Category: General

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“Plight of the Bumblebee” Challenge Winners

WNF&GA president Faith Tiberio recognizes the “Plight of the Bumblebee” which threatens our fruit and vegetable crops.  With this in mind, she sponsored a contest in the fall, 2008 issue of Farm & Garden magazine in which a $500.00 prize would be given to the branch who has done the most to publicize and promote help for the bees locally.
 
The Troy Garden Club in Michigan is proud to be the winner of this award.


The picture shows some members gratefully toasting President Faith with a glass of Mead (honey) wine upon learning of this award.  You can check the Troy, Mi website Wild Bee Program page to learn more about the efforts to promote bee education.

The prize money will be used to purchase items for the Troy Outdoor Education Center where instructional beehives have already been set up and will further promote this cause.

In addition, two of our members, Susan Vette and Mary Hrynik won $50.00 prizes for their recipes using honey.

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News From National President Faith Tiberio

June 2009 Annual Meeting

          The annual June meeting of our beloved organization brought so many of us old and new friends together, that the feeling swept over us that we would wait for our meeting in Niagara Falls with great anticipation. So mark your calendars, June 2-6, 2010. I have already put my first change in a sugar bowl to save for the trip. I do this weekly. By June, it helps.

            To report to you all the great ideas actions and plans which took place will have to be done over a period of time. Most important to you, is that Hazel Herring, Margaret Latham and Carol Leonard met frequently over the course of the meeting, to up-date Linda Lowe our liaison with Temple-Ambler about the Visitor Center / Greenhouse Fund. We are almost at out $50,000 goal, due to the wonderful generosity of you all. You must congratulate yourselves, because you will have pledged and made good, a gift of $150,000 to establish this “home-base” for the National Farm and Garden Association. I believe this to be the largest such gift in our history.  You accomplished this in a short period of three years. Our heartfelt thanks to Hazel Herring and her committee and all of you who created fund-raising events, objects and achievements.

          And more thanks to Mary Bertolini, Aileen La Bret, Linda Coughlin and Joanne Harreld who got us all together in our circle of gardening friendship.  Next month I will report to you in some detail the goings on our meeting and travels, and the lovely, intelligent women and yes, men, who made it fun and easy.

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Mayflower Writes of the National Annual Meeting:

Good afternoon,

 I am enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon after spending three busy days
 at the WNFG Annual Meeting. Everyone had a great weekend from the
 moment they were greeted by buzzing bees at the registration table,
 thanks to a few of our brave MFG members. Our gifts bags were a real
 HIT! On Wednesday night, Susan served a delicious fried chicken
 dinner accompanied by a variety of delicious vegetables. The dinner
 ended with a dessert of frozen honey and lavender custard, circled with
 fresh strawberries laced with rose water, and little bees topped the
 custard. Bright and early Thursday morning, we met at the Natick
 Crown Plaza and made our way into Boston for the famous Duck Tour and
 lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club with a speaker who educated us about
 the very talented gardener, Norah Lindsay. The heavens were with us,
 we managed to get through the day without a drop of rain despite the
 forecast.

 Friday, we got down to business, heard reports from other divisions
 and branches, brainstormed ideas on increasing membership, and
 marveled at the wonderful branch projects. The rich history of WNFG is
 one to be admired along with the dedication of its members. We hope
 to be able to share this with the women of Mayflower FG. We were

 very fortunate to sell some of our bags as well as raffle tickets to a
 two night stay at Hotel Sofitel of Philadelphia. As the day went on
 the rain to came and went. We hoped for another blessing from the
 heavens, which was answered, the sun shined and the temperatures
 warmed as the large bus, which brought the majority of members to the
 annual meeting, once again carried them down the windy, back streets
 of Sherborn to Faith’s home for a traditional New England clambake.
 We strolled the magnificent gardens listening to a jazzy, blues
 singer, sipped white wine and shared conversation with our new friends.
 It was truly an unforgettable evening.

 Bright and early on Saturday, we continued our business meeting with
 our WNFG President, Faith Tiberio presiding. After lunch we headed
 over to the amazing Garden in the Woods. Our member, Sylvia Anderson,
 aided the guides with her great breadth of knowledge on native plants.
 It was wonderful to walk among the natural beauty of nature. What we
 assumed was native to New England, we soon learned that our friends
 from Ohio and Michigan had similar plants as well. It was fun to
 share our gardening stories with each other.

 Saturday evening the ladies dressed in their finest and we shared in
 the frenzy of a silent auction, a presentation of awards and the
 drawing of the raffle. Barbara Hochstettler was delighted to have
 her name picked. Hugs all around, we said our good byes and promises
 to meet next year in Buffalo.

 We hope many more of you can join us next year.
 
 Keep a lookout for more news this summer.

 Fondly,
The Lisas