Agriculture and sustainability to be subject of lecture
February 8, 2008
Agriculture and sustainability will be the subject of a lecture by author and horticulturist Barbara Damrosch '64 on February 21 at 5:30 p.m. in Hindle Auditorium of the Science Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.
An alumna of Wheaton, Damrosch has worked professionally in the field of horticulture since 1977. She is currently the co-owner, with her husband Eliot Coleman, of Four Season Farm, an experimental market garden in Maine that produces vegetables year round. Damrosch also writes a weekly column for The Washington Post called "A Cook's Garden" (free registration required).
The intersection of Damrosch's horticultural passion and literary background has generated two books, The Garden Primer and Theme Gardens, as well as many magazine articles, including a monthly column in American Homestyle and Gardening. For more than a decade she authored the Page-A-Day Gardener's Calendar.
Damrosch also consults and lectures on topics of gardening, farming, and landscaping. She has been the horticultural consultant for such companies as Time-Life Books and a correspondent on the PBS series The Victory Garden. She has also hosted specials on HGTV and co-hosted the series Gardening Naturally on TLC with her husband, many episodes of which were set in the gardens of their home.
After studying medieval literature and teaching at institutions like Columbia and Middlebury, Damrosch moved to Connecticut where she began her career in horticulture. She owned and operated her own farm, Barbara Damrosch Landscape Design until 1992. Her philosophy maintains an interactive respect for the environment for which she considers herself "a grower and protector."
Damrosch's talk is part of the LaDonne Heaton Schulman Alumnae/i Lecture in Science, which honors LaDonne Heaton Schulman, Wheaton chemistry major and 1957 graduate. Professor Schulman, a geneticist, made significant contributions to the field of molecular biology and taught biology at Einstein Medical School in New York City until her death in 1992. Previous Schulman lecturers include professor of geology Alison Smith '79, prominent inorganic chemist Mary Hunt '67 and child behavior researcher Dr. Wendy S. Coleman '67.
