Friday, August 20, 2021

Garden Design Tour Reviews: See How Two Unique Gardens in the Garden State, Presented by Metro Hort, Teach Us About Art, Plants, & Nature

 

For true garden enthusiasts there are few things more divine than visiting gardens.  Walking in and through them, igniting all our senses: seeing the blooms and variegated leaves, touching the downy-soft petals; 

 or like member Lynn Torgenson, caressing the Japanese Maple; 

breathing in the heady fragrance, and listening to the breeze riffle through the trees and hearing the birds singing.  

Regrettably, for us garden designers and horticultural professionals, most of the garden tours take place during what is humorously (sarcastically?!) referred to as “the silly season” meaning it’s just bonkers in May and June with barely time to sleep much less take time for the luxury of a garden tour. 

But this year, the garden goddesses aligned. Me and my Duchess team had just completed a very big garden design project; had gotten the annuals in the other clients’ garden beds, managed to weed and prune out the spring bulb “scragglies.” 

So that when I read of the Metro Hort member garden tour - on a Saturday - and not too far from our country house in the Garden State, I jumped for joy.


One of the greatest benefits of being a member of Metro Hort are the field trips. 

And this double header presented us with a tour of the esteemed Pleasant Run Nursery and the Grounds for Sculpture

I had long known about the Pleasant Run Nursery and, in fact, stopped at their booth at the annual Plant-O-Rama to talk plants and secure a catalog ~ which is always brimming with excellent information.  

However, I hadn't visited or used them because they are a wee bit far, I thought, for a garden design resource. I was wrong about that. There is a minimum for pick up that could thwart the daily needs of my hands-on garden designs, especially as it relates to my long-time clients.  But for first installations on new garden designs, this is a stellar plant resource. 

And the Grounds for Sculpture is a haven that not only has hosted my musician brother James who has played there with some frequency (Jazz in the Garden. ahhh) yet I couldn’t ever manage to get there due to work schedules ~ limited time because we were only in the Garden State on weekends, and I was so busy (thankfully) with garden designs and client hort work with my team.  Nevertheless, folks chided me over the years for not visiting there, saying, “Leeann! You of all people should visit. You would looooovvve it.”  

And so I did.  

I visited; I did love it.  

The best part was visiting these two remarkable plant meccas with not only my husband, Bill, but with my fellow Metro Hort professionals. Visiting gardens with plant people is just this side of heaven. 

In great anticipation, I called my flower child friend, Lynn, on our drive down - she and Sabine were motoring together from NYC. We were calibrating the time to our destination (in our version of “are we there yet?!”) and joyful anticipation. Lynn told me there would be bagels and treats upon our arrival.  I was loving it all the more. I was hungry. 


Pleasant Run

The welcome hospitality boded well for the rest of the day. We were indeed greeted with bagels that were Gotham-good! Coffee and water and bonhomie… What could be better? 

In fact, that was just the prelude. 

It was a rather cool day after weeks of high humidity and heat so we had that going for us too. 

Carl, one of the children of the first/original owner is a terrific guide. He is a fifth generation nurseryman with a BS in Botany and oodles of nursery experience in addition to his family’s jewel of an award-winning nursery. He’s abundantly knowledgeable and funny.  At each point, he taught us about his family’s dedication to high-quality native plants and experimenting with undiscovered “new” plants for the marketplace. 

The first thing that struck me and I daresay others in our Hort cohort is how clean the 15-acre nursery is. I mean there are no, or relatively no, weeds! 


And all the plants they provide are in pots/planters. Pleasant Run’s pots are most pristine. 

The nursery is to the trade only. If you want Pleasant Run plants, please ask your garden designer or landscape architect. You will be well rewarded. Pleasant Run specializes in native plants and for that they have been selected as the first wholesale nursery to be recognized as a Garden State Sustainable Business. 


I love good stories. And I’m sure you will appreciate the family story behind the nursery. While we were given the overview while indulging in our bagels and coffee, here is a succinct overview from their web site:  

Pleasant Run Nursery was started on a farm in central New Jersey in 1998 by Richard Hesselein. He had grown up in California as a 4th generation nurseryman, with a degree in botany from Humboldt State University. He relocated to New Jersey in 1977 when he and Heidi Flemer Hesselein (also a 4th generation nurseryperson) were married. Both worked at Princeton Nurseries for a number of years, increasing their love for and knowledge of a very broad range of woody ornamental trees and shrubs, field grown and containerized. Heidi and Richard are NJ Certified Nursery Landscape Professionals through the NJ Nursery & Landscape Association. Richard was awarded NJNLA Nurseryman of the Year in 2008.  When they started Pleasant Run they wanted to pursue their passion for growing hard-to-find and cutting-edge woody plants, perennials, ferns, grasses and vines as well as what has become a growing line of standard garden-worthy landscape plants. Richard’s interest in collecting and grafting Magnolias and other rare ornamentals has added to Pleasant Run’s lengthy list of budded, custom-grown varieties.

Another key difference is that the entire nursery operation is run on solar power. The solar panel grid is big. It’s impressive. And we learned it generates enough energy and electric credits that the nursery can provide back to the network - or in other words, it more than paid for itself.


And the entire operation is run on wireless apps.  They use a sophisticated system that employs moisture meters. “There’s no human errors,” Carl noted. There are sensors in the soil of the pots in all 115 green houses on-property.  While the irrigation duration can run from two to 30 minutes depending on the season and growing needs, he said that the average is about 10 to 20 minutes a day. That’s a lot of water by any measure.  

Which leads to the other thing. 


A surprising and interesting element we learned is that the nursery has to filter all it’s water because there is too much iron in its locale.  Down the road a bit there is no such issue, he lamented. The family early-on installed a state-of-the art iron removal system to improve irrigation water quality in their pump house.

At first blush It seems unfathomable that a business that relies on water so much for its “product” would be located in a place that has a compromised element. Yet, there it was. 

Carl noted they built big, custom tanks that consistently filter the water. And then there are the heaters needed to modulate the water filtration system in the winter.  Such impressive technology to make the plants thrive in an optimum environment. 


He told us they start hanging the plastic on the greenhouses around Thanksgiving.  

It’s interesting that they are crazy-busy in January. They get in the bare root trees from the Netherlands and need to get them planted and growing in time for spring customers. 


They also experiment with just the things they like - maybe 800 or so of some things that please them ~ from seed or from propagation.  Pleasant Run specializes not only in native plants but also new plant introductions and the “unusual” as they characterize it. 

It's a family-run business, after all, and they can take chances and do what tickles them.  

Love it.

We walked this clean, nurtured, and clearly tended nursery, admiring their packing of the plants in pots, (pine bark from NC, dolomitic limestone, peat); the gorgeous trees (the Flame Flower redbud gets 2-3 flushes per year, he claims) and the luscious perennials.  

The ferns were astonishing. Such care is afforded the growing environment; it's not a surprise. 

I have come to adore ferns. Why? I think they are underrated - a victim of a bit of the “plant blindness''.  Meaning that just because the ferns don’t sport sexy big blooms that at a minimum, folks may find ferns boring and at the max, don’t even “see” them.  

I find them cool. Elegant. Classic.  And use them in so many places in my own garden: indoors and outside.  

If you haven’t considered accessorizing with the oh-so-many varieties of ferns, I encourage you to do so.  Search.  Or ask me.  I’m happy to help guide your fern exploration. (Smile) 


We also enjoyed touring their own homestead garden beds and the variety of planting compositions there.

The lucky strike extra of a Pleasant Run tour are the variety of animals and birds ~ donkeys and chickens and my favorite: peacocks!  They are just so enchanting.  Although I did find Carl’s reference to their head size/brains funny, I remain a huge fan.  (Ha. Their tails are a fan.  See how these exotic birds are just so special?)  

As an aside, my summer tablescape features my Lenox Marchesa Peacock dinnerware. ANd the best part ~ you're gonna love this ~ the collective for peacocks is: a Party!  See my Tablescape post(s). So pretty… 

Please enjoy these images from Pleasant Run. You’ll see the allium millennial, blue cloud nepeta, redbuds ~ my new heartthrob this year is the Rising Sun Redbud tree that we saw here, at the next garden stop and that I’d spec’d out for two garden design clients. The gorgeous fuchsia spring blooms, the heart shaped apricot leaves that mature to shades of orange, gold, and yellow all at once.  


Thank you, Carl and Pleasant Run. 

All too soon, we needed to depart for the Grounds for Sculpture. 


Grounds for Sculpture

Not too far distance-wise, the two locales have in common the fact that they are family owned. But in the case of the Grounds for Sculpture, the family is the uber- wealthy, Johnson & Johnson family. (Not to say the Hesselein’s aren’t also uber-wealthy, it’s just they are not traded on the stock exchange!) 


And the other difference is that the plants and landscape garden displays here at the Grounds for Sculpture were/are intended to provide a backdrop or a kind of stagecraft for philanthropist Seward Johnson’s art.  It opened in 1992 on the former New Jersey State Fairgrounds. 

Later, on the tour, we learned how folks who lived on the other side of the Fairgrounds’ racetrack, now live on lake front property due to the landscape design!  Talk about getting lucky…


Back to the tour.  We enjoyed a most pleasant lunch on a terrace that snuggles up to one of the designed ponds. 

At the start of our tour here, we were introduced to Janis Napoli, Horticulturist. Janis is extraordinary! She manages this entire operation with just her staff and just two gardeners. And so she really appreciates her Volunteers.  Janis worked at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and I’m sorry my time working there as Director and Vice President of Communications didn’t coincide with her time there. So close…  Janies also worked at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and worked at the Chinese Scholar Garden and Snug Harbor Botanical Garden in Staten Island.  

Yet she is a Jersey Girl! So it’s safe to say that Janis has found her North Star at the Sculpture Gardens. 


Janis provided us an overview of Seward and his foundry and school and atelier and how the landscape came to be.  

In the mid 80’s he purchased the NJ State Fair Ground - in parcels -  as a place to showcase his art.  Today, the landscape is 42 acres.  

It was a race track so understandably, the soil was very poor. 

The main objective initially was to improve that soil and get fast-growing plants and compositions in there.  

Brian Cary was the original landscape designer.  Many in our group know/knew Brian and were very happy with seeing his work.

I’ll be honest about some of the “sculptures.” They are soooo big and kinda’ intimidating.  

Greeting us was “Confrontation Vulnerability,” a HUGE woman lying in repose, was created by Seward Johnson. 


I couldn’t quite get my head around this one, and the conversation with the group was restoring the rose beds that surrounded the big lady. 

I re-focused my attention away from “Confrontation.
The roses were/are suffering from the rose rosette disease.  Janis explained how they are cleaning the plants vigorously in order to remedy.

Rosette disease, to my knowledge, doesn’t affect heirloom or what I call, “real” roses but rather the branded, continuous blooming hybrids (carefree, knockout, etc,). The disease is a virus, spread, or vectored by a mite; it causes the plant parts to grow eerily deformed. 

https://live.staticflickr.com/4121/4937748613_8c570762f8_b.jpg

I didn’t suggest it there but when I discovered this horrific condition on some of my own roses, last year, I learned there is no cure, really.  You need to rip it out the plant and dispose of it appropriately (read, not in the compost). 

This disease is devastating to gardens and public parks that thought these roses were the miracle answer to the look of roses without the work… Wishing good health to the roses there. I'll pray to the rose goddesses. 


We were told Seward’s oeuvre, such as it is, was to take an Impressionist painting and recreate the entire scene. As the quantity of big art Johnson turned out, he needed a place to display it. The Grounds for Sculpture was born.

As in, “Dejeuner Deja Vu,” the picnic scene from Edouard Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass,” with the nude lady and men sitting by the in-situ pond Seward created. 

This was almost my favorite. But more for discovering the snake there while I was taking a photo behind the bronze figures! (see my Instagram post). Fun. 

The Johnson recreation of Monet’s “Terrasse at Sainte-Adresse” (a garden design inspiration for one of my client’s, whose lovely home is perched on the water. I wanted to “frame” the view as Monet did).   

“If It Were Time,” is Seward’s 1999 metal, bronze, and aluminum installation. It was special - and all the more so because the lake where the figures are strolling is a landscaped addition.  What is now a lake was the former racetrack area!


The contemporary art installations are truly fabulous. And the diversity of sculpture is extraordinary. I often lament the fact that we don’t see good sculpture ~ or much of any sculpture at all in the galleries as of late. So, all in all, the Grounds for Sculpture is a marvelous, unique place that I recommend you visit too. 

It’s not a surprise that there are a lot of weddings on-site. 

It’s said that Gardens are the slowest of the performing arts. 

That truism is particularly resonant here.

The garden art and the sculpture art combine to present a very unique experience.  

There is the art, of course, but also the use of, do I say technology to evoke an otherworldly experience? 

To wit, we crossed a bridge from the opposite side of the more formal dining area ~ different from the lunch place we enjoyed. And there in the created pond were misters. 

They created this transporting, rather erotic scene, especially evocative given the art there. Do I need to say nude women?

I was captivated nonetheless and sparked laughs when I fervently suggested to Bill that misters are definitely what we need in our home garden! 


He blanched! 


There are plenty of delightful surprises as you turn almost every corner. 

The Gloria Vanderbilt art display is encased in its 6x6 plexiglass box is an unsettling piece but I like it... And the story behind it. 


By and large, the landscape is there as a backdrop for the art. 

But the irony of that is that for the most part, the art is static - it doesn’t change or look different. But the gardens do! The plant compositions are really what will bring visitors back time and again, and in each season, because the garden art is what truly sparks one’s curiosity and joy. 

From a professional standpoint, I fear that the quick-growing plants that were put in to provide the artful backgrounds or complements, will burgeon into a kind of burdensome albatross. Even now, the hort team is tasked with lots of “editing” i.e. removing so many of the aggressive plants (e.g. bamboo, parrot weed, lotus) and/or very hard pruning to keep them in check.  (I think this will be the case at the new Little Island park in New York City, as well. More on that in a future post.) Seems patience for an emerging garden is in short supply… 


Whether one is designing for a public space or your own yard, it’s important to bear in mind that gardens are dynamic. The exterior design is impacted by a number of things including nearby trees that become mature over time, shading out a once-sunny spot, or the addition of random plants that are brought in by what the botanists refer to as the “poo factor” ~ meaning birds carry seeds. And then drop them. You see where I’m going with this. Subsequently, the seed grows.  

And climate chaos presents a Pandora’s Box of horticulture challenges. Garden design is not like interior design where the thing you put in today will stay that way until you decide to move it. Plants are living creatures!  They are always changing. 

The horticulturists at the Grounds for Sculpture are up to the task; maintaining what was described as four main parts of the 42-acre oasis.

We were completely entranced on our tour. If you go, you can do a self-guided tour or arrange for a docent or horticulturist to lead you, as well. You can download a guided tree tour beforehand, for your visit. 

I loved the maple allé; the Monkey Puzzle plant they’ve been nurturing for two years and that Janis proudly showed off, with good reason; the faux poppy plants showcased in the “On Poppy Hill” installation was a delightful surprise ~ and provided the gravitas for me to not just mix faux plants with real ones indoors but to use this “design deception” outdoors too.  With discretion, of course. (smile) 

They have some spectacular trees on-property here - we were awestruck by more than a few (Southern Live Oak, Pond Cypress, Korean Sweetheart Tree (Euscaphis japonica) The common name is in reference to the heart-shaped seed pods of this tree. 

The orchard area is great. Loved the Strawberry Parfait crabapple cultivar. I learned the spring flowers open to pink with red margins followed by what was described as prolific red apples in the fall.

Near one of the dining areas we saw they were cultivating rice, and admired some of the perennial design plantings there. I very much liked their use of the yellow & orange colors using asclepia & knophia, or Torch Lily, as a design idea.  

Plants as Fashion?! Yes... I also liked how our Metro Hort colleague's pants complimented that happy orange plant color.


Frank Sinatra famously said, “Orange is the happiest color.” Love that Frank color quote & so much more about my favorite Garden State crooner.



I also admired the herbaceous, creeping raspberry as a ground cover.

It was a terrific day for us horticulturists. Our first outing together since the pandemic. And I learned so much.  Thank you, Metro Hort and especially Sabine, for arranging it all.  


Membership has its benefits.  


Wednesday, August 4, 2021

How to Build an International Food Brand: Inspiring Story from Natalia Ravida, Sicily's Award-Winning Family Olive Oil Maker

 

It was my first International Ladies Who Lunch Conversation. 

I pursued Natalia Ravida as a special guest to talk about her successful career in the food industry, building a global brand and her adherence to high quality.  From the first time I met Natalia as part of the European Union’s outreach here in the US where she joined two other key industry leaders as part of the Italian Consortium, CEQ Italia, along with the Spanish EVOO Association QVExtra! International.  I worked for the Consortium, and I couldn’t help but be impressed with her confident, cool-handed smarts and her cosmopolitan style.   

Natalia Ravida is president and owner of RAVIDA' Azienda Agricola, an Italian olive oil producer just west of Menfi and she linked in from her family’s farm estate. As part of the Ladies Who Lunch Conversation, I asked her about her career trajectory, and she explained how she left a career as an international print, radio and television journalist to develop a quality olive oil brand, RAVIDA, out of the oil produced on the family estate in Menfi, Sicily. Natalia works full time in her family’s olive oil business, combining brand promotion with farm tours, olive oil tastings and cooking classes.

I asked her about how she built her family’s brand “empire” - and she laughed a bit saying it’s not exactly an empire but rather a small business run by her and her sisters. I’ll add that I love it all even more knowing that a family team of women make this magic.  

Later I asked her how she fared in this business as a woman. You’ll be charmed by her description of how having no sibling brothers - the first time in 13 generations - contributed to her fearless prowess in business, perhaps.  

You’ll enjoy the background story of how she grew up and went to schools in Kenya, Rome, and London (hence her charming British “accent.”)  And how she convinced her engineer father to take over the reins of the farm from her grandfather when he wanted to hand over the business. The family farm at La Gurra has been in the Ravida family since 1770! All I could think was thank goodness Natalia and her sisters kept this jewel of legacy. Maybe not surprising, she tells how her engineer father made some modernizing upgrades to the farm’s operations. That and his love and respect for nature, especially for those old trees  - set them up for future success. When they finally won their first award - and Sicily’s first for olive oil, then he threw his full support behind the business.  And the awards never stopped coming.  Recently, Natalia and her sisters introduced a limited edition blend as an homage to their father: Nicolo’s Blend.  I can imagine the love that went into this special release and can’t wait to taste it. 

I asked Natalie what she knew about the olive oil business when they started their reign at the farm.  “Nothing,” she replied with a smile.  “But I knew I loved it!” she added enthusiastically.  (Olive oil, that is.)

She tells how in the early days she would always carry bottles back on the plane with her to London and friends would ask, “What is this?!”  The taste was so unique to them. Quite different from the store bought stuff, I am willing to bet.  Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s it was really the wine producers who started producing good olive oil.  When I asked how folks got their olive oil, Natalie described how in the south of Italy - people would go to the olive oil presses bringing their jars with them and would buy say, 50 litres  -  enough for most of the year.  So good olive oil was had at home in Italy but nothing for the  international customer. There were  just the cheap supermarket brands. This bad industrial olive oil paved the way for such product misunderstanding for so long that that the high-quality olive oil producers work assiduously to debunk - decades later.  

Estate olive oil like Ravida’s is grown on the farm, overlooking the beautiful and pristine Mediterranean Sea, in a sanctuary of preserved flora and wildlife, and hand-picked at the harvest - a process much like vintners growing grapes for their wines.

You’ll hear Natalia describe how important all this is for the taste of their olive oil - how a good quality olive oil will have a mild, medium, or intense grassy nose; a long peppery taste in the back of the throat and a beautiful, Ravida finish is very clean. Not greasy on lips. It tastes of fresh grass or leaves, lemons, salt and/or artichokes. 

Depending on the variety, olive oil and the extra virgin olive oil has its own distinct character – fruity or aromatic, sweet or bitter, with differing intensity of the spicy aftertaste. These extra virgin olive oils all have their own nuances, contrasts and flavors, but what they have in common is that their production has been closely controlled – from the flower to the bottle – with the main aim of providing the highest possible quality.
 

Did you know the terroir and the variety affects the taste of a good olive oil?  Again, like vintners, the soil and the climate affects the taste. Natalia made us all pea-green when she tells us their farm looks out on the Mediterranean - so there’s the effect of salt air in the olives.  They also grow in the mountains nearby and those olives have a milder taste. 

Do you know how long olive trees can live?  Tune in to find out :)  Natalie reveals the longevity of these astonishing trees - whose trunks can look like elephant feet. And describes the three Sicilian native tree varieties they nurture. 

I asked Natalia for some pearls of wisdom about a career in the food business. Hear how she explains her love of food. “As Italians, in Sicily, it’s a way of sharing.” Seasonal ingredients are the base of everything they do. And they don’t use a drizzle of olive oil. No, they let the ingredients take up that oil!  I can personally attest to this! “If the olive oil is a good quality, it adds taste & flavor,” she noted. Natalia gives a few of her cooking experiences before making her family’s award-winning olive oil ~ and after, in order to amplify the point. Some are funny ones we can all relate to.  I admire and respect that Natalia is a kind of her own focus group and test kitchen. Because she’s both a prolific and a good cook; she has the gravitas to teach us how to use the olive oil in the best way - to make our dishes and recipes soar.  

We then moved on from the exquisite taste to the health benefits of good olive oil.  This liquid gold checks all the boxes: high antioxidants, higher nutritional value, helps prevent heart disease and there’s studies about its effect on doing likewise for dementia.  She told us about her father “just knew” the olive oil had high levels of vitamin D; so she is planning to test this theory.  Wonderful!  I can think of many women and ederly folks who will very much appreciate knowing that olive oil can help support healthy bone density. 

Never one to sit on their success with “just” the olive oil, not too long ago, Ravida also started harvesting salt from the nearby sea and offering different flavors, including fennel and oregano sea salt as part of their collection.  Brand extension!  Again, Natalia focused on simple, natural, seasonal ingredients that she uses, i.e. olive oil and local salt, to add to seasonal fruits and vegetables especially, like chopped tomatoes.  See below for one of her recipes. 


I asked Natalia to showcase her book and she held it up, turning some pages to some of her favorite dishes, including sardines with pine nuts and salt and olive oil.  Sounded just heavenly to me.  Bill? Not so much.  Ha.   

In all seriousness, we are advocating that the publisher, New Holland, reprints her book, Seasons of Sicily 

Don’t you just love this tempting cover food art? Talk about “eating with your eyes first…” The book is brimming with Natalia’s simple, delicious family and regional recipes. 


Natalia then shows the viewer each of her olive oils from the Ravida collection. The bottles are as pretty as a still-life, too. Not unlike using their nearby sea salt, her family saw opportunity with their orange and lemon trees, Pressing and extracting  into their EVOO. You can mix with their marsala vinegar, she suggested or use the mandarin orange with duck, lamb, tomatoes. Or on mozzarella.  They go with so much.  She noted that the lemon EVOO just won an award in the UK. 

I am over the moon happy to share the news that at the time of the Ladies Who Lunch Conversation with Natalia, she broke the news that RAVIDA had just obtained GOLD at the prestigious New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) ~ their 33rd award in 30 years of business.

In the Olive Oil Times, Natalia was quoted as saying, "Reaching the top ranks of the world’s leading olive oil contest confirms our commitment to offering the final consumer an excellent quality oil. It's a must have harvest! Grassy, peppery, elegant: RAVIDA at its best!” 

Where to Find Ravida's Olive Oil

You can shop the Ravida website for everything at www.ravida.it and in the US from www.Olio2 Go.com Williams Sonoma, Formaggio Kitchen in Boston and many other outlets coming up soon. Bill and I have long purchased our RAVIDA Olive Oil at Sickles Market when we are at our country house in the Garden State. Natalia promised that this year’s blends are excellent due to a great harvest!   

I sincerely hope you learn from the Conversation: about the different plants - olive tree plants and how they account for different taste characteristics, production methods and standards, benefits and the role of extra virgin olive oil in the Mediterranean diet, key elements in determining quality, how terroir influences flavor profiles, and how to cook with olive oil and EVOO. I also hope you will be inspired by a remarkable, successful woman...

Here is the link to the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations with Natalia 

And just as we were wrapping up, the tech gremlins had their way. Yet, not to be cheated out of a proper goodbye sign-off, Natalia demonstrated her attention to detail and the appropriate way to end a conversation by jumping right back on a linked call. What a professional! A truly inspiring woman...

I noted, “We are polite people,” and of course, wanted to bring Natalia back. 

So, just like in a novel’s dramatic resolution, here is the Denouement of my Ladies Who Lunch with Natalia Ravida - from her farm in Sicily ~ completing the part about the old tree varietals.  (Denouement means, “untying the knot” ~ the conclusion after a narrative. So it’s really a perfect resolution.)

We could honestly toast arrivederci and grazie mille/molte grazie..  

Too much for just one video conversation (ha!); please enjoy the two video Conversations with Natalia and me!  

Food News & Recipes

For her Happy May posting on her website, Natalia tells how she put together “a special sea salt gift to uplift your daily meals wherever you are. Be it a mango and avocado salad, a gently poached or fried egg, a sprinkling of natural sea salt combined with our wonderful, luscious olive oil can turn a simple meal into a gourmet affair.  Natalia recommends you “make sure to have this magnesium rich flavor enhancer in your cupboard alongside a fresh bottle of olive oil.”  Not surprisingly, she says it’s what she uses in her kitchen everyday.  On top of this, being a natural unrefined sea salt (with no additives), you need so much less to achieve your final flavor profile.

And did you know olive oil oxidizes in contact with oxygen, heat and light?

Natalia explains: “Olive oil is a delicate product that needs to be properly stored.

The high level of natural antioxidants (found in quality olive oils) will give it a longer shelf  life maintaining its flavor and taste.

Yet, she writes, that these wonderful characteristics will slowly disappear once the bottle is left open, near a source of heat, its top greasy with oil that has been poured out. Gradually, the oxidation process sets off destroying all those divine flavors and precious nutritional properties.”

To store olive oil in total absence of light and oxygen, back in 1993 we introduced the Oilbox to the world of olive oil. See where she keeps her Oilbox? Handy for all her cooking. Its spout is flexible and the box equally handy, she describes how she can readily pour oil on a slice of bread from her Oilbox.   I confess, as I was writing this and read Natalia’s tips, I had to take a break and go tear off a piece of my mother’s delicious homemade bread ~ now referred to as “Ginny’s Bread,” thanks to Wendy and Ken's sweet moniker.  I took a piece of the heel of the bread and christened the bread with some of Ravida’s liquid gold on it.  Mmmmmm…. 




Recipe          

Here is her favorite tomato salad recipe. Bright, red..the color of love. 

To make the salad, Natalia says: 

  • start by cutting half an onion into slivers and marinate 5-10 minutes with a cup of water and 1 tbsp of RAVIDA's wonderfully aromatic Marsala Wine Vinegar.

  • Meanwhile chop 8/10 sun-ripened cherry tomatoes in half or quarters.

  • Squeeze excess water from the onion, add to the tomatoes and season with a pinch of RAVIDA Oregano Sea Salt to taste, 2 tbsp of RAVIDA Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a dash more RAVIDA Vinegar.

Enjoy Sicily on your plate!


Olive Oil Cocktail

And back in the “Before Times” ~ in 2018 to be exact ~ the year I first started working on the two-year project with the Consortium, I was inspired to create an olive oil cocktail as a delicious homage.  

The ingredients included in my crafted Olive Oil cocktail is made with blood orange infused olive oil,  Salerno, Aperol, orange blossom water, and either Pelligrino (or any other sparkling water).  


Please email me for the recipe. It's a delicious keeper.

*Images of Ravida Estate, Farm, Natalia in her kitchen and products are courtesy of Ravida web site. Screen shots and the beautiful Natalia and olive oil cocktail are mine. 

Saturday, May 29, 2021

A Fantasy Tea Party Celebration Interview Showcases How to Balance Family, Career, & Community, Plus Tablescape & Menu Ideas

 

It seems like almost yesterday that my dear Homegrown friend, Nancy Valarella, reached out to me to suggest that she and her culinary cohort, Myra Naseem, be interview guests on my recently-launched Ladies Who Lunch Conversations show on Facebook. 

She had me at Tea Party!

Nancy suggested our upcoming interview segment feature a Mother’s Day Tea Party theme. 

Oh the possibilities!  I was transported to visions of elegant Bridgerton, Barry Lyndon, and whimsical Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter for a fantasy tablescape and fashions ....

Meanwhile, Nancy was explaining that Myra is affectionately known as “Mama” Myra by her family and close friends. This prompted me to invite my own Mother, Virginia, to co-host the special Mother’s Day Ladies Who Lunch tea party with me. 

This was to be my first "Double Feature" interview, meaning two ladies to interview on the guest side, and in turn, two at my table: Me and Mother. Just to balance things out. And allow me to showcase my beautiful Mother :)

I know Nancy from my Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook. As you will see and hear in the Ladies Who Lunch interview, we have had a few Thelma & Louise adventures! 

From the start, Nancy was abuzz with the food and drink possibilities and ideas about their pretty table design to highlight the springtime tea party. See, Nancy possesses not only a culinary cachet but also a “look-book” styling talent that embellishes an entertaining composition, in every season. From the get-go, the stars were aligning portending this was going to be a truly elegant episode. 

From her first postings on social media, Nancy showcased the incredibly beautiful, antique china sets her father-in-law brought back from Japan where  he was stationed while in the service.  

 

I was gobsmacked. Not only for their delicate charm and macaron colors but also because they are still in pristine condition. Not a broken handle or chip in any of the pieces!  That’s surely tender loving care and respect for the entertaining tableware…

You can view Nancy’s china art sets on her Facebook page: @What’sCookinLongIslandLocavore and at her Instagram: @lilocavore495 to see her museum-worthy china art. 

We also owe deep gratitude to SerendipiTea   

Flavour Fields, and Hither Brook Floral & Gift BoutiqueNancy, Myra, and me thank you from the bottom of our homegrown hearts for sharing your exquisite products - the best ingredients ~ that elevated our cocktail and food recipes. We unabashedly recommend these tea blends. And don’t get me started about Flavour Fields’ microgreens, herbs, spices, and be-still-my-finishing-touches heart: edible flowers. Please check out these inspired growers and small business wonders. 

Speaking of wonders, during the Ladies Who Lunch episode, we learned how Myra acquired her “Mama Myra moniker.” (Wow. I always love a kind of alliteration but I think this is a first for me to showcase three!) and how her B.S. in Home Economics from SUNY and a master’s degree from NYU, and teaching job in Patchogue High School all continue to contribute to what is now her decades-on success in her catering and cooking classes career. Listen to how she describes her teaching and instructional pedigree… 

Along with her partner, Neil, Elegant Eating has been a catering gem in the Smithtown/Stony Brook area for over three decades. 

Nancy noted that “Elegant Eating food tastes as good as it looks. In addition to putting food in our bellies and smiles on our faces, both Neil and Myra have been actively supporting the community. In 2017, Myra and the team were honored by the Smithtown Children’s Foundation for their effort and support within the Smithtown community.”

This fall, 2021, the Smithtown Historical Society is honoring “Mama” Myra for her steadfast support and will be recognized with the “Rockwell Award.” 

Here’s a bit of context for the Rockwell Award: 

The Rockwell Award honors the memory of Charles Embree Rockwell, who through his generous donation of Roseneath Cottage and the surrounding property has enabled the Society to grow and become an integral part of the community. This year’s recipient Myra Naseem, co-owner of Elegant Eating demonstrates this same generous spirit through her contributions of goods and services to the Smithtown Historical Society’s many events. By donating numerous culinary creations and exquisite tablescapes as well as providing top level service, Myra has helped to make our events beautiful and successful. It was because of Myra’s generosity and talent for adapting during the pandemic, that the Historical Society was able to hold a compliant celebration of our 2020 honorees this past October. Myra has also generously provided delicious treats for other events such as our Honoree Breakfast and our Evening with a Star Interview series; garnering praise and appreciation from attendees. Additionally, Myra has brought many new sponsors to the Historical Society and it is for this generosity of spirit and willingness to work for the good of the Society that we wish to thank Myra.

Please view the Ladies Who Lunch episode to understand better Myra’s advice for female entrepreneurs looking to start and grow a burgeoning business…“If you are willing to put the time and effort into it, anything is possible” are some of Myra’s pearls of wisdom and inspiration.

Nancy, too, is an inspiring woman. After a career in technology, Nancy became a full-time Mother and caregiver to her three daughters. When the youngest entered middle school, the desire to re-enter the world was fulfilled by food writing and volunteer work.

While writing for hyper-local publications, she was asked to chair fundraising events for Stony Brook University’s Nutrition Department and the Smithtown Children’s Foundation. Nancy later became an Advisory Board Member and Public Relations contact for the Smithtown Children’s Foundation.

You can purchase Myra’s cookbook and help support this effective community Foundation. In 2015 Nancy was honored with the Inspirational Community Leader Award given by the Smithtown Children’s Foundation.

Nancy is proud to note that she has had the honor of cooking alongside regionally renowned Chefs Guy Reuge and Tom Schaudel, has rubbed elbows and has shared banter with culinary icons Martha Stewart, Chefs Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio, Michael Symon and restaurateur extraordinaire, Danny Meyer.

Nancy’s foodie chops include: recipe development, cooking contests winner.  I regret that I only recently learned she had a recipe featured in the Wall Street Journal!  


Nancy also had a recipe featured in Newsday for her Spiralized Zucchini Noodles with Poached Chicken Tenders.  

I so love that Nancy wrote that she has stopped counting the number of cookbooks in her collection. We all need more cookbooks!

In fact, as you’ll hear on the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations I am going to strongly advocate that a smart publisher take on Nancy to create a Polish inspired cookbook, with a kind of deconstructed or derivative take on some classic dishes.  I think this style of ethnic recipes is ready for its moment! All good, healthy, traditional comfort food with a twist of updated elegance and style. 

Don’t you agree? 


Nancy has also been a catalyst for all things local in her environ as a Farmers’ Market Manager & Cooking Demonstrator at Long Island Greenmarkets. In addition to numerous local publications, Nancy’s writing has been published regionally in Edible Long Island and the Long Island Press. 

Nancy and Myra are truly inspirational: managing family, career, and community. We salute these great dames and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to explore their journeys.  Not to be outdone, my mother Virginia also shares her ability to balance a career as a registered nurse with raising a family.  

I’ve always admired that Ginger Rogers’ quote about “doing everything backwards in high heels” to emphasize that ladies make it look easy in spite of difficulty.  

I bow to you inspired ladies. I salute you.  And really ~ every day is Mother’s Day.   Thank you, Nancy, Myra, and Mother!  It is a lovely Tea Party indeed. And you not only inspired my early-May tablescape but you also prompted me to showcase my childhood tea party set! Girls love tea parties.

This episode fueled a unique, fun, Bridgerton meets Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter tea party tablescape! You all can see a video capture on my YouTube. (and subscribe too, please.) wink. 

Entertaining table decor and inspiring women is a potent combination for fun and fantasy and all good things…. Cheers.