Karen Berman Speaking Saturday on: Crafty Ideas for Family Friday, or Any Other Day. Karen's session will include several hands-on crafts suitable for kids and their parents. The kids will create a dinosaur fossil - the notorious Elbow Noodlesaurus! - and hear all about how to create a special dinner for dinosaur fans. They also will become rain forest advocates and make their own "Save the Rain Forest" posters and hear about a dinner that celebrates the forest. Finally, they will count their blessings with a Cornucopia of Thanks from her book's Thanksgiving Anytime dinner. Suitable for ages 4 -11; children 8 or under must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Karen Berman is the author of Friday Night Bites: Kick Off the Weekend with Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family, which was published by Running Press in 2009. She is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in food and lifestyle topics and is the author of two additional cookbooks, an illustrated history book, and has worked in various editorial capacities on more than 30 other books. Karen has contributed hundreds of articles to magazines, newspapers and websites. Karen is an honors graduate of Mount Holyoke College and holds a certificate in cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Her ongoing culinary studies have taken her as far afield as the Thai House Cooking School in Thonburi, Thailand. Karen lives with her daughter Jessica in Fairfield.

Ideas for Family Friday... or Any Other Day
Saturday, March 19th at 3:00pm

Stephen C. Gooss Speaking Sunday on: We Made It Through the Winter - What to Do Now? Stephen's talk will address snow and other damage to the landscape and discuss spring gardening activities. Stephen C. Gooss is an avid and self-proclaimed "plant fanatic," who has been the manager of the water gardening program and resident horticultural expert for Geiger's Geiger's Garden Centers for the past 12 years. He is also a private horticultural consultant. Stephen has lectured to numerous groups in Fairfield County, including the Westport Garden Club, the Westport Women's Club, and the Weston Garden Club. He also has taught at Norwalk Community College in the continuing education program and has been a guest on WSTC-AM's The Garden Show, a radio call-in show. Stephen is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture. Formerly vice president of the Fairfield County Horticultural Society, he oversaw the monthly judging of horticultural exhibits, and was frequently a featured speaker.

We Made It Through the Winter — What to Do Now?
Sunday, March 20th at 1:30pm

Amie Guyette Hall Speaking Saturday on Square Foot Gardening. Amie will talk about how growing food at home, at school or at a community location can be fun, easy and educational and how to "boost your health from a box." Handouts will include recipes and a complimentary recorded teleclass. For more information, go to www.fromyourinsideout.com Amie helped create Fairfield's three middle school garden projects and Fairfield's first high school garden. She is an enthusiastic supporter of local farms and farmer's markets and not surprisingly, advocates for organic, local sustainable farming. She also launched an after-school teen health club. As an advocate for better school food, she has run outdoor gardening and cooking workshops for Fairfield Woods Middle School's PTSA and addressed the state's middle and high school family and consumer sciences teachers as well as Fairfield's food service and health departments. She is the founder and director of From Your Inside Out, a health-coaching practice based in Fairfield helping individuals and families achieve health and lifestyle goals. Her recipes appear in, Get Smart, a publication by Fairfield resident Samantha Heller. Amie is a team provider at IDEA, a local non-profit that supports lonely autism spectrum adults. Her on-site cooking school brings people together and offers support primarily with food, fitness and self care. Amie is certified in holistic health counseling by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Teachers College, Columbia University and SUNY Purchase. She is board certified and accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and is a certified square foot gardening instructor.

Square Foot Gardening
Saturday, March 19th at 1:30pm

Diane Melish Speaking Saturday on: The Organic Potager: Integrating Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers into a Beautiful, Healthy Garden Diane Melish is a landscape designer based in Fairfield, Connecticut. She was trained at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), where she earned certificates in landscape design and gardening. She is accredited by the Northeast Organic Farming Association as an organic land care professional. The focus of Diane Melish Landscape Design Gardening is the design and care of distinctive specialty landscapes, such as native, Japanese, and container gardens and she has a particular interest in the potager. A potager is a kitchen garden that is both beautiful and practical and integrates vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers into a design composed according to the gardener's tastes in food and aesthetics. Diane is a member of the NYBG and the Landscape Design Students & Alumni (LDSA) at the NYGB; Connecticut NOFA; The Garden Conservancy; Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture; and Metro Hort Group. Locally, she is active in the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce and Fairfield Villages Wellesley Club. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College, a masters in City Planning from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and studied architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Organic Potager: Integrating Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers into a Beautiful, Healthy Garden
Saturday, March 19th at 12:15pm

Katherine Neville Speaking Saturday on: High Yield in a Small Space. Kathrine will talk about using various combinations of plant material, annuals, perennials, herbs, fruits and vegetables where there is limited space. Kathrine Neville is a lifelong gardener and garden designer. She is the past president of the Milford Garden Club and a judge for the Federated Garden Club Flower Show. She is a member of the Judges Council and Creative Arrangers of Connecticut. She is the past president and current board member of the Westchester Fairfield Horticulture Society, as well as a master gardener and a mentor for the master gardener program. She teaches at the New York Botanical Garden and lectures for the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut.

High Yield in a Small Space
Saturday, March 19th at 11:00am

Fenella Pearson Speaking Sunday on: What It Means to be a Gardening Journalist. Fenella will discuss what she does for the The Daily Fairfield and will also talk about the benefits of growing her own food. Fenella Pearson is the Home & Garden and Real Estate editor for The Daily Fairfield, and the other Dailies in Fairfield County. She is a licensed interior designer and an adjunct professor at Fairfield University, where she teaches in the interior design program. Fenella is a passionate gardener who grows most of her family's vegetables in a tiny garden in South Norwalk where, she is glad to report, there are no deer or woodchucks to battle.

What It Means to be a Gardening Journalist
Sunday, March 20th at 12 noon

Jody Rosengarten Speaking Sunday on: Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Dog's Behavior But Didn't Know Who to Ask, Jody will cover how to train your dog and hold an informal question-and-answer session on anything to do with dogs and their training. Jody Rosengarten is the owner-operator of The Bark Stops Here, which specializes in solving problems for and rehabilitating rescued dogs. She works with private clients and also with animal rescue groups and is on the staff of the Southport Veterinary Center, where she sees clients and teaches group classes. Her book, Rover, Don't Roll Over: A Compassionate Training Guide for Dogs and Their People was published in 2004 by Ten Speed Press and was on the cover of their marketing catalog. She has written for a number of periodicals, including a cover story for Greenwich Magazine. Judy recently completed a two-year stint on a phone-in radio show for WICC in Bridgeport where she answered questions about dog training and behavior. Animals have been the focus of her life, she says. As a child, she stashed boxes of bugs and broken-winged baby birds beneath her bed and during her teens, lived and worked with elephants in Tanzania. She also spent a summer communicating with Washoe and her family of sign language-speaking chimpanzees and ran a foundation that supported the cause of wolves for six years. More recently, she traveled to Sri Lanka to work with temple monkeys. Jody lives in Easton with four dogs and five parrots - all rescued.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Dog's Behavior But Didn't Know Who to Ask
Sunday, March 20th at 10:45 am

All lectures will take place in the Lecture Room near the Cafeteria.

Wayne Demoranville

Mr. Demoranville creates his chainsaw wood carvings at shows, fairs, grand openings, and other events. He has crafted dozens of diverse sculptures (in stock for sale) and also accepts special custom orders. Custom tree sculpture can also be performed on the customer's property. Delivery is available for all of Mr. Demoranville's chainsaw wood carvings and for special events.