Grow your own: Herbs have enhanced our culinary, medicinal, and beauty pursuits dating back to ancient times. Yet the struggle to perfect a backyard plot of lush, fragrant herbs without insect or disease interference is a real one. Learn how to grow your favorites with help from the experts during the Piedmont Master Gardeners’ Virtual Garden Basics Workshop: Herb Gardening, History & Design.
Saturday 4/17, Free, 2pm. Zoom required. piedmontmastergardeners.org.
No green thumb? No problem!
If you love the idea of having fresh veggies and herbswithin easy reach, but you don’t have the time or inclination to plant a garden, Fifth Season has the solution: Garden in a Day. Experts install a four-by-four-foot raised cedar bed at your home, then fill and plant the bed—et voila, instant garden. Fifth Season is taking orders now for the early-spring greens bed, which includes lettuces, kale, sorrel, arugula, and more. The offerings continue in May and September, with plantings of vegetables, herbs, and greens suited to the season. The initial installation costs $379, and customers may choose additional plantings for $99 apiece, or all three for $568. For more information, go to fifthseasongardening.com, or call 293-2332.—Joe Bargmann
Local restaurant guru Will Richey has sold his interest in hot spot Brasserie Saison to co-owner Hunter Smith. The transfer “was always the plan after two years,” Richey says. Smith, who also operates Champion Brewing Company, will now be sole proprietor of the nano-brewery and Euro-style gastropub on the Downtown Mall. Richey will continue on as owner/operator of Ten Course Hospitality and its roster of about a dozen restaurants and service organizations.—Shea Gibbs
Potter’s Craft Cider is now pouring Azacca, a new cider flavored with the hops of the same name. Pressed from 100 percent GoldRush apples, the cider presents lemonade, clementine orange, and pine on the nose; the palate is grassy, slightly bitter, and dry. Azacca hops are named for Azaka Medeh, the harvest spirit of Haitian voodoo mythology, so it’s fitting that the hop oil is steam-distilled in the field, immediately after harvest. Get a taste at the Potter’s Cider Garden at The Bridge, 209 Monticello Rd., on Friday from 4-10pm, Saturday from noon-10pm, and Sunday from noon-4pm.—J.B.
March 23 offers a rare chance to have dinner prepared by one of the most respected food historians in Virginia. Dr. Leni Sorensen, former African American research historian for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, is hosting an intimate meal in her farmstead home featuring recipes from three centuries of Southern women cooks. One course will be prepared from a recipe in the 1770 cookbook Tomatoes for Winter Use, by Harriott Horry. Tickets and information at indigohouse.us.—Simon Davidson