First Parish Church of Newbury, located in Newbury, MA is pleased to announce the return of The George Cole Quintet on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:30pm. Join us for a night of exquisite jazz as internationally renowned acoustic guitar virtuoso, George Cole, treats audiences to selections from “The Great American Cole Book”. Tickets are $12.00 in advance or $15.00 at the door the night of the performance, and can be purchased by calling the Church office at 978-465-5597.

This winter Mr. Cole and his quintet will be bringing warmth, wit, and humor to theaters in the mid-west and east coast. The George Cole Quintet presents an elegant evening of music, style, and outstanding musicianship. A glimpse into an alternate universe where melody, harmony and great showmanship reign supreme. Their style is pure “Eurocana” – meaning inspiration is drawn from the string-driven swing created by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli as well as America’s greatest composers. The Quintet’s music is sprinkled with red hot violin and Cole’s “Speed of Light” guitar technique. George Cole continues his mission to write a new chapter of the Great American Songbook with the help of the San Francisco Bay Area’s top musicians. The band’s current CD, Riverside Drive, is currently in heavy rotation on radio stations across America and their show is not to be missed. You’ll see the stylish retro presence of George Cole on guitar/vocals, stunning showstopper Hale Baskin on vocals, Berkelee trained violin virtuoso Nancy Kuo, propulsive rhythm guitarist Jimmy Grant, and swinging upright bassist Christopher Bastian.

Fee: $23 per person with online registration or $28 per couple taking home 1 jar of jam with online registration; $25 per single or $30 per couple the day of the event

Learn how to provide food and habitat for insects that are beneficial to your garden through a choice of delightful plants.  Ways to integrate them into your garden and kitchen will be taught.  This will be a hands-on experience, enabling you to create a simple Mason Bee house to take home with seeds and/or small plants to get you started at home.

Charlotte Dion preparing a sheet mulch garden at New Eden in 2010

Spring is finally here and it time for another round of New Eden’s Sustainable Living Classes. This spring we will be offering courses on a variety of “homesteading” skills and  earth friendly practices  from raising chickens to making strawberry preserves.

The list of courses include No Dig or Sheet Mulch Garden Beds, Compost Tea, Chicken 101, Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation, Creating Habitats for Pollinators and other Beneficial Insects,  Strawberry Preserves Workshop and 2 classes on the Basics of Organic Gardening.

For more information and to register online – go to the New Eden Collaborative Workshops page.

Our first workshop, Basics of Organic Gardening is Saturday, April 9th, 9:00 am to Noon kicks of the Spring 2011 Workshop series. Register now!

A festive feast to start the new year.

A rite of spring at New Eden is the holding of the organizational meetings of the Chicken co-op and the community gardens.  Old and new members have a chance to meet each other and the veterans get their first chance to welcome the newbies into  New Eden community.

One of the innovatoins this year at the community gardens is that each gardener is required to volunteer 6 hours for the benefit of the  community by signing up for one of a lists of task forces. A sampling of  task forces include: compost committee , berry planting brigade, tool and fence maintenance, compost tea posse, irrigation, food bank donation coordinator and bee keeper apprentice.

Tory Dolben testing the consistency of blue berry jam

Deb Cinamon Whalen demonstrating salting and icing cucumbers for bread and butter pickles

There have now been 3 New Eden Food Preservation classes. In the cool of the First Parish basement kitchen, we have made blueberry jam, “Bread and Butter Pickles,”Dilly Beans”, and “End of Garden Pickles”. From the look of   the happy faces of the participants the classes have been a success. There are still 3 classes to go. The next one will be taught by Charlotte Dion and will show how to use lacto-fermentation to make Sauerkraut. There are still opening available. Contact Erin through this website or call 978-499-0096 to register for Charlotte’s class on September 9 and Tory Dolben’s classes on preserving peaches (September 23) and apples (October 7) .