Have you ever been to Hudson River Park? It continues to be one of the most vibrant spaces in New York City. I encourage you to visit the next time you're in the area - you will see why it is so special.
Hudson River Park is considered the largest open space project in Manhattan since Central Park. At four miles long, it is the longest waterfront park in the country and attracts millions of visitors each year. Last week, hundreds of dedicated supporters gathered to celebrate the Park’s continued growth and its many members, visitors, volunteers, staff, and partners at the annual Hudson River Park Gala. The event raised more than $2.5 million to support the Park’s initiatives and care. The evening included cocktails followed by dinner, a live auction, and a musical performance at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers overlooking the Hudson River. It was a beautiful evening and a successful event.
Enjoy these photos.
I am a big supporter of Hudson River Park. When my grandchildren were younger, my family and I spent lots of time enjoying its playgrounds and waterfront views. I am also on the Board of Hudson River Park Friends – an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the development, care, and enhancement of the space, and the designated fundraising partner of the Hudson River Park Trust. (Photo courtesy HRPF)
Hudson River Park includes 550 land and water acres of reconstructed piers, an Estuarine Sanctuary, display gardens, expansive lawns, athletic fields, playgrounds, dog runs, esplanades, public sculptures, and relaxing sitting areas along Manhattan’s West Side.(Photo courtesy HRPF)
Millions of visitors come to Hudson River Park each year to enjoy its waterfront views and public spaces. (Photo courtesy HRPF)
Hudson River Park continues to evolve. Pier 97 is now open. Hudson River Park’s northernmost pier brings 2.5 acres of open space for recreation and lounging to Manhattan’s West Side. Celebrating this major milestone brought together local leaders, the teams responsible for the project, and the community whose input was instrumental in informing the pier’s features and design.
Every year, I make it a point to attend the Hudson River Park Gala in New York City. It is a fun evening and an important fundraising event to support the Park’s operations and public programming, including its year-round educational, environmental, sustainability and cultural programs.
The Gala began with cocktails and oysters by the Carousel at Pier 62. Guests were then led by this jazz band and dancing group from The Juilliard School to Pier Sixty for dinner and the evening’s program. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
I attended this year’s gala with several longtime friends and colleagues including Kevin Sharkey and my attorney, Larry Shire.
Dinner started with Shrimp Jardinière with golden beets, grilled asparagus, ruby grapefruit, carrot purée and citrus gastrique.
Also sitting at my table – Daisy Schwartzberg Toye and Heather Kirkland.
Executive director of Hudson River Park Friends, Connie Fishman, addressed the audience and thanked everyone for attending. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
The Gala honored several supporters including second-generation restaurateurs Miles Pincus and Alex Pincus, Co-Founders of Grand Banks and Crew. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
Our entrée was Branzino Provençal served with lemon fennel leek confit, citrus gastrique, cauliflower purée, artichokes, kale, and maitake mushrooms.
Another honoree was the Terminal Warehouse Development Team. Here is David Levinson, Chairman & CEO of the real estate investment and development business, L&L Holding Company, which he co-founded with Robert Lapidus, accepting the team’s award. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
Madelyn Wils is the former president of the Hudson River Park Trust. She also spoke to the audience. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
Dessert was a tray of family style sweets for each table.
Gabriel Butu hosted the evening’s live auction and paddle raise.
After dinner, guests were treated to an unforgettable performance by Andy Bell of Erasure, who sang Oh L’Amour, Chains Of Love, A Little Respect and Victim of Love. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
Here I am with Andy Bell and his husband, Stephen Moss. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
And here I am with Kevin in front of the step-and-repeat banner. Kevin also lives near the Park and enjoys its gardens and spaces whenever he can. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
Before leaving, Kevin, Daisy, Dr. Daniel Belkin, and fashion designer, Suzie Kondi, and I take some fun photos with our paddles. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park)
It was a successful and fun evening for all. The event raised more than $2.5 million dollars for the Park. I encourage you to visit New York City’s Hudson River Park. Are you in the area this weekend? It is a spectacular space.
It's amazing how quickly plants and trees grow and change day to day. Starting in September, many of the trees in this area begin their autumn transformations - changing from bold green to various shades of red, yellow, and brown. Now in October, many of those leaves have started to fall. In some cases exposing the season's fruits. We've already picked and enjoyed many apples and pears, but I also have quince, persimmons, medlars, a variety of crabapple berries, and those of the Cornus kousa, osage oranges, and trifoliate oranges, and other autumn treats - some we eat, some we can't, but many provide wildlife with sugar, protein, fat, and other crucial nutrients to sustain them through the coming winter.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This time of year, there are always so many different types of fruit growing here at the farm. Some of the ones collected include: apples, pears, pawpaws, quince, persimmons, trifoliate oranges, osage oranges, crabapples, koussa berries, and medlars.
I have many apple trees here – the large, old ones that were on the property when I bought it, the dwarf espaliered apple trees that I planted soon after I moved in, and the many apple trees in my orchard. My granddaughter, Jude, comes every year to pick crates and crates of apples and then make jars and jars of cider – it’s so delicious.
Some of the newer apple trees in my orchard include ‘Baldwin’, ‘Black Oxford’, ‘Cortland’, ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’, ‘Esopus Spitzenburg’, ‘Fuji’, ‘Golden Russet’, ‘Grimes Golden’, ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Redfield’, ‘Roxbury Russet’, and ‘Windham Russet’.
I’ve also planted several types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. My trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko. Asian pears have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, which is very different from the European varieties. They are most commonly served raw and peeled.
The other pears in my orchard are ‘Bartlett’, ‘Columbia’, ‘D’Amalis’, ‘Ginnybrook’, ‘McLaughlin’, ‘Nova’, ‘Patten’, ‘Seckel’, ‘Stacyville’, and ‘Washington State’.
Are you familiar with quince? Quince is a fall fruit that grows like apples and pears, but with an unusually irregular shape and often gray fuzz. These fruits turn a golden yellow when ready to pick in fall.
In another area are the fruits of the medlar, Mespilus germanica – a small deciduous tree and member of the rose family. These fruits are not ready yet – we’ll pick them in late October or early November. This fruit is about one to two inches in diameter, and ranges in color from rosy rust to dusty brown. Medlars are native to Southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe. The fruits have to be eaten when almost rotten in a process called “bletting”. And, because of this, they either have to be eaten right off the tree or picked early and put aside for a few weeks to blet. The medlar is very pulpy and very sweet. Its taste is similar to an overripe date with a flavor similar to toffee apples or apple butter.
The bright fruits of persimmons ripen in late fall, usually, after most of the leaves have fallen from the tree. I have a grove of these persimmon trees outside my flower cutting garden. The American persimmon, when picked at just the right time, can have a flavor that is rich, deep, and sweet.
Behind the main greenhouse, I have a grove of pawpaw trees. Asimina triloba, the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and Canada. The taste of a pawpaw is a mix of mango-banana-citrus all in one. It’s a big favorite for some here at the farm.
Near the pawpaw trees are two trifoliate orange trees, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata – a member of the family Rutaceae. Also known as the “hardy orange” or “flying dragon,” it is the most cold hardy of all citrus. It is a large, deciduous shrub that produces an unusually sour, downy fruit considered to be nearly inedible when raw, but medicinally beneficial and delicious when cooked. The fruit is commonly juiced, made into marmalades, jams, jellies, or candied. Trifoliate oranges are slightly smaller than conventional oranges and taste like a blend of lemon and grapefruit.
I have Osage orange trees along three sides of my North Maple Paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court. These trees are bold green in summer and change to bright golden yellow in fall. The Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, is actually not an orange at all, and is more commonly known as a hedge-apple, horse-apple, or mock-orange. Each one is about four to five inches in diameter and filled with a dense cluster of hundreds of smaller fruits – some say it even resembles the many lobes of a brain. For the most part, the Osage orange is considered inedible because of its texture and taste, but they’re very interesting and fun to grow.
And beware… Osage orange branches are armed with stout, straight spines growing from the leaf axils.
This is one of the four Sargent crabapple trees outside my Tenant House and studio. Its fall color is usually green to chartreuse before the leaves drop, but…
… looking closely, one can see the Sargent crabapple berries. The Sargent crabapple, Malus sargentii, is a dwarf fragrant, showy shrub with bright red berries. While these fruits are edible, they are also quite tart and are generally not consumed raw.
These are also crabapple berries still hanging off the branches. While related to regular apples, crabapples are smaller in comparison and much more tart than regular apples.
And different crabapples are on the trees outside my stable.
Crabapple fruit can vary in size from a quarter-inch to two inches in diameter.
Along the carriage road near my back hayfield, I have several Cornus kousa trees – small deciduous trees in the flowering plant family Cornaceae. Common names include kousa, kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood. The kousa has edible berries with soft pulp that is sweet with a similar flavor to a ripe persimmon.
Kousa trees also grow in Nepal, where several of my outdoor grounds crew are from – they always love snacking on the fruits of these dogwood trees.
And then there are the fruits of the mighty female ginkgo tree. The most noticeable thing about these is their smell. Have you ever smelled one? It is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.
Here is one ginkgo seed separated from its fruit.
While we’re all enjoying the splendid colors of the falling leaves, I hope you also have time to stop and appreciate all the fruits nature has to offer this time of year.
All my tropical plants are now safely stored indoors for the winter.
Caring for my precious plants means following a strict schedule, particularly at the end of the warm season. Plants that summer at Skylands, my home in Maine, are picked up and brought back to Bedford for storage. And together with all the tropical specimens here at the farm, everything is groomed, organized, and placed in special greenhouses where temperature and humidity levels can be closely monitored and adjusted when necessary. Some of the taller plants are also stored in my stable. It's a multiple day process, but my team does a great job getting it all done.
Enjoy these photos.
Every year, I evaluate the needs of my plants and decide where they will be stored for the winter months. Plants grow, so they cannot always be stored in the same place. I’ve stored a few plants in the stable before, but this year, I’ll store a group of 13 container specimens including several tree ferns. Here, they will get lots of light from the barn door windows and still be protected from winds and freezing temperatures.
Before any container plant is stored, I always remind the crew that it should be weeded and properly groomed.
Many of the plants can be transported by hand truck. Pete carefully wheels in another smallish tree fern. Tree ferns are arborescent ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees.
Tree fern fronds are often very large. Some of them can reach nine to 13 feet in length. The fronds are thickly textured and range in color from gray-green to blue.
As the plants are brought into the stable, they are all arranged with enough space in between them, so they don’t touch. Keeping them separated prevents any diseases that could possibly spread during the storage time. Fortunately, all my plants are in excellent condition. Ryan checks all the plant foliage – and no two plants are touching.
These plants will do well in this location and will be checked every day. These are also safe to have around my horses. In fact, they have been caught trying to munch on the non-toxic fronds.
Meanwhile, another team is repotting the bird’s nest ferns, Asplenium nidus, outside what I call the tropical hoop house. Some of these have outgrown their pots, or they were in decorative pots that needed to cleaned and stored.
The bird’s nest fern is known for its fronds that grow out of a rosette in the middle of the plant which closely resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern.
Phurba removes the plant from its old pot. Repotting is a good time to also check any plant for damaged, unwanted or rotting leaves as well as any pests that may be hiding in the soil.
He trims necessary bottom leaves and then gives the root ball some beneficial scarifying cuts. Asplenium nidus forms large simple fronds growing up to 20 to 59 inches long. They are light green, often crinkled, with a black midrib.
The selected new pot is filled about two thirds of the way with potting soil. We’re using Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix, specifically formulated for container plants.
Phurba fills in the pot with more soil, but he never overfills – only place potting mix until the bottom of the pot’s rim, so the soil does not spill out when it is watered. This also makes it much easier to lift and carry.
As they are repotted, Phurba places them on a shelf in the hoop house where they will remain for the next seven months.
This is one of my many sago palms, Cycas revoluta. Sago is a popular plant known for its feathery foliage and ease of care. This very symmetrical plant supports a crown of shiny, dark green leaves on a thick shaggy trunk that is typically about seven to eight inches in diameter, sometimes wider.
These are where the old leaves were cut. The rough, symmetrical trunk becomes leafless as it ages.
Another plant in my tropical greenhouse is Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia nicolai – a species of evergreen tropical herbaceous plant with gray-green leaves that grow up to 18-inches long out of a main crown in a clump. The leaves are paddle shaped, similar to banana plant leaves, and attached to a long, upright stalk.
These are Australian Brush Cherry trees, Eugenia myrtifolia, also now known as Syzygium paniculatum. The Brush Cherry is an evergreen tree or shrub with shiny dark green leaves native to Australia and New Zealand. I usually display these topiaries in the courtyard behind my Winter House kitchen during summer.
The foliage of philodendrons is usually green but may be coppery, red, or purplish with parallel leaf veins that are green or sometimes red or white. Shape, size, and texture of the leaves vary considerably, depending on species and maturity of the plant. I have many philodendrons that are growing so well here at my farm.
This tropical house is full, but none of the plants are touching, and there is just enough room for me to walk in and around the entire structure. All the greenhouses are checked a couple times each day to make sure the temperature remains comfortably warm inside. Too cold, plants will freeze – too hot, plants will rot. To simulate the best subtropical environment, we try to keep the temperature in this greenhouse between 50 and 85-degrees Fahrenheit with some humidity. They’ll continue to thrive here until they are brought outdoors again in spring. Are your plants inside?
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