… season, we unveiled our cookbook, Cooking in Season with Windy City Harvest . This cookbook is a collection of our favorite seasonal recipes and features the fresh produce grown and … kale at the Washington Park farm Just like planting seeds and harvesting the bounty, cooking is an essential component of the Windy City Harvest program. Program participants learn how to … their dishes at our annual Open House celebrations. One of our favorite fall recipes is a grilled kale salad. Grilled Kale Salad Preparation: 15 to 30 minutes. Serves: 6 to 8 Salad: …
Type: Blog
… to see how weather changes affect the activity at Butterfly & Blooms. The seasonal exhibition is a photographer’s dream, with hundreds of live butterfly species native to countries around the … chance of viewing a butterfly emerging in our pupa chamber or drying its wings before it is ready to take flight, stop by earlier in the day. Afternoons: Afternoons are typically the … tend to be very active. Watching the butterflies dance all around on a sunny afternoon is sure to raise your spirits. Drop by Butterflies & Bloom daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the …
Type: Blog
… U.S. Navy veteran Anna Andersen is quick to tell you how the Chicago Botanic Garden’s impact on her life goes beyond the beauty … to get done, yet she still gave me opportunities to do it how I wanted to get it done. Which is different than the military. They just told you what to do and didn’t give you a reason for … said Andersen. “I was able to observe what an effective listener and leader looks like. This is something I am still working on, but I think the VIP set me up for success by providing a good …
Type: Blog
… Spring is seed season—and a good time to think about gifting seeds to gardeners, friends, and … cotta as the balls dry. This recipe yields about 24 seed balls. About Your Seed Choice Less is more. You only want a few seeds to sprout from each seed ball. Too many seeds mean too many … into the soil), or placed, randomly or intentionally, on bare soil in the garden. A rainy day is the perfect day to “plant” seed balls—rain helps to break down the clay and compost, giving …
Type: Blog
… camera, I zoomed into the Venus fly trap to show him that the plant’s snapping mechanism is smaller than the tip of my finger and not nearly as strong. The fast-closing leaves have … in action As the Garden’s youth programs director, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What we found is that the field trips gave students a break from remote learning routines and inspired them to think about and get engaged with nature. The hands-on component is key. After a teacher signs up for a field trip, we deliver kits of materials for every …
Type: Blog
… of lettuce and corn and tomatoes and too many other crops to list. And that, in a nutshell, is why it continues to be important to plant heirloom varieties. Vintage Varieties, Still in … paths made with wood chips that would have been straw in earlier centuries. As one crop is harvested, the next crop is planted—a nod to the constant production that was a matter of survival for our forefathers and …
Type: Blog
… demographic, and pollination studies on a threatened thistle ( Cirsium pitcheri ) that is being negatively impacted by a biocontrol weevil. I am also interested in developing measures … Colleagues and I have modeled how fecundity differences among cultivars of invasive species is likely to impact (or not) their invasiveness. Most of these projects are carried out in …
Type: Staff bio
… pollinators react to cultivated varieties of native plants. Budburst's Fall into Phenology is not limited to just leaf color and seed; it is about observing plants in the fall. This will be my second autumn with Budburst and the …
Type: Blog
… Winter is no stranger to Chicago and can sometimes feel like a less-than-pleasant guest. But as the days … herbs like mint, parsley, or lavender. Make your own wrapping paper Wrapping paper that is glossy or shiny, or has foil in it usually cannot be recycled. Try decorating sheets of …
Type: Blog
… not a serious threat to people and will only give you a pinch if you handle them roughly. It is not uncommon to find the large brown stag beetles around buildings near woodlands at night, … If you notice the dark-colored segment that looks distended on the end of the grub, it is the digestive chamber, where the wood the grub consumes is digested with the aid of microorganisms. If you give one of these guys a gentle squeeze, you …
Type: Blog
