Find what you'll never expect
Don't miss presentations from innovators in world-class garden design, art and horticulture at the Bonfils-Stanton Lecture Series, our region's premier horticultural series.
The Bonfils-Stanton Lecture Series features renowned speakers from around the world, offering you the chance to learn from the best – thanks to the generosity of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation. Don't miss these presentations from innovators in world-class garden design, art and horticulture at our region's premier horticultural series. The theme of the 2009 lecture series is “The Feast in the Garden: Edible Landscapes and Regional Food Traditions.” Each lecture illustrates the creative fusion of gardening with the culinary arts. Seven outstanding writers, garden designers and chefs will share their vision of local food and agriculture, growing edibles in the home garden and celebrating regional food traditions. Denver Botanic Gardens has partnered with Slow Food Denver to present a special tasting at each program this year, highlighting the speaker’s themes and recipes. Please come early to enjoy some of Colorado’s local flavors! A portion of this year’s ticket price will be donated to Slow Food Denver to support their education and advocacy programs. FEBRUARY LECTURE: ARAB/AMERICAN: LANDSCAPE, CULTURE AND CUISINE IN TWO GREAT DESERTS Gary Paul Nabhan, writer, lecturer and conservation scientist Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m. In this unique program, Gary Nabhan explores the common heritage of desert dwellers in the Middle East and the borderlands of the Southwest, and how these seemingly disparate cultures are bound to each other in ways we would never imagine. With an extraordinary ear for language and a truly adventurous palate, Nabhan uncovers surprising convergences between the landscape ecology, ethnogeography, agriculture, and cuisines of the Middle East and the bi-national Desert Southwest, including parts of Colorado. With humor and history, Nabhan reminds both Arabs and Americans of their common ground. Gary Paul Nabhan, Ph.D., is an Arab-American writer, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural lifeways folklorist and conservationist. He is a tenured research social scientist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona. Nabhan has been honored with many awards including the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a MacArthur "genius award,” and a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment. His books have been translated in five languages, and he has lectured in Mexico, Lebanon, Peru, Oman, Guatemala and Italy. When not gardening, caring for heritage breeds of sheep and turkeys, or hiking with his dogs, he is active in the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans, the Orion Society and the local foods movement. 5:15 p.m.: Tour of Sacred Earth Garden ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) MARCH LECTURE: KITCHEN GARDEN PLANTING AND DESIGN Anna Pavord, garden writer Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m. Order, coupled with profusion, is the hallmark of the best kitchen gardens. If you can maintain some kind of balance between these two, you are very close to paradise. There are, of course, many practical reasons why you should grow your own fruit and vegetables. However, don't underestimate the beauty they add to a garden. Few trees in spring can match the elegiac performance of a mature pear, pouring out its heart in white blossom against the sky. Few flowers can produce a smell as intoxicating as that of a ripe greengage, ripening against a warm wall. These pleasures can be yours; learn how with noted garden writer Anna Pavord. Anna Pavord is the gardening correspondent for the Independent and the author of eight previous books, including the bestselling “The Tulip.” She contributes to a number of magazines, both in the U.S. and the U.K., and regularly fronts programs for BBC Radio 3 and 4. She chairs the Gardens Panel of the National Trust, and sits on the Parks and Gardens Panel of English Heritage. She lives in Dorset, England, where she spent 30 years restoring the garden of an old rectory. She recently moved to a new house and started another garden. She is married and has three daughters. 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) APRIL LECTURE: EDIBLE LANDSCAPING: THE NEW AMERICAN GARDEN Rosalind Creasy, garden and food writer, photographer and landscape designer Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m. One of today’s gardening buzzwords is “sustainable.” You’d be hard put to find a more sustainable landscape style than an organically grown edible garden. Rosalind Creasy – pioneer in the field of edible landscaping, award-winning professional photographer and author of “The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping” – will give a mouth-watering slide presentation stressing the beauty and practicality of edible plants. Her program will include an A-to-Z of recommended and beautiful edible plants for Western gardens, an overview of the wide variety of edible landscapes and the principles of landscape design particular to edibles. Rosalind Creasy is a garden and food writer, photographer and landscape designer with a passion for beautiful vegetables and ecologically sensitive gardening. Creasy writes and lectures nationwide, appears on television and radio shows, and consults for restaurants, growers and seed companies. She has written for the food page of the Los Angeles Times, Gardening How-To and Garden Design magazines, and is a contributing editor for Country Living Gardener. Her photographs appear in numerous magazines, calendars and books. Her “Complete Book of Edible Landscaping” is still in print after 20 years and a revised edition is due out in 2010. 5:15 p.m.: Tour of seasonal edible plants in the Gardens ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) MAY LECTURE: FIESTA IN LUCINDA’S GARDEN Lucinda Hutson, garden designer and cookbook author Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, May 20, 7 p.m. “Predictable” isn't in Lucinda Hutson’s vocabulary or her garden. Her purple cottage is surrounded by whimsical gardens, folk art and a vast array of plants. Journey with Lucinda on a colorful tour through her legendary Austin gardens filled with a fiesta of fresh herbs, flowers, exotic vines and culinary theme gardens from around the world. Gather inspiration for transforming and personalizing your own gardens. Hutson "garnishes" her gardens as she does her plates – with color and pizzazz, turning everyday meals into a celebration. In her festive recipes, she combines her West Texas heritage with a passion for Mexico, and peppers them with influences from her travels to Europe and Central America. Lucinda Hutson is the author of “The Herb Garden Cookbook,” “Tequila! Cooking With the Spirit of Mexico,” and numerous gardening, cooking and lifestyle features for magazines such as Fine Gardening, Southern Living, Horticulture, Edible Austin and The Herb Companion – many of which have showcased her home and gardens on their cover. She also hosts PBS tours of her garden and seasonal festivities in Austin, Texas. Lucinda Hutson was born and reared in El Paso, Texas, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish. 5:15 p.m.: Tour of Herb Garden ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) JUNE LECTURE: REDEFINING SOUL FOOD: POLITICS AND PLEASURES OF FOOD AND EATING IN THE BLACK COMMUNITIES Bryant Terry, eco-chef and author Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, June 24, 7 p.m. African-American cuisine is popularly equated with well-loved, Southern-style comfort food such as fried chicken and collard greens, black-eye peas and sweet potato pie. But beyond the confines of these popular dishes lies a culinary history and rich heritage of a people who have historically grown their own food, employing gastronomic resourcefulness and creativity to transform local, seasonal, sustainably grown food into hearty, humble and satisfying fare. Join Terry for a discussion about the pleasures of food and eating in African American communities, along with a cooking demonstration and samples of recipes from his latest book, “Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy & Creative African-American Cuisine.” Bryant Terry is a nationally recognized eco-chef, author and food justice activist. His work and recipes have been featured in Gourmet, Food and Wine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Vibe and Domino. Called “ingenious” by The New York Times Magazine, his first book, “Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen” with co-author Anna Lappé, won the 2007 Nautilus Book Award. Bryant travels the country speaking and doing cooking demonstrations at bookstores, farmers markets, co-ops, churches, clubs, cafes, universities and on national TV. He is currently a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a national program of the WK Kellogg Foundation. 5:15 p.m.: Tour of All-America Selections Garden ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) JULY LECTURE: THE KITCHEN ECOSYSTEM Eugenia Bone, food writer Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, July 29, 7 p.m. For Eugenia Bone, the kitchen is an ecosystem with dishes in all stages of life: a bounty of mushrooms or artichokes might, simultaneously, be going into preserves, the freezer, soup stock and dinner. An avid canner, Bone writes not only about how to preserve foods but also how to merge food preservation into a daily kitchen routine. Thrifty prepping and cooking can get you ahead of the dinner curve in ways that are delicious, conscientious and uncomplicated. Eugenia lives in an apartment in New York City and spends summers on a ranch in Crawford, Colo. She puts up foods in both places, regardless of space or equipment issues – neither of which have much to do with successful cooking. Eugenia Bone has written hundreds of articles on food and canning for magazines and newspapers nationwide, including The New York Times, Gourmet, Saveur and Food & Wine. Her first book, “At Mesa's Edge,” was nominated for a Colorado Book Award. Her current book is “Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods” (Potter 2009). Eugenia writes a blog for The Denver Post called "Well-Preserved Colorado." She is currently at work on a book about fungi called “Mycophilia” (Rodale 2011). 5:15 p.m.:Tour of seasonal edible plants in the Gardens ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) OCTOBER LECTURE: LOCAL FLAVORS: COOKING AND EATING FROM AMERICA’S FARMERS MARKETS Deborah Madison, author and chef Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street Mitchell Hall Thursday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m. After years of cooking from the farmers markets (and even managing one), Deborah Madison wanted to take a look at farmers markets across the country to get a better sense of what local, seasonal eating really looks like over time and distance. She crisscrossed the U.S., visiting about 100 markets (Alaska by phone) to see what was there, talked to farmers and recorded their stories about meeting the challenges of growing food. “Local Flavors” is a portrait of America's seasons and regions, connecting recipes and menus to profiles of farmers and markets. Deborah Madison, founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, is a cook, writer and cooking teacher with an emphasis on seasonal produce, and heritage fruit and vegetable varieties. She has authored many award-winning cookbooks, including “The Greens Cookbook” and “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.” Her writing reveals the deeper culture of food through recipes and profiles of farmers, ranchers, producers and cooks. She writes for magazines such as Gourmet, Saveur, Orion and the blog Culinate.com; is on the board of the Seed Savers Exchange; and has been involved with Slow Food for more than a decade. She is currently co-director of the Monte del Sol Edible Kitchen Garden in Santa Fe. 5:15 p.m.: Tour of heirloom vegetables in the Gardens ($5 additional, limited to 25 people) 6 p.m.: Social hour and tasting, hosted by Slow Food Denver (Mitchell Hall) 7 p.m.: Program and book signing (Mitchell Hall) Cost: Pre-registration for individual Bonfils-Stanton programs: $20 member, $25 non-member. Entire series: $110 member, $140 non-member. Day of the event: $30, if space available. To register, and for a complete schedule of the Bonfils-Stanton Lecture Series, visit www.botanicgardens.org and click on the “programs” link, e-mail registrar@botanicgardens.org or call 720-865-3580.
About Denver Botanic Gardens:
Green inside and out, the Gardens is considered one of the top botanical gardens in the United States and a pioneer in water conservation. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Gardens’ living collections encompass specimens from the tropics to the tundra, showcasing a plant palette chosen to thrive in Colorado’s semi-arid climate. The Gardens' dynamic, 23-acre urban oasis in the heart of the city is now in its 50th year, offering unforgettable opportunities to flourish with unique garden experiences for the whole family – as well as world-class education and plant conservation research programs. Additional sites at Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, a 750-acre wildlife and native plant refuge in Jefferson County; and Mount Goliath, a high-altitude trail and interpretive site on the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, extend this experience throughout the Front Range. For more information, visit us online at www.botanicgardens.org or call 720-865-3500.
Contacts:
Will Jones, 720-865-3552
Jonesw@botanicgardens.org
Lyn Berry-Helmlinger, 720-865-3545
BerryHL@botanicgardens.org