Historical Society of Florham Park – “The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Early American Women and Their Kitchen Gardens”

AREA - Historian Lesley

Parness introduces the original ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ in this engaging presentation as she takes everyone back to the Colonial era.

Growing plants both Native American and from their homelands, these women turned their soup pots into the “melting pot” that is America. Kitchen gardens in the 1700’s fed, healed, and clothed Early American families. Their skill sets included “physicke, cookery, distillation, perfumery, the making of wool, hemp, flax, dayries, brewing, bak- ing,” and, of course – gardening. They exemplified all the best qualities of plantswomen and patriots.

Sponsored by The Historical Society of Florham Park, Lesley Parness has worked in public gardens here in America and abroad for the past four decades. She is a founding member and past President of Garden State Gardens, a consortium of NJ Public Gardens. As Superintendent of Horticultural Education at the Morris County Park Commission, Lesley oversaw education, programming and inter-