BRANCH UNION
Branch Union is an annual potluck tree dinner I started producing in 2018. The dinner is by and for New York City arborists and horticulturalists, inspired by my years leading agricultural biodiversity work for Slow Food.
Why a tree dinner? Prior to my training in horticulture and arboriculture, I worked as an anthropologist in North America alongside growers, grocers and chefs supporting the conservation of several dozen fruit and nut tree varieties/cultivars. I documented tree stewards, described the social, environmental and economic reasons certain varieties fell into decline and, established new supply chains among growers, grocers and chefs that could sustain, or even better restore, biodiversity. These dinners are an extension of those very successful years of Conservation You Can Taste.
20 dishes and drinks sourced, cooked and plated by arborists (+ public park gardeners, botanists, librarians, soil scientists, and two restaurant chefs) from The High Line, Battery City Park, New York Restoration Project, Arborpolitan, the Urban Soils Institute, and the New York Botanical Garden's Mertz Library.
