
THE lemon zest, lemon juice and roasted garlic are doing the #*&%$@##$@$##&%&##%&$#*! to my palette. And just when my palette thinks it’s about to recover from this explosion of flavors, in kicks the zucchini. And then the fresh basil, some of which only moments ago I plucked from a bunch and deposited into my skirt pocket for a rendevous later.
I’ve just had zucchini pesto bruschetta prepared by Whole Foods Market Associate Culinary Arts Coordinator Michele Di Pietro and her wingwoman, Doreen. I am at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) where in progress is a media preview of the plant museum’s second “The Edible Garden,” which opens Saturday and in time for Father’s Day with “Get Out and Grill.” It is the first of the four festival weekends. "The Edible Garden" closes 17 October with the final festival weekend, “Fall Finale,” which includes sound advice about preserving and a demo and booksigning by Mario Batali. He also participates in the Celebrity Chef Audio Tour during which he and others talk visitors through how to best use the fruits and vegetables in “The Edible Garden.”

The best way to navigate “The Edible Garden” is to understand that it is neatly divided into four main rubrics: Festival Weekends, Garden-to-Table Weekends, Value Weekdays and Other Programs of The Edible Garden.

Later in the garden party, Nan K. Chase promises to explain how to “Eat Your Yard”(16 Oct.). Mark Gagnon, Executive Chef of Abigail Kirsch, will be so kind as to show and tell how to prepare a good asparagus (26 and 27 June). Afterward, his boss, AK will sign books.

Incidentally, “The Edible Garden” dishes daily, at least the weekdays NYBG is open. The specials are as follows: Tuesdays and Wednesdays (11 a.m.) is “Cooking for Kids,” Wednesdays also has “Cooking for Your Health (12:30); “Cooking for the Season” is Thursday’s dish (2 p.m.). Rounding out the work week, Whole Foods endeavors to put the TGI into Fridays (2 p.m.). And for the very good reason that good music helps with the digestion, August (5, 12, 19) brings with it the “Food for Thought featuring the Waterlily Concert Series.” Here, food experts jaw about the subject they know best, then the music begins.

Think of Greenmarket as an appetizer, a very good appetizer that is nutritious, delicious, affordable and from as close to home as the product of New York state’s farmers and merchants. Today, Perez Farms, is offering radishes, scallions and some of the sexiest red-leaf lettuce I’ve seen in a spell. Bread Alone is responsible for that wonderful pumpkin seed muffin I enjoyed at the media trough. And Red Jacket Orchards is pimping its sweet white cherries, red cherries and size-appropriate strawberries. Lazing in ice are RJO's fruit juices and samples. The most seductive and inspirational is the apple-lemon juice. Yum.
Visit www.nybg.org for complete information about "The Edible Garden," including how to purchase tickets.
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