Wine & Chocolate Tasting –
The Results!
The Wine and Chocolate Tasting Scores:
Tasters were asked to rate each wine on a scale of 1 to 10, and to also rate the wine-chocolate pairing, then the total the score for each pair. So a perfect score of 10 in each category would equal 40.
32 people completed score sheets. The overall scores were calculated by multiplying each score times the number of votes (5 people scored wine A as a 6 = 30 points). A perfect score for the whole pair would then be 1280 (10 x 4 x 32). So if the actual score is 750 out of 1280, which equals an average score of 5.8.
Pair D, the dessert wine and darkest chocolate had the highest score, just edging out Pair B, the Syrah with the Fig Fennel Almond chocolate. Pairs A and C were nearly tied for 3rd and 4th place.
Scoring categories were: Aroma; Taste/mouthfeel; Finish/aftertaste; and Pairing
Table A
Barbera
Barbera (100%) Cockburn Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley. Fruity notes with a bright acidity. $19/bottle
Bread and Chocolate
70% dark chocolate mixed with toasted artisan breadcrumbs
Table B
Syrah
Syrah (100%). Elephant Mountain Vineyard, Rattlesnake Hills. Rich, and fruity. $29/bottle
Fig, Fennel and Almond Chocolate
70% dark chocolate mixed with slivered almonds, sweet dried figs and fennel.
Table C
Estate Melange Rouge
Cabernet Sauvignon (38%), Cabernet Franc (38%), Malbec (16%), Merlot (7%), Petite Verdot (7%). Wilridge Vineyard. Spicy nose with voluptuous fruit. $29/bottle
Cherry Almond Chocolate
70% dark chocolate combined with dried organic cherries and roasted almonds
Table D
Estate Vintage Dessert Wine
Touriga Nacional (36%), Souzao (36%), Tinta Cao (28%). Wilridge Vineyard. $19/bottle
Ultimate Dark Chocolate (85%)
For information regarding Wilridge winery or Theo chocolate please visit: www.wilridgewinery.com www.theochocolate.com
Diary of Summer Camp
Kids Getting Behind the Scenes
at The Volunteer Park Conservatory!
Have any favorite memories of school?
Haha! Sometimes it’s hard to get back into the frame of mind of being a young student… I loved the walks my middle school teacher Bill would take us on in parks to identify plants around Seattle. In art I had the freedom to draw what I wanted and gravitated towards the quite and observant world of botanical illustration. Yet the time outside of school often felt the most electric, because I did what I really wanted! Drama classes and choir camps… I think at an early age we know where our talents and sympathies lie. But often schools give such a broad over view of subjects and in such an abstract context that it can’t help but loose the spark of self initiation and personal relevance. Maybe partly because of this I’ve always thought it would be great fun to develop programs outside of school for students that love the same subjects. The kids have all chosen to be there, and you have freedom to be wildly interdisciplinary, while encouraging critical thinking skills. This year at the Volunteer Park Conservatory I’ve created a back door for kids to see into the inner workings of our greenhouses and learn more about where all our plants come from and why botany and environmental science are so important and fascinating.
We had two sessions for our day camp that we called “Around the World in Four Days” one at the beginning and another at the end of summer. Many students enrolled with friends, and some parents asked to be involved too. It was a community effort. I involved botany students from the University of Washington, gardeners from the Conservatory, and various specialists from the Friends of the Conservatory. It was a good group. We explored our way through the plant kingdom by visiting the collections, doing scavenger hunts, and building terrariums for deserts and rainforests. Kids could learn what belonged to a particular region, could curate the piece themselves labeling all the plants, and learned to care for them and took their terrariums home at the end of the four days.
Almost everyone came in having particular plants they gravitated towards, yet there was a much bigger picture those plants were a part of. We started class by looking at the regions the plants came from. We looked at how the wind, weather, and topography all work together to create the unique environments that plants grow out of and respond to as we pondered words like evolution…
Most of our students had been to the Conservatory before but many had never seen or touched a globe that didn’t divide down national boundaries. The globe I painted described regions where plants and animal communities share a common environment. This opened up a whole host of questions… Why are some spots warmer than others? What is weather? How does it move around the earth? We experimented making clouds in glass jars as well as saw how dew drops and rain forms with a little help from water and ice cubes inside metal cups. We even talked about how we make the climates in the various greenhouses at the Conservatory to reproduce the conditions nearer the equator the best we can. Throughout all this students each kept a detailed journal that they decorated and wrote their notes in.
We didn’t just talk about evolution as a concept we looked at how it happened over generations of plants living in a climate and successfully reproducing. We looked at orchids as an example of an incredibly diverse species of plants that has made a life most often in the canopy of trees, just where certain insects and birds can pollinate them. These orchids form bonds with their pollinator not only through offering it nectar but also mimicking how they look or creating the perfect landing pad for them.
Kids got to look at some of the many orchids in our collection, draw and label their parts,
and even pollinate their own flowers toothpicks in hand!
Then the orchids that they learned to pollinate went in their journals with a number of other pressed plant parts. It was cool to see students first botanical drawings next to the real plants. Their journals were full of drawings and keep sakes to remember all they learned.
After exploring the many things that shaped a plant above ground we also looked below at roots and soil. With collections of dirt from all over the state students saw how combining sand, clay, and humus in varying amounts formed very different soils for each region, and thus very different communities of plants. Some were hard and repelled water, while others were like big sponges. Everyone got to guess which soil belonged to which location.
Then we set up the microscopes and looked a little deeper…
even on the smallest level we could see life in the soil. Bacteria that formed beneficial relationships with plants actually helped roots absorb nutrients from the soil. Of course if there was more plant debris in the soil then there was likely to be more microorganisms, and more beneficial relationships. Maybe this next year we can test that theory, and find out if these cultures can be introduced to poorer soils for bioremediation projects. Or perhaps even better have some friends from EarthCorp teach us about how places like Gas Works Park have been cleaned up through introducing a network of the right microorganisms.
We wrapped camp up by looking again at these many relationships on a large scale. Students drew the plants and animals they’d learned about and placed them where they would normally live on a giant mural. And every student got to tell their own story about how that being was special and an important part of the woven tapestry of life. Parents arrived for the presentation and for pictures. And after the students had packed up all their drawings, terrariums, and other goodies we got to hear from parents and guardians how much the kids were talking about class every day over dinner. When you’re growing corn from a kernel, measuring it’s growth, studying it’s structure, making tortillas from ground corn fried in a skillet with melted cheese on top, you’re gonna have a lot to say, right? After such a successful class and such great students I’m happy to see summer around the corner and kids already signing up to explore the Conservatory and some of our worlds many treasures.
Visit softdimension.net for more blogs by Sara Lawrence.
Conservatory Winter Update!
It’s that time of year again when the trees in Volunteer Park are putting on one final display of beauty before winter’s dormancy. While we may have been short-changed on a long, hot summer this year, the magnificent colors of the foliage seem to be trying to compensate and will not certainly disappoint anyone making the trip.
Volunteer Park’s crown jewel, the Conservatory watches proudly from the north, no doubt contemplating the final few weeks of being in the double-digits. 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the Conservatory in Volunteer Park which will be commemorated throughout the entire year through events and programs open to the public.
The Friends of the Conservatory, now in its 31st year of service, has had one of its most active years in recent memory. Our two plant sales in May and September were extremely successful; the Spring Sale was the most successful sale on record! The Education Committee sponsored the Urban Safari Summer Camp program for grade-school students received glowing praise from participants and parents and will be expanded next year. The summer also bore a series of open houses to remind the Capitol Hill neighborhood of the perhaps-overlooked treasure right in their backyards. Visitors were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour, live music, and a book signing with Sara Chapman, author of an extensive and beautiful book chronicling the Conservatory collection throughout the year: “Flowers of Volunteer Park Conservatory: Blooming Month by Month” (available for purchase in the Conservatory Gift Shop.)
At the end of October, the Conservatory gardeners surprised us with the first-annual Haunted Conservatory After-Hour Open in which the tropical paradise was transformed with spooky decorations, chilling special effects, treats for visitors, and a screening of “Little Shop of Horrors” in the cactus house. December brings our annual Holiday Open House including a very special treat in just time for the centennial; the Conservatory will be outfitted with thousands of energy-efficient LED bulbs which will shine bright starting in December and remain installed for the duration of 2012 to commemorate the festive occasion. The FOC Gift Shop, located in the Conservatory has had a remarkably successful year with October sales up 68% over the previous October, and overall sales are up 19% from last year!
We are hoping you can join us for the festivities in the New Year! The Centennial Committee has some terrific events planned throughout the entire year, and we look forward to sharing them with you! For information about upcoming events or to learn how you can get involved, contact foc@volunteerparkconservatory.org or call 206.322.4112.
Read more Conservatory updates in the FOC 2011 Fall/Winter Newsletter!
Welcome to the new Friends of the Conservatory Website!
First Blog!
One of the first duties I tackled when I first started volunteering for the Friends of the Conservatory was taking a stab at redesigning our organization’s website. Having served time as a web designer in the heady days of the dot-com ’90s I still had a little HTML up my sleeve and in 2007 launched version 2.3 of our website to the public. While the redesign modernized the look and feel of the initial site, the design remained static with little opportunity for interaction. Changes had to be manually edited and uploaded and which made it difficult to ensure timely publication, and also led to the possibility of stagnant content. As time passed, the redesign of the website showed signs of age. Unfortunately priorities had changed and my 20th century web design knowledge was no longer sufficient to implement the features every contemporary website should have.
In late 2010, my attention was drawn to the Seattle Central Community College Advanced Web Design 210 Class. Each year, students choose from several non-profit organizations and design (or redesign) a website as a class project. We applied for consideration and were chosen as one of the projects for the 2011 summer quarter.
Our capable team consisted of Reed Wacker, Laura Sammons, and Brian Kluck . The process was very straightforward; the team asked about our needs and goals, and where we envisioned the site going. With the Conservatory’s upcoming centennial, we wanted to update our look. We also had a strong desire to allow visitors to interact with the site, integrating social media and blogging. Most importantly, we wanted to allow for varied contributors and editors who will help make the site vibrant.
From static HTML to dynamic WordPress PHP, in just over two months, the redesign was complete. We are still learning the ropes of our new technologies, so please bear with us as we work out a few of the kinks.
We are hoping that version 3.0 of our site will be welcoming, useful and fun to visitors!
Please let us know how you like it!
Anthonio Mighuel Bishop Pettit
President, Friends of the Conservatory
not to be missed
I was looking for something fun and cheap to do with friends on a recent Saturday. I turned to Yelp for ideas and saw the many wonderful reviews on the conservatory. This place is not to be missed! We spent about an hour going through the conservatory looking at and admiring all the different types of flowers. Afterwards we walked to the water tower and took pictures from up there.
It’s a fantastic place to go especially if it’s cold and raining. The conservatory is kept very warm for the tropical flowers.
The water tower is definitely not to be missed either. The views are super cool. Even though it was “froggy” (rainy and foggy) we could still see the 520 bridge on one side and the Space Needle on the other. We’ll definitely be back again.
