A LIVING FEAST FOR ALL SENSES
SAMPLE THE CULINARY BOUNTY OF NATIVE PLANTS AT CALIFORNIA BOTANIC GARDEN’S VIRTUAL EVENTS.
THE PANDEMIC hasn’t stopped California Botanic Garden from celebrating its uniquely California flavor—literally.
For nearly 100 years, the state’s largest garden of California native plants has been the place to see how the dowdy seedlings sold at nurseries grow to become beautiful, diverse and aromatic in your yard.
Lately, it has been showcasing how to bring those plants to your dining table.
“We think these gardens are an amazing platform to inspire people to bring California native plants into their gardens, their kitchens and beyond,” said David Bryant, director of visitor experience.
The public garden, formerly known as Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, sprawls across 86 acres near the Claremont Colleges with more than 1,200 native species, including redwoods and manzanitas, buckwheats, Joshua trees and about a jillion different sages, many of which are blooming now.
Need another reason to visit? How about three: Coyote Mint Chip ice cream, Coastal Sage Yum ice cream and Cactus Cream ice cream, all made using native plants found at the garden. That trio of sweet treats is part of an upcoming virtual tasting and fundraiser for the garden,
which like many public spaces finds itself struggling to regain its footing (and funding) in the midst of the pandemic.
The garden was scheduled to celebrate its new name with some big events at the end of March. Then, the novel coronavirus struck and those plans were put on indefinite hold.
But inspiration blossomed.
The last two years the garden hosted an event called Brew Wild, inviting SoCal breweries to create beers that incorporated native plants.
There can’t be any crowds sampling beer this year but, inspired by the success of Brew Wild, the staff dreamed up creative virtual events, such as Taste Wild, which provided samples of baked goods infused with native plants to 300 participants to pick up and eat at home for a virtual group tasting. (You can watch it on YouTube.)
The garden also has hosted Arrange Wild, providing 40 participants with native blooms and drawing them together for a flower-arranging lesson online (also available on YouTube).
On July 30, participants will have another chance to sample native plant cuisine with Freeze Wild: It involves tastetasting those three native-plant-infused ice creams, created by Claremont’s beloved Bert & Rocky’s Cream Co.
Bryant developed and tested the recipes for Coyote Mint Chip, Coastal Sage Yum and Cactus Cream at his home.
“These are the ones that are proven” delicious, he said. “But for every proven recipe I’ve had two to three failures.
I tried Coyote Sagebrush ice cream once, and it tasted like turpentine. But I really love this. When I’m old and gray, I want to open a nativeplant ice cream shop, to incorporate my two most favorite things in the world.”
The Freeze Wild event will be limited to 300 people to ensure the event doesn’t overuse the garden’s native plants. “Our ambition is to model sustainable use of our native plants,” Bryant said, and encourage people to create their own garden of native plants so they can make these recipes at home.
For $65 ($55 for members), participants get three pints of ice cream (one of each f lavor) and an invitation to participate in the Zoom tastetesting and discussion about the recipes and how the plants fit into the environment. People who pay $85 will get a VIP box with an ice cream scoop and cones.
Proceeds support the garden, which was started in 1927 by a prescient rancher named Susanna Bixby Bryant (no relation to David, who calls himself a “Texas” Bryant).
Susanna Bryant was worried about the way development was affecting native plants and habitats, so she set aside 200 acres of her Santa Ana Canyon ranch near Yorba Linda in Orange County for a native plant garden in memory of her father, John Bixby.
The gardens opened to the public in 1929 under a managing board and advice from many notable botanists of the day (including famed native plant conservationist Theodore Payne). When
Susanna died unexpectedly of a stroke in 1946, the garden’s botanist, Philip Munz, a professor at the Claremont Colleges, became director.
Munz and the trustees decided to move the gardens from the ranch to a site less remote and near a college, where it could be useful for research. The board purchased 54 acres near the Claremont Colleges and entered into a deal with Pomona College for perpetual use of 30-plus acres of college land for classes and research. The garden moved to its present site in 1951.
The Rancho Santa Ana name remained until recently, when the present board realized the garden needed a name that was easier to remember and better ref lected its focus on native plants, David Bryant said. “We realized even people in Claremont didn’t know who we are.”
The college-research partnership is strong, with the largest seed bank dedicated to California native plants, conservation work to restore some 5,000 acres taken over by invasive species and more than 100 PhD and master’s students graduated from the botany program.
BEAUTIFUL AND ... DELICIOUS?
> One of the garden’s most important goals, however, is to get people excited about growing native plants and incorporating them into their daily lives. And for this, Bryant is the perfect booster.
“People think that native foods are a novel experience, but these f lavors are really delicious and exciting,” he said.
He points out black sage, for instance, and immediately waxes rhapsodic about its vanilla scent and the way its leaves enhance vanilla f lavor. He uses food writer Melissa Clark’s famed ice cream recipe and wraps 20 or so black sage leaves in cheesecloth to steep in the egg-creamsugar mixture overnight before removing the leaves and freezing the ice cream.
“It’s light and just wonderfully aromatic, without tasting like bath and body products,” he said. “For any dense, heavy meal like Thanksgiving, it’s the best dessert you can do.”
Want a more savory experience? Pluck a couple of California bay laurel leaves and stir those into a pasta dish for a few minutes before serving, then remove. The f lavor is pungent and delicious, he said, but don’t overdo it. “I’ve ruined more than one pasta dish by using too much,” he said. “We actually planted a California native laurel in the backyard because we love the f lavor so much.”
Hummingbird sage, with its magenta f lower spikes, and the delightful woolly bluecurls both make delicious iced tea. Fill a quart-size Mason jar at least half full of leaves, add boiling water and let it steep overnight. “The flowers are so beautiful, if you serve the tea in a glass dispenser, you can leave the f lowers in the tea and it looks great,” Bryant said.
Manzanita flowers make a lovely, deep magenta jelly, he said, no matter which variety you use. “I haven’t found a bad manzanita flower yet,” he said, “but in my experience, the more pink-tinged are the most delicious.” Take about three cups of f lowers, cover with a cup and a half of water and boil. The whitish f lowers will turn magenta as they break down. Then use the recipe on the back of a pectin package to create the jelly from the flower “juice.”
After a few months of closure, California Botanic Garden opened with truncated hours. Members can enter for free without reservations, but nonmembers must purchase tickets online and reserve an entrance time to help maintain social distancing. Masks are required for visitors, and no tickets are sold at the entrance.
Finally, if you see plants you like, take a photo and jot down the name. The garden’s plant store is closed during the summer but will reopen in October, which is the best time for planting California native plants.
California Botanic Garden
Where: 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont
Hours: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays
Admission: Tickets must be purchased online. $10 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, $4 for children ages 3-12. Members and children under 3 enter free.
Info: calbg.org Bonus: Go to latimes .com/lifestyle for a recipe for sage shortbread, courtesy of California Botanic Garden.