowers-to-Fruits
Tuesdays–Fridays, 1:30–5:30 p.m.;
Saturdays–Sundays, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Children color paper pollinator puppets and go on a flower hunt, create a field notebook, and pot up a seedling to take home while they learn how flowers become fruits.
Gardening fun in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
- Children’s Vegetable Garden
Tuesdays–Sundays, 12–6 p.m.
Children connect with the food they eat by exploring whimsical gardens and plantings, including the Pizza Garden and Breakfast Bowl. Kids can hunt for squash-family plants such as cucumbers and gourds and see the new Pumpkin Patch!
- Dig, Plant, Grow!
Tuesdays–Sundays, 1:30–5:30 p.m.
Kids are encouraged to dig, weed, compost, plant, tend, and harvest in garden plots, with a different theme each month. Herbal Delights, Naturally is featured through July 30. Families go on an herb hike through the garden, cool down with an iced herbal tea, sample a healthful herbal snack, and pot up an herb to take home.
All proceeds of The Edible Garden benefit the Children’s Gardening program.
Get Your Tickets |
Posted in Exhibitions, Programs and Events, The Orchid Show on March 26 2010, by Plant Talk
Delight Your Senses with Chocolate & Vanilla
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Noelle V. Dor is Museum Education Intern in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. |
As the days grow longer and the first signs of spring emerge throughout the landscape, the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden is heating up with Chocolate and Vanilla Adventures. While this flavorful exploration focuses on the botanical origins of these two popular food ingredients, it also offers a taste of cultural history.
From ice cream and milkshakes to candy and cakes, we learn early on to identify chocolate and vanilla as standards of deliciousness. But there’s much more beneath that sweet surface. Before the rise of dark chocolate as a healthier alternative to common milk chocolate, few people knew that pure cacao (chocolate) is actually bitter. As well, the taste of real vanilla is just as obscure, due to its high cost and limited usage in mainstream food products.
Considering how chocolate and vanilla have been modified, added to, and substituted, it’s no wonder many of us have no clue about their plant origins! As both an educator and a learner at the Children’s Adventure Garden, I’m thrilled this program can bring everyone back to the “root” of the matter, so to speak.
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