Observations on New York City Parks- January 28th

Winter Teas at Barbara Ostberg's

Here's to Another Year- Happy 2014!

"Hope Is There For Others"- Our Own IGC's Hope Wigglesworth in the Boston Globe

Boston Globe, Metro North Section,  December 29, 2013
by Joanne Rathe Globe staff

Ipswich’s Hope Wigglesworth makes the rounds with her cart at Beverly Hospital.

Sitting in her pink scrubs, lanyard ID dangling, the white-haired, bespectacled octogenarian looked down at her lap and knotted her hands.
“There are so many volunteers, so many people who do great things,” Hope Wigglesworth said quietly. “I’m just one of millions.”
If there’s one thing that sums up the Ipswich 87-year-old, it’s her humility. Although Wigglesworth has given countless hours of her time to the community, she hardly wants recognition.

In volunteering, says Hope Wigglesworth, “I have gotten more than I have given.”

“I’ve done volunteer work for a good part of my life,” she said. “It was ingrained within my family that it was important to give back.”
Most notably, she does so by devoting her Thursdays as a patient ambassador at Beverly Hospital. Since May 2009, she has put in more than 350 hours, slowly pushing a cart through the halls, stopping room by room to offer up magazines, books, and pads and pencils for patients to write thoughts, questions, or medical directions — because, as she pointed out, people rarely remember to bring something to write on, and end up scribbling on napkins. She keeps patients company, too, talking with them about whatever’s on their minds.
“I find that I meet a lot of wonderful people dealing with all kinds of medical issues, showing courage and faith, and a sense of humor at times,” she reflected.
“I can really say, when I leave here on Thursday, that I have gotten more than I have given.”
The mother of four and grandmother of nine, who has lived in Ipswich for more than 60 years, is involved in other facets of the community as well, but was reluctant to mention them, besides her work on the Ipswich Museum’s capital campaign.
“That’s one of the things with people like Hope — they certainly don’t do it for the recognition,” said Jane Karaman, the hospital’s manager of volunteer services. “Somebody that puts the amount of joy and effort into what they do, and so quietly. . . . Hope epitomizes that.”
Patients have described Wigglesworth as “precious,” Karaman said, noting that she always has a smile to offer up to a weary face.
“She has certainly brightened a lot of patients’ days and rooms.”
Wigglesworth’s dedication to volunteering started in college, when she spent a summer in New York City, where she grew up, with Travelers Aid International. It was just after World War II, and she worked with customs officials on the docks, meeting displaced individuals. Some of them had been in camps in Europe, and, as she explained, “came with absolutely nothing.”
Over the years, she also donated her time to high school guidance departments, and at the old Boston City Hospital. Because her late husband William was a surgeon, she’s always had a “great admiration for all who work in the hospital area.”
So when she retired “around 1990” from a varied career in educational and hospital administration and health career counseling, she made a pact with herself that she would attempt to do three new things each year.
One of those included getting back into hospital volunteering. (Another, recently, has been to learn to use her iPhone.) Of her devotion to community service, she said simply, “You don’t volunteer unless you care.”

Thanks from the Ipswich Schools

We wish you Happy Holidays!

Thanks to Corliss Bros. during the Holidays

Thank You to the IGC from Rev. Clark at Ascension Church

Alicia passed on Rev. Brad Clark's Thank You:

_________________________________________________

"Dear Members of the Ipswich Garden Club,
     People ask me where we found the  beautiful wreaths on our  church doors, hoping to obtain the same for their front door. I am delighted to report that they cannot be purchased elsewhere, for they came as a gift!...and plug the Club for your kindness, aptitude when it comes to beauty.
    Many thanks for this practice of yours of blessing so many doors and all who pass through them.    Brad"

________________________________________________________________

"We're just asking for his return, no questions asked."

Carol William's Green Beans w/ Vinaigrette

There were several requests for Carol's recipe for the green beans served at the 2013 Greens Meeting (Thanks Carol for this delicious recipe):


Vinaigrette for green beans or asparagus

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Minced herbs such as thyme, rosemary
1/2 cup olive oil

Put the mustard in a wide bowl. Whisk in everything else except the oil. Then, slowly dribble in the olive oil, whisking all the while, until the dressing is thick.

When you cook the green beans, as soon as they are done, run cold water over them to set the bright color. I think they are best served at room temperature.

I prefer rice wine vinegar but red wine vinegar or any vinegar you like is fine. Just don't use a dark balsamic vinegar or it will discolor the beans.

Enjoy!

Here it is... Judy Hallberg's Chicken w/ Tarragon Cream Sauce

After many requests for Judy's entree recipe at this year's Greens Meeting, here is her recipe. Thanks so much Judy.

Chicken with Tarragon Cream Sauce

Serves 4

Cooking the chicken

·       2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 2 pounds. (use large whole chicken breasts)

·       1 tablespoons coarse salt – for optional brining

·       ¼  cup fresh tarragon leaves, or 2 tbls dried tarragon

·       1 – 2 cups water

·       ¼ cup white wine, vermouth

Optional, brine the chicken: rub  1 tbsp. coarse salt over chicken pieces, put in shallow enamel  or crockery bowl, cover and keep refrigerated for 24 hours, turning the chicken once. Before cooking, rinse chicken thoroughly.

Poaching the chicken: Heat oven to 325, put chicken in stainless steel or oven safe crockery pan, add tarragon, white wine and enough HOT water to cover chicken. Cover the pan and place in hot oven.

Check for doneness at 45 minutes. Add more water if necessary to keep chicken covered (but not drowning). A fast-read meat thermometer is useful – DONE is 155. The meat should be slightly underdone as it will continue to cook after removing from the heat.

Remove from oven and let chicken cool in the poaching liquid at least 2 hours. Refrigerate if you don’t plan to serve it within 3 hours. Use within 24 hours or drain and freeze.

Slow cooker poaching is preferred if you have one large enough for the amount of chicken you’re cooking. It will take longer than the oven method and requires less water. Use whatever temperature setting is hot but not simmering.

Tarragon cream sauce

·       ¾  cup plain mayonnaise, reduced fat versions are OK

·       1  cup béchamel or white sauce

·       1 tbls fresh, whole tarragon leaves or 1 teas dried tarragon

Judy’s béchamel sauce:  (makes 1 cup

·       1 tbls butter

·       2 tsp flour

·       ½ cup chicken stock

·       ½ cup warm milk

·       Nutmeg, pepper

Melt butter in saucepan until it foams, quickly toss in flour and whisk or stir, whisk in hot chicken stock, whisk in warm milk, remove from heat. It should be the consistency of heavy cream. Add pepper to taste, add salt sparingly – check your chicken to see how salty it is before you add salt to the sauce. Add a pinch – 1/8 teas nutmeg.

Combine béchamel and mayonnaise, stir in tarragon.

Drain chicken pieces, cut each in half to make 4 pillow shaped pieces. Put chicken in shallow baking and serving dish with space between each piece. Blanket the chicken with the sauce so it is generously covered but not swimming in the sauce. Garnish with whole, sliced or coarsely chopped almonds.

Heat for 15 minutes in 325 oven. Do not overheat as the sauce will get crusty and the chicken will be overcooked.

This is also delicious served cold. NOTE: I poach larger quantities of chicken this way and then use the meat in salad or with various sauces or sliced. It’s very important to not slice the chicken until it is completely cool as the juices will escape and you’ll be left with dry meat. This is a very low fat method and you need the meat to retain as much juice as possible.

IGC Annual Greens Meeting- Friday, December 6th

We will have wreaths, ribbons, ornaments and wire to create the decorations for the Ascension Church, the First Church in Ipswich UCC, the Hall Haskell House, the Schools' Administrative Building, the Fire House, Police Station, Town Hall, the Train Station and a couple for special friends. We will also decorate the library interior.

Please remember to bring clippers and your creative genius. PLEASE bring additional materials from YOUR OWN GARDENS to fill planters and decorate wreaths.
    Bring what you have, such as:
                                                                                                                                              
Branches of greens- arborvitae, balsam, yew, boxwood, juniper, pine, rhododendron, and leucothoe. The rhodie leaves make a splash sprayed gold!

Berries- bayberry, winterberry, and rosehips (no wild rosehips--these are invasive)

Dried Material- Artemisia, grasses, seed heads, pods and pine cones.

Mark your calendars. This meeting is always the highpoint of our Garden Club year.
We look forward to seeing all of you and celebrating the beginning of the holiday season of 2013.

PLEASE, PLEASE RSVP by November 28th so that we can plan for greens work and luncheon.
        This reply is very necessary for planning.
    RSVP to Maureen (978) 790-1527 or  nicknicknana@yahoo.com nicknicknana@yahoo.com

Hort "Organic" Minute from November '13 Meeting

 Worm Castings as Insecticide

by Barbara Monahan

Worm castings as pesticide, specifically as an insecticide may be used for the eradication or at least the control of White Fly and Giant "Wooley" White Fly. Worm castings are also helpful in discouraging other insects that suck on leaves (e.g. aphids.) When you water-in the worm castings, the resulting liquid flowing throughout the plant repels the insect by its taste. Sometimes the insects stay away. If they return later, use an application of new worm castings as a preventive about every three months.

Protocol:
• Clean off all adversely affected leaves and any dead branches.
• Clear out all debris on soil.
• Spread worm castings two inches deep out to the drip line of the plant.
• Layer an organic mulch tht will decompose within a year over the worm castings.
• Water-in deeply.
• With a couple of days, water-in deeply again.
• The insects should leave.
• Again cleanup all debris.

Note: The worm castings have no discernable odor for us. they are dark brown with a fine texture. Gordon's Nursery carries an eight quart bag.

Catherine Carney Feldman, a former presenter to the IGC on butterfly gardens asked to share this recent NY Times article with members of the IGC. If you haven't already read this comprehensive, as well as sobering,  look at native plants and their connection to insects (i.e. bees, Monarchs) on your own, here is another reminder of what our garden club and others must do to spread the importance of biological diversity in word and deed.  Thanks Catherine. 

 The Year the Monarch Didn’t Appear 

November 22, 2013 

By JIM ROBBINS

ON the first of November, when Mexicans celebrate a holiday called the Day of the Dead, some also celebrate the millions of monarch butterflies that, without fail, fly to the mountainous fir forests of central Mexico on that day. They are believed to be souls of the dead, returned.

This year, for or the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didn’t come, at least not on the Day of the Dead. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last year’s low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than three million that have shown up so far this year. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse.

“It does not look good,” said Lincoln P. Brower, a monarch expert at Sweet Briar College.

It is only the latest bad news about the dramatic decline of insect populations.

Another insect in serious trouble is the wild bee, which has thousands of species. Nicotine-based pesticides called neonicotinoids are implicated in their decline, but even if they were no longer used, experts say, bees, monarchs and many other species of insect would still be in serious trouble.

That’s because of another major factor that has not been widely recognized: the precipitous loss of native vegetation across the United States.

“There’s no question that the loss of habitat is huge,” said Douglas Tallamy, a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware, who has long warned of the perils of disappearing insects. “We notice the monarch and bees because they are iconic insects,” he said. “But what do you think is happening to everything else?”

A big part of it is the way the United States farms. As the price of corn has soared in recent years, driven by federal subsidies for biofuels, farmers have expanded their fields. That has meant plowing every scrap of earth that can grow a corn plant, including millions of acres of land once reserved in a federal program for conservation purposes.

Another major cause is farming with Roundup, a herbicide that kills virtually all plants except crops that are genetically modified to survive it.

As a result, millions of acres of native plants, especially milkweed, an important source of nectar for many species, and vital for monarch butterfly larvae, have been wiped out. One study showed that Iowa has lost almost 60 percent of its milkweed, and another found 90 percent was gone. “The agricultural landscape has been sterilized,” said Dr. Brower.

The loss of bugs is no small matter. Insects help stitch together the web of life with essential services, breaking plants down into organic matter, for example, and dispersing seeds. They are a prime source of food for birds. Critically, some 80 percent of our food crops are pollinated by insects, primarily the 4,000 or so species of the flying dust mops called bees. “All of them are in trouble,” said Marla Spivak, a professor of apiculture at the University of Minnesota.

Farm fields are not the only problem. Around the world people have replaced diverse natural habitat with the biological deserts that are roads, parking lots and bluegrass lawns. Meanwhile, the plants people choose for their yards are appealing for showy colors or shapes, not for their ecological role. Studies show that native oak trees in the mid-Atlantic states host as many as 537 species of caterpillars, which are important food for birds and other insects. Willows come in second with 456 species. Ginkgo, on the other hand, which is not native, supports three species, and zelkova, an exotic plant used to replace elm trees that died from disease, supports none. So the shelves are nearly bare for bugs and birds.

Native trees are not only grocery stores, but insect pharmacies as well. Trees and other plants have beneficial chemicals essential to the health of bugs. Some monarchs, when afflicted with parasites, seek out more toxic types of milkweed because they kill the parasites. Bees use medicinal resins from aspen and willow trees that are antifungal, antimicrobial and antiviral, to line their nests and to fight infection and diseases. “Bees scrape off the resins from the leaves, which is kind of awesome, stick them on their back legs and take them home,” said Dr. Spivak.

Besides pesticides and lack of habitat, the other big problem bees face is disease. But these problems are not separate. “Say you have a bee with viruses,” and they are run-down, Dr. Spivak said. “And they are in a food desert and have to fly a long distance, and when you find food it has complicated neurotoxins and the immune system just goes ‘uh-uh.’ Or they become disoriented and can’t find their way home. It’s too many stressors all at once.”

There are numerous organizations and individuals dedicated to rebuilding native plant communities one sterile lawn and farm field at a time. Dr. Tallamy, a longtime evangelizer for native plants, and the author of one of the movement’s manuals, “Bringing Nature Home,” says it’s a cause everyone with a garden or yard can serve. And he says support for it needs to develop quickly to slow down the worsening crisis in biodiversity.

When the Florida Department of Transportation last year mowed down roadside wildflowers where monarch butterflies fed on their epic migratory journey, “there was a huge outcry,” said Eleanor Dietrich, a wildflower activist in Florida. So much so, transportation officials created a new policy that left critical insect habitat un-mowed.

That means reversing the hegemony of chemically green lawns. “If you’ve got just lawn grass, you’ve got nothing,” said Mace Vaughan of the Xerces Society, a leading organization in insect conservation. “But as soon as you create a front yard wildflower meadow you go from an occasional honeybee to a lawn that might be full of 20 or 30 species of bees and butterflies and monarchs.”

First and foremost, said Dr. Tallamy, a home for bugs is a matter of food security. “If the bees were to truly disappear, we would lose 80 percent of the plants,” he said. “That is not an option. That’s a huge problem for mankind.”

The Cloth Crafter's Garden

                                Tuesday, 19 November

6:45 P.M.

at the

Ipswich Public Library

The Cloth Crafter's Garden explores the connection between textiles and plants. I will discuss cotton and silk, natural dyes from leaves, roots and bark as well as the botanical forms that inspire 'Indian' textile design.

The talk is supported by a slideshow which will be complemented by an exhibit of my own textiles from South and South-East Asia.