Think Magical School Meets Year-Round Summer Camp At NYBG
Between the views of the meadow, old growth forest, apiary, and waterfall, it’s hard to believe you’re still standing in the city. Yet, this unexpected, magical setting is fittingly appropriate for the New York Botanical Garden’s (NYBG) remodeled Edible Academy. After all, the mission of the academy, which officially debuted its new space this past June, is to connect New Yorkers with the food system and the nature that system depends upon.
“It’s a beautiful resource, and it’s a meant to be shared,” says Toby Adams, Director of the Edible Academy. “We can now offer access to at least twice as many visitors to learn about how to grow food and how to take care of their environment.”
The NYBG expects to welcome roughly 100,000 learners to the academy over the course of the year, up from 50,000 in 2017. The three-acre space centers around the Ruth Rea Howell Vegetable Garden and includes the Gossett Overlook Pavilion with those magnificent views, a classroom building, a greenhouse, a 350-seat terraced lawn amphitheater and much more. It’s basically school meets year-round summer camp meets city oasis.
Throughout the year the Edible Academy will provide classes, workshops, lectures, events and drop-in programming for both urban school children, families and educators. Each program emphasizes hands-on learning from how to grow and harvest food to how to turn it into healthy meals and more.
“We have the privilege of offering direct hands-on experience with the garden and then have state of the art facilities that allow us to investigate deeper where food comes from and how the food system works,” Adams says.
Since opening, the Edible Academy has hosted workshops on making pickles, given tours to summer interns studying horticulture and held workshops for teachers on how they can incorporate gardening into their educational programming such as by creating and maintaining a school garden.
As the school year begins to kick into high gear, the academy is preparing a new slate of in-school as well as after-school programming for students of all ages. For instance, children can watch and learn as a seed becomes a seedling that turns into a plant, and then blossoms into a fruit that they can taste. They can take cooking classes in the classroom or even learn about sustainable engineering and the impacts of building on nature, simply by touring the property.
Architecture firm Cooper Robertson, worked with the NYBG to create the new space, designing a solar panel pavilion, a geothermal heating and cooling system, a green roof, even composting toilets. And with the Bronx River right next door it’s easy to show both kids and adults how those designs can help the quality of the water.
None of it would have been possible without the problem-solving brainstorming that took place more than 10 years ago. In 2007, as part of the NYBG’s long-range planning, the living museum and educational facility began looking at ways to expand the educational programming centered around the Ruth Rea Howell Vegetable Garden, then open for roughly half the year and into year-round offerings. It wasn’t until 2012, that NYBG received initial funding to develop their idea, with construction officially beginning on the $28 million expansion in 2016.
“We’re excited to share the space,” says Adams.
Tour and taste the Edible Academy first hand during Harvest Weekend Oct. 6-8 when the space will host various activities including cooking demonstrations, live music, honey tasting, and harvesting (if available), seed saving and more.
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY 10458
