Vine to Table

From Amazon.com: "Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland."

Join Culinary Dietitian Dixya Bhattarai as she discusses the importance of incorporating fermented foods in your diet for better digestion. Sample some fermented foods and learn how to brew your own "Kombucha" - fizzy fermented tea at home.

Instructor Dixya Bhattarai graduated with a major in dietetics and a minor in Biology from Idaho State University in 2010 before she received a Master of Science in Nutrition in 2016. She has 6+ years of experience in acute care clinical dietetics and food service management. She also collaborates with corporate wellness companies through nutrition education, cooking demonstration, and workshops. To learn more about Dixya, please visit: https://www.foodpleasureandhealth.com/.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$30 members/$35 non-members

This presentation explores some of the folklore and science behind the burgeoning use of selected mushrooms for health purposes. It also examines the controversies surrounding various preparations and their marketing, as well as possible side effects. It reviews the few human clinical studies and how to critically evaluate medical and nutritional information.
 

Denis R Benjamin MD - Brief Biography 

Denis R Benjamin grew up in South Africa, emigrating to the Pacific Northwest in 1970. He practiced pediatric pathology at the children's hospitals in Seattle, Washington and Fort Worth, Texas. He became an amateur mycologist soon after his arrival in the USA. He is a Research Associate at the Botanic Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth. He was a consultant to the regional poison control center, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Puget Sound Mycological Society and a past Chairman of the Toxicology Committee of the North American Mycological Association. He is frequent speaker at mushrooms clubs and societies. In addition to nearly 100 professional publications, he has contributed to the lay literature and mushroom magazines. He was chosen to be a community Op/Ed writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. He is author of the landmark book on the health effects of mushrooms (Mushrooms: Poisons and Panaceas) and published a collection of mushroom foraging essays (Musings of a Mushroom Hunter: A Natural History of Foraging). He is also a watercolorist focusing on fungi and botanical art.

Feeling inspired by a grassland or forest but can't quite capture your experience into one succinct image or painting? By shifting our lens and adapting a looser style, we can illustrate our inspiration through sketching and storytelling. Our nature sketching workshop will combine a visual method of storytelling with a keen eye for the natural world to give our artwork context for our interest and inspiration to share. We will use pencils and watercolors to do some on-site sketching of botanical specimens around BRIT and do a little research about our chosen specimens to more fully illustrate their story.

Instructor Owen Curtsinger is a comic artist and scientific illustrator based in Fort Worth, Texas. For years he created and self-published comics and zines in Seattle's thriving independent comics scene, usually focusing on scientific research topics such as narwhal evolutionary biology, the science of neon signs, and solar magnetism. In 2016 he received a Certificate in Natural Science Illustration from the University of Washington, which introduced him to more technical methods of observation and illustration of plants and animals. Since moving to Texas in 2017 he has become fascinated with the botany and ecology of Texas' many ecoregions, and he is now focused on botanical illustration while striving to connect botany to the narrative storytelling thread found in comics and sequential art.

Required materials:

Your favorite pencil and/or pen.
A sketchbook with quality paper or a block of watercolor paper.
A small travel watercolor set with appropriate brushes (waterbrushes are great for mobility but not required) or a set of quality colored pencils if that is your preferred medium.
A digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera.
Clothing appropriate for the weather (we'll be outside for part of the time!).

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$85 members/$95 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Flummoxed by vegetable gardening? You’ll learn how to be successful this season in your garden with this mix of presentation and hands on seminar. A wide range of topics will be covered including site selection, irrigation, soil biology, specialty gardens like herb, salad and salsa gardens, and much more. 

Instructors Kim Martin and Laurie Bostic, owners of Barking Cat Farm, focus on growing high quality crops in an organic and sustainable manner. Brix testing is done regularly to monitor the nutritional quality of the produce and compost and compost teas are applied to the soil to ensure that soil biology is constantly improving. Both Laurie & Kim have their Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Design Course. Both have studied under Dr. Elaine Ingham and are working towards becoming Certified Soil Life Consultants. They offer permaculture design and soil biology consulting services to other growers and gardeners.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$75 members/$85 non-members

Registration opens soon!

From Amazon.com: ""I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams's mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?"

Learn how to combine annuals, perennials, shrubs and tropical plants in beds and containers to achieve stunning results in your landscape. We'll work with both cool and warm season plants to create year-round color combinations. After the class, we will view some of the plant combinations in beds and containers around the Botanic Garden. Please wear comfortable walking shoes.

Please note: This class is coordinated by TCU. To register, or for more information, please click on the registration button to the left.

Join the Advanced Master Gardener Plant Propagation team as they teach you to expand your landscape plants without buying them!  Learn to propagate by using cuttings to clone your favorite landscape plants.  You will choose cuttings and leave with pots full of cuttings that you will be able to plant in your landscape.

The Advanced Master Gardener Plant Propagation Team of Loretta Bailey, Bobbye Hitzfeld and Betty Starnes and Sue Sappington love gardening of all kinds but especially the propagation of plants by cuttings.  They have received advanced training in all types of propagation. Among them they have over 10 years in the Master Gardener program and 60 years in growing and loving plants!  

Please note: This class will take place at the FWBG.

$20 members/$25 non-members

Registration opens soon!

This eight-week course teaches a beginner form of t'ai chi as created by Master Sun Lu Tang nearly a century ago. It's designed to give the busy office worker, student or senior a practical means of acquiring greater balance, strength and peace of mind. The emphasis is on stress reduction and relaxation. You'll practice at the most beautiful spot in the Japanese Garden in the Botanic Garden in Fort Worth.

Please note: This class is coordinated by TCU. For more information, or to register, please click the registration button to the left.

This eight-week course teaches a beginner form of t'ai chi as created by Master Sun Lu Tang nearly a century ago. It's designed to give the busy office worker, student or senior a practical means of acquiring greater balance, strength and peace of mind. The emphasis is on stress reduction and relaxation. You'll practice at the most beautiful spot in the Japanese Garden in the Botanic Garden in Fort Worth.

Please note: This class is coordinated by TCU. For more information, or to register, please click the registration button to the left.

Monarchs return to our area in March to begin the next generation of butterflies. Get the basics on creating (and certifying) a monarch waystation, find out what plants are best for our area, and learn about citizen science efforts you can participate in from your backyard.

Instructor Gail Manning is an entomologist and has been at the Botanic Garden for 13 years. Her focus is conservation and citizen science, primarily on the monarch butterfly.

Please note: This class will be held at the FWBG.

$20 members/ $25 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Join Trip Smith in this introduction to bee keeping including history of bee keeping, why we need bees, challenges to bees in general.  You will also learn about bee colonies, bee hives, and other associated issues. In this introductory class you will learn how to set up your own hives.

Instructor Trip Smith is a Horticulturist with a BS 1971 and MA 1977 degree in horticulture from Texas A@M University. He has been a bee keeper since the early 80s. He is working to establish an apiary at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and has been with the Garden as the Conservation Curator since 2008.

Please note: This class will be held at the FWBG.

$30 members/$35 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Lip ferns (Myriopteris) are xeric-adapted, rupestral components of the New World desert flora. Distributed primarily throughout the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Andean South America, the clade comprises roughly 50 species and is notable for exhibiting widespread hybridization, polyploidy, and apomixis. In recent years, improved phylogenetic inferences have helped to elucidate an array of reticulate relationships across the genus. Here, I present these phylogenetic insights, along with new data exploring genome and life history evolution in Myriopteris. I provide a detailed discussion of how museum collections, cytogenetics, and deep sequencing have been used to expose the evolutionary history of this clade, beginning in deep time—when Myriopteris first radiated within the Pteridaceae—through to present day species complexes.

As your landscapes mature, trees get larger and cast more shade on the garden, so you must change your landscape to include shade-tolerant plants. We'll introduce you to the best annuals, perennials, shrubs and ground covers for shade. Come learn how you can create a beautiful shade garden!

Please note: This class is coordinated by TCU. For more information, or to register, please click the registration button to the left.

Join the Master Gardener Bulb team as they share their extensive experience growing all types of bulbs.  You will learn the different types of bulbs including tunicate, imbricate, corms, tubers and rhizomes. You will also engage in hands-on activities on how to plant bulbs in pots and in the ground, how to force bulbs to bloom and how to propagate bulbs from seeds and from chipping to expand your collection.  You will leave with bulbs in pots and cut bulbs to plant in the fall.  

The Master Gardener Bulb Propagation team of Claire Alford, Jeanie Browning, Rocky Duetscher and Mary Reagor specialize in growing and propagating bulbs in their own landscapes, they continually search for bulbs that grow in this region and they teach bulb care to garden clubs in the area.  Together they have over 36 years in Master Gardening experience.

Please note: This class will be held at the FWBG.

$30 members/$35 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Come stitch with us!

GROW adult education is thrilled to welcome Colleen Duarte of And Other Adventures Embroidery who will walk you through step-by-step instructions for the 5 basic stitches used in her Wildflower Hoop.  In addition to step by step instructions, Colleen will share with you the tips and tricks she has picked up over the years and she'll get you started on your own Wildflower Hoop.

This workshop is perfect for all levels so whether you already know your way around a hoop or you have never picked up a needle before, there is a little something for everyone. Please keep in mind, hand embroidery is a slow craft that is meant to be done at a leisurely pace.  While we will have time to walk-through and practice each stitch during the class, it is expected that additional stitching time will be required at home in order to complete the project.

A full Wildflower Hoop embroidery kit  in your choice of color palette is included with your tuition. Additional kits will be available for purchase.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$60 member/$65 non-member

Lichens were long thought to be symbiotic associations of two (or rarely three) organisms, the fungal partner (mycobiont) and the photosynthesizing partner (photobiont), a green algae and/or cyanobacteria. Recent research has shown, however, that lichens harbor diverse communities beyond the main partners. This presentation will provide an introduction to these complex associations, modern views and techniques in lichenology, how diverse they are and how to translate these concepts into research projects. From the field to the laboratory, I will give examples of my own studies in lichen systematics, microbiome and genomics to illustrate the importance of integrative approaches in understanding these symbioses.

Join GROW Adult Education and the Fort Worth Garden Club for this unique opportunity to work with well known quilter, gardener, and photographer Carol Morrissey. With Carol's guidance, students will create postcard sized works of fabric art featuring her beautiful Texas Wildflower designs. Tuition includes one pattern with ten different designs and enough materials to create two wildflower postcards.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT and is presented in conjunction with the FW Garden Club's 2019 Horticulture/Art Quilt Show. 

$60 members/$65 non-members

Additional required materials:

• pencil
• scissors
• note paper
• iron
• ironing surface.

BRIT’s Vine to Table, Wine Dinner & Auction & Special Presentation of the 2019 International Sustainable Wine growing Award Winner to be Announced in January

Event Chairs, Gina & Bob Ravnaas

Alfresco at Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 6:00 P.M.

It will feature a fabulous silent auction; a dinner prepared by celebrity chefs including

• Jon Bonnell - Bonnell’s Restaurant Group
• Jason Harper - Trio New American Cuisine
• Michael Thomson - Michael’s Cuisine 
• Bernard Tronche - Saint-Emilion Restaurant
• John Piccolino -  B&B Butchers & Restaurant 
• Lanny Lancarte - Righteous Foods
• Denise Shavandy - Cafe Modern
• Blaine Staniford - Grace

What makes this year’s Vine to Table award dinner and auction unique is that it not only celebrates the sustainable accomplishments of our current year’s winner, but it also celebrates of our past winners.

From Amazon.com: "In this natural history classic, the author takes the reader on field trips to landscapes across America, both domesticated and wild. She shows how to read the stories written in the land, interpreting the clues laid down by history, culture, and natural forces. A renowned teacher, writer and conservationist in her native Midwest, Watts studied with Henry Cowles, the pioneering American ecologist. She was the first to explain his theories of plant succesion to the general public. Her graceful, witty essays, with charming illustrations by the author, are still relevant and engaging today, as she invites us to see the world around us with fresh eyes."

GROW is excited to offer this multi-week course that will serve as an introduction to transparent watercolor techniques appropriate to both beginner and intermediate artists, with a focus on learning how to control the water. Techniques include washes, glazing, dry brushing, and color theory. This course lays the foundation for creating beautiful botanical watercolor portraits. Students can expect some homework each week. 

Instructor Samantha Peters is a science illustrator based in Dallas, Texas. She received her B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Neurobiology from the University of Texas at Austin and attended the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, leaving once she realized illustrating her study guides was more fun than actually studying them. Afterwards, while living in New York City, she discovered a love of botanical art through classes at the New York Botanical Garden, and decided to pursue science illustration full time, attending the graduate program in Science Illustration at California State University, Monterey Bay. Samantha currently works in the graphics department at the Dallas Zoo and is the President of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Texas Group. Member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the American Society of Botanical Artists. 

Materials list to follow.

This class will meet:
April 23, 2019
April 30, 2019
May 7, 2019

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$110 members/$135 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Enjoy a sparkling wine during an evening in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden's beautiful Japanese Garden. Learn how sparkling wines are produced and sample five from different areas of the world, including Champagne, France. Please refrain from wearing perfume or cologne. You must be 21 or older to register for this course.

Please note: This class is coordinated by TCU. For more information, or to register, please click the registration button to the left.

Hypertufa was developed in the 1930’s to replicate the stone troughs used by English gardeners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Using basic molds and 4 ingredients you can create a rustic, textured pot as easy as making mud pies! This fun process results in containers that are lighter than cement, yet porous and practical in the garden.

Instructor Nancy Curl has been a Tarrant County Master Gardener since 2007. She has served on the board of the TCMGA for 4 years and as president for 2 years. She was named Tarrant County Master Gardener of the Year and State Master Gardener of the Year, large counties in 2012.

As a Greenhouse, Oak Wilt, Propagation, and Rain Water Harvesting Advanced Trainer, she teaches gardening and garden- related topics at the Botanic Garden, TCC, Home & Garden shows, the Union Gospel Mission and garden clubs. She is the Education Coordinator for the TCMGA and the Water Works Learning Center at the Resource Connection of Tarrant County and she volunteers as a docent at the Botanic Garden Japanese Garden, Butterflies in the Garden, and with the BG/BRIT GROW Education Series.

Please note: This class will be held at the FWBG.

$40 members/$45 non-members

Photo from https://www.mein-schoener-garten.de/.

Save money and enjoy the process of growing your own cut flowers. Learn which varieties to start with, how to grow them, proper harvesting techniques and holding techniques to get the most out of your flowers. 

Instructors Kim Martin and Laurie Bostic, owners of Barking Cat Farm, focus on growing high quality crops in an organic and sustainable manner. Brix testing is done regularly to monitor the nutritional quality of the produce and compost and compost teas are applied to the soil to ensure that soil biology is constantly improving. Both Laurie & Kim have their Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Design Course. Both have studied under Dr. Elaine Ingham and are working towards becoming Certified Soil Life Consultants. They offer permaculture design and soil biology consulting services to other growers and gardeners.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$20 members/$25 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Join the team from Barking Cat Farm and learn about growing herbs for your home usage. You’ll learn what to plant when, best care practices, harvesting tips and storage ideas.

Instructors Kim Martin and Laurie Bostic, owners of Barking Cat Farm, focus on growing high quality crops in an organic and sustainable manner. Brix testing is done regularly to monitor the nutritional quality of the produce and compost and compost teas are applied to the soil to ensure that soil biology is constantly improving. Both Laurie & Kim have their Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Design Course. Both have studied under Dr. Elaine Ingham and are working towards becoming Certified Soil Life Consultants. They offer permaculture design and soil biology consulting services to other growers and gardeners.

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$20 members/$25 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Join Agnes Knasiak for this delightful class and learn the joy and care of beautiful plants for the home.  Dr. Knasiak will discuss the types of plants suitable for inside your home, their light and water needs, and how to propagate plants in order to expand your collection or to grow for gifts.  She will also share solutions for problems like pests and diseases. Students will take home a suitable plant for their home.

Instructor Agnieszka Slociak Knasiak, has degrees from two universities in Europe including a PhD in Horticulture. During her doctoral study in Wroclaw, Poland she took special classes for “The Art of Floral Design.” She creates the flower designs each year for the Japanese Garden Festivals. She also designs arrangements for special events in Botanic Garden such as birthday parties, anniversaries, funerals, holidays tables, etc. She is currently a Greenhouse Attendant at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

Please note: This class will be held at the FWBG.

$20 members/$25 non-members

Registration opens soon!

Think outside the herbal box! Join Rita Hottel to discusses some of the best local herbs in oils, vinegars, and salad dressings and how they can be used on more than just salads. Come to see how to expand your culinary skills and go beyond the repetition of red wine vinegar and olive oil. Don’t miss out on this chance to taste and take home some new ideas and easy recipes that provide a big range of flavors for everyday cooking. 

After becoming a Master Gardener in 2000, instructor Rita Hottel quickly found her niche in herbs. She is currently the Lead Gardener of the Herb Garden at the Tarrant County Master Gardener Community/Education Garden. Even though she was trained in all aspects of gardening, herb gardening was the perfect compliment to her other hobby of cooking. 

Please note: This class will be held at BRIT.

$30 members/$35 non-members

From Amazon.com: "Bringing to life the science and adventure of eighteenth-century plant collecting, The Brother Gardenersis the story of how six men created the modern garden and changed the horticultural world in the process. It is a story of a garden revolution that began in America."