The AHA! Lecture series presents resident Richard A. Duffy on Lost Heirlooms: The Extraordinary Fame of Local Vegetable and Fruit Varieties 1840-1910 at 11:00 am in the Performance Hall and streaming. Brighten your winter morning with images and tales of luscious and lost heirloom vegetables and fruits. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, agricultural leaders of what are now Arlington and Belmont developed prize-winning varieties. In addition, they promoted some unconventional growing techniques in their quest to get ever-earlier-in-the-season produce to the Boston market. As “seedsmen,” they influenced growers around the region and across the nation in the era before refrigerated rail cars eventually turned suburban market gardeners into niche operators. Richard A. Duffy is a local historian who presented the STEM Group lecture in January 2022, “Fessenden’s Spice Mill of Arlington: A Pioneer in Boston’s Victorian Botanical Medicine Renown.”
