News & Events
* UPCOMING *
Maple Sugaring Day
Saturday, February 28, 11am-3pm at MassAudubon's Boston Nature Center.
This family-friendly event is ideal for anyone wanting to learn how to tap locally, and also perfect if you simply want to get outside and stand in the sweet steam of boiling maple sap. Plenty of indoor kiddie activities, too. Come with questions. For more info and registration, click HERE.
Spring's coming!
Despite our wonderfully 'normal' winter, 2025 was the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. Average global temperatures are flirting with or have surpassed 1.5° C (2.7° F) above pre-industrial levels. How do we stop the burn?
For other workshops and happenings, check the Workshops calendar here.
Agricultural Hall?
In 1818, the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture built the original Agricultural Hall on Dighton Street in Brighton. It served as the hub of the Brighton Fair and Cattle Show, one of the earliest and largest such fairs in the country. In 1829, "a 17-pound turnip, a 19-pound radish, and a bough on which pears hung like a cluster of grapes were among the outstanding exhibits of that year." In 1844 the building was moved to its present location at the corner of Chestnut Hill Avenue and Washington Street.
Dr. William P. Marchione &
The Bostonian Society
Agricultural Hall
Workshop: Grafting Fruit Trees
William McCaffrey of Spring Rain Farm in Taunton, MA, taught us how to perform a whip-and-tongue graft, joining scion of desirable apple varieties onto dwarfing rootstock to create our own urban orchard. We left with ready-to-plant trees WE grafted during the class. We also learned about, and practiced, bud grafting. We'll do it again in the spring of 2026, so check back here for details in February.
Hoping to some day start a Boston chapter of www.GuerrillaGrafters.org. Interested!!?
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Apples at Agricultural Hall:
From September to December, apples take center stage at Ag Hall! With a cider mill on extended loan from our neighbors at Spontaneous Celebrations, anyone with pears or apples are welcome to come over to Ag Hall and press them for cider.
In 2024, a Jamaica Plain resident donated a cider mill to... all of us! With help from folk at The Trustees and Haley House Farm, the cider mill was assembled and 'tested.' And now it belongs to everyone, so consider using it whenever you have an autumn event, or an extra couple bushels or more of apples. Call or text Bill at 617-388-7378 for scheduling info.
If you plan to ferment your cider once pressed, you can usually find all the supplies you need at Agricultural Hall: gallon jugs, air locks, yeast, honey or sugar,... Before coming over, give me a call (617-388-7378) to make sure I'm in and/or to make sure no one else is using the cider mill.