LANDIS PORTRAITS: A SERIES ABOUT THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PLANTS AT THE ARBORETUM' - Nolan Marciniec10/8/2014 Ed Radle speculated that on a clear day he can almost see his house from the Meeting House deck.
When he and his wife Ann moved into their retirement home in 2002, they were introduced to the Arboretum by taking a class, after which they hiked the trails, viewed the Great Oak, and (Ann pointed out) shopped at the Acorn Shop. Gradually, over the years, Ed has been drawn more frequently to what he called “a wonder in our own backyard.” Ed first volunteered to clean up the many thousands of tires that had been dumped on land the Arboretum acquired. He worked with Cindy King in a class on propagation. In January, he accepted an invitation to join the Landis Board of Trustees. After a stint in the Air Force, Ed earned a degree in chemical engineering and worked as a chemist in private industry. Engineering always had an appeal, but Ed admitted that calculus was elusive: “the key didn’t fit the lock,” he said. But it was his certification as scuba diver that convinced him to pursue marine biology. “It certainly had more appeal than rattling around in a chem lab,” he said. He earned a degree at the College of Marine Studies at Farleigh-Dickinson University and taught for several years in the public school system in his native Pennsylvania. Ultimately, Ed accepted a job with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, working to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act. Ed also spent several years with the Air National Guard. As a child, he spent summers on his grandparents’ “typical turn-of-the-century farmstead” in Pennsylvania, and those summers instilled his dedication to gardening. His garden and orchard keep him and Ann in food all summer long and through most of the rest of the year. Freezing and cold storage help, but Ed’s specialty is fermentation. This year and last, Ed offered workshops in fermented foods –making the case for probiotics in the diet. He has also presented a workshop on winemaking. Ed makes wines with such diverse fruits as elderberries, plums, apples, grapes – and rhubarb. (His rhubarb wine is legendary.) Ed’s been known to turn down opportunities to travel – most recently to England -- during the gardening season. Ed is looking forward to “learning . . . from kindred spirits” at the Arboretum. He commented that the people he’s met so far “value the natural world and our place in it, although they share different approaches.” He is impressed by the Arboretum’s commitment to education about the natural world for families with children. “So many young kids grow up in suburban and urban places, where all they know is blacktop and concrete,” he said, thinking that the Arboretum might someday offer a summer program to immerse these children in a natural environment at Landis. The Arboretum, that place so near yet so far removed from most people’s lives, beckoned to Ed. It works its magic on everyone who visits. Like fermentation, Ed might say.
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