You're The Top You're the Waldorf Astoria

If you live in New York, there is always a view you haven't seen.  If I had to choose a potager with ta  view, it would be the one at the Waldorf.  The garden was the inspiration of David Garcelon, Executive Chef at the Waldorf.  He came to New York from the Fairmont Hotel in Toronto, which has a very large veg garden on its roof.  The gold supports on the beehives, the white containers reminiscent of Chateau de Villandry and green astro turf on the deck scream pretentiousnesses, but it's a showpiece as much as a working garden.

It's easy to be cynical or at least skeptical about this type of venture: a kitchen garden at the top of the Waldorf.  On Tuesday night, I went to the top:  the roof the the Waldorf Astoria, where the Hort Society and New York Beekeepers have partnered with the Waldorf  Hotel to create a kitchen garden filled with herbs, fruit trees and bee hives. 

George Pisenga, Director of Horticulture for Hort Society has exciting plans for the garden.  Doubling the current space, adding a large dining table and holding events that highlight the garden and the bees. Andrew Cote of New York City Beekeepers and Bees Without Borders (http://www.andrewshoney.com/Bees Without Borders)   is packaging the honey gathered from the hives at the Waldorf.  We were treated to a jar.

Chef Garcelon and all the other chefs from the Waldorf use the herbs  from the garden to garnish their dishes.  The fruit produced by the "orchard," they intend to use to make signature cocktails for the Waldorf bars.  Cole Porter's lyrics "You're the top! You're a Waldorf salad" might have to change to "You're a Waldorf cocktail."

We ate delicious lavender cookies at sunset prepared by Chef Garcelon.  A perfect way to watch the sunset over Manhattan.

Less is Less

 

Morocco:  Courtyards and Gardens

By Achva Benzinberg Stein

Book talk at the Horticultural Society of New York

I went to see pretty pictures of gardens. There were none.  Yet, I was not disappointed.  Less is really less and less is really a lot more was the true subject of Achva Benzinberg Stein's talk at the Hort Society on Thursday night.

Stein used Morocco, Iran, Spain as places to explore the idea of what a garden is.  Looking back at ancient gardens and the remains of these gardens, Stein's thesis rested on the concept of oasis.  Oasis defined as a place of respite and reflection.

O A S I S = G A R D E N 

In defining a garden as any place that provides quiet and calm, the garden can be an orchard, a simple reservoir, or a public fountain.  Stein threw down the gauntlet:  Does a garden have to contain plants?

A garden can be any place that brings together people and animals (as in the case of a public fountain) or a garden can be courtyard with a simle potted plant or architecture that provides enclosurer from the outside world.

For me, the most challenging part of Stein's talk was a garden devoid of nature.  As she passionately pointed out the world of climate change, scarcity of water and other natural resources is here.  By looking back at the gardens of Morocco we can see "gardens" that were created and still function in arid places, and crowded urban environments.  

Even the concept of privacy has changed.  We all wear headphones, creating our own mental landscapes.  These may be the new "gardens of the mind."  Perhaps, we are no longer dependent on going into a space to be within an insulated realm.

Stein gave an example of a project she gives her students:  make a garden from a degraded piece of land.  I can imagine making a garden from a trashed out piece of ground (at Randall's Island, we often do) but I find it hard to imagine a garden devoid of plants.  But Stein, may be right, a garden is a concept, not defined by its content.