The New York Botanical Garden

If your garden has given you too much cabbage this season, and you’ll be in or near New York City for the next several Fridays, you could do worse than to take this class on the art of kimchi at The Korea Society. Yum!

Via Manhattan User’s Guide.

We obviously can’t play favorites, but we can send Chris and Amy wishes for the best of luck in this year’s giant pumpkin weigh-off! In case you missed last year’s Giant Pumpkinpalooza at the Garden, including the carving of Chris’ record-setting gourd, here’s a link to some highlights.

Philadelphia-based John & Kira chocolates make bars flavored with mint and rosemary from Philly and Washington, D.C. urban gardens. Delicious, nutritious, and virtuous! That’s a sentiment to get behind.

Fascinating and scary essay from Harvey Cotten of the Huntsville Botanical Garden on Triadica sebifera, also known as the Chinese tallow tree, the popcorn tree, the Florida aspen, and the chicken tree (and previously known as Sapium sebiferum). Regardless of what you call it, Triadica sebifera is highly invasive, and for many years it’s introduction to the United States has been placed squarely on the shoulders of Benjamin Franklin! But modern genetic testing has vindicated Franklin, and the mystery of this nuisance tree’s arrival (and domination) of the southern United States remains a mystery.