With but a Crumb: Baking & Emily Dickinson in the Garden

With but a Crumb: Baking & Emily Dickinson in the Garden
Presented in partnership with Edible South Florida and Dade Heritage Trust
Led by instructor Lucia Meneses and poet Leslie Fraser

In the mid-19th century, Amherst, Massachusetts, resident Emily Dickinson was a proud and accomplished baker. She won second prize for her loaf of Indian and rye. She baked gingerbread for the neighborhood children. On the back of a yellow baking chocolate wrapper, Emily wrote the draft of a poem in her neat round handwriting. On Mrs. Carmichael’s recipe for Coconut Cake, she wrote: “The Things that never can come back, are several.”

Poetry, food, horticulture, and history converge in this program at the historic Coral Gables Woman’s Club. Guests hear about Emily Dickinson’s baking and the poems that became, quite literally, a part of her process. Lucia Meneses of Dade Heritage Trust’s Baking in Historic Places program demonstrates how to make her Coconut Cake, using the same recipe and methods.

While the cake bakes, guests tour the historic building and learn about the 1936 building and grounds. Guests return to taste freshly baked cake, taking with them poems and the recipe.

About your facilitators

Lucia Meneses (she/her) is a Miami native living and working in Miami. For the last five years she has been managing the K-12 educational programs for Dade Heritage Trust (DHT)---a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Miami-Dade's architectural, environmental, and cultural heritage through education and advocacy. Lucia is also an avid baker and has found a way to merge baking and education. In 2018, DHT launched a series called Baking in Historic Places which introduces participants to some of Miami's most beautiful historic venues in the most delicious way. We gather inside their kitchens to create baked goods inspired by the venues under the guidance of Lucia. While the treats bake in the oven, participants receive a tour of the historic venue. Visit our website www.dadeheritagetrust.org, or follow us on social media, @dhtmiami, for information about upcoming events.

Leslie Fraser based in suburban Miami is originally from New York City. She won her first and last writing award from Reader’s Digest in the third grade. She wrote fearlessly and constantly ever since. Age 5 to 6 was a year of self-imposed silence; this opened her to every other form of expression from collecting beetles to discovering secret passages in the woods next to her house. She became a keen observer and reporter. She was encouraged by her mother to go into Broadcast Journalism but Leslie found her way into Avante-garde dance, poetry, and theater. Leslie finally settled on a sensible career as a Speech-Language Pathologist. She made a home helping others to find their voice and words in the USA as well as in Pacific Micronesia. From 1982 to 1984 she wrote with the American Poet Society in NYC. She currently serves as a Board Member on the Miami Shores Education Advisory Board and works in Private Practice coaching and advocacy in the areas of speech, education, and disabilities.

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