Malaine A. Trecoske

Malaine Trecoske grew up on a dairy farm in northeastern Pennsylvania. She planted seeds from an early age, following her grandmother who furrowed the soil in the family vegetable garden which included artichokes! She graduated from high school in Montrose, Pennsylvania, received a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Science in Physical Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley, where she met her husband, Tom.
Her first Chemistry teaching job was at Wellesley College, where her condo had a northern exposure, but she tried to grow tomatoes anyway. Once married, she and Tom hopscotched the country, where she taught chemistry at North Seattle Community College, Pennsylvania State University and Middlesex Community College, finally landing twenty-one years ago in Branford. Beginning in Seattle, they had a garden in the community Pea Patch and in her Pennsylvania garden she unfortunately lost her tomatoes to a groundhog.
Her son Adam will graduate from the University of Connecticut Honors program in Biology in May and son Nathaniel is a freshman majoring in Geography and minoring in Political Science at Keene State College. Her darling husband is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of a biotechnology company, Shoreline Biome.
Once in Branford, Malaine volunteered in the Sliney School library for several years and has worked for many years with the Walsh 5th and 6th grade Green Team on their raised beds, planting vegetables and flowers every spring and giving tours of the Branford Community Gardens on the annual 5th grade Shoreline Greenway Trail hike. In 2009, she was a founding member of Branford Community Gardens, serving as an officer, horticultural advisor and coordinator of the Seed, Weed and Feed program, which is an all-volunteer effort to grow vegetables for the Branford Food Pantry and the Community Dining Room. The Seed, Weed and Feed plot delivers hundreds of pounds of fresh produce every year to those in need. She has also been a member of the Branford Garden Club since 2008, and currently is Horticulture Chair, introducing club members to horticultural topics like the “Threats to Chocolate”, broad forks, a deep tillage tool and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. She also co-chaired the Garden Club’s 2010 Flower Show, which educated club members and the public to a wide variety of horticultural and floral design possibilities. In 2012, Branford Cares Volunteers and then in 2016, Shore Publishing’s Beacon Awards honored Malaine for her volunteer work.
In her free time, Malaine labors in her own garden, where flowers, vegetables and berries take center stage. She also loves to read, she organized a book group; to quilt, the 2010 Flower Show featured quilts as a theme and to cook and bake, taking cooking classes from local chefs for years. She’s very thankful to have settled in Branford, which afforded her the opportunity to spread the joy of growing good food and flowers to others.
Her first Chemistry teaching job was at Wellesley College, where her condo had a northern exposure, but she tried to grow tomatoes anyway. Once married, she and Tom hopscotched the country, where she taught chemistry at North Seattle Community College, Pennsylvania State University and Middlesex Community College, finally landing twenty-one years ago in Branford. Beginning in Seattle, they had a garden in the community Pea Patch and in her Pennsylvania garden she unfortunately lost her tomatoes to a groundhog.
Her son Adam will graduate from the University of Connecticut Honors program in Biology in May and son Nathaniel is a freshman majoring in Geography and minoring in Political Science at Keene State College. Her darling husband is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of a biotechnology company, Shoreline Biome.
Once in Branford, Malaine volunteered in the Sliney School library for several years and has worked for many years with the Walsh 5th and 6th grade Green Team on their raised beds, planting vegetables and flowers every spring and giving tours of the Branford Community Gardens on the annual 5th grade Shoreline Greenway Trail hike. In 2009, she was a founding member of Branford Community Gardens, serving as an officer, horticultural advisor and coordinator of the Seed, Weed and Feed program, which is an all-volunteer effort to grow vegetables for the Branford Food Pantry and the Community Dining Room. The Seed, Weed and Feed plot delivers hundreds of pounds of fresh produce every year to those in need. She has also been a member of the Branford Garden Club since 2008, and currently is Horticulture Chair, introducing club members to horticultural topics like the “Threats to Chocolate”, broad forks, a deep tillage tool and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. She also co-chaired the Garden Club’s 2010 Flower Show, which educated club members and the public to a wide variety of horticultural and floral design possibilities. In 2012, Branford Cares Volunteers and then in 2016, Shore Publishing’s Beacon Awards honored Malaine for her volunteer work.
In her free time, Malaine labors in her own garden, where flowers, vegetables and berries take center stage. She also loves to read, she organized a book group; to quilt, the 2010 Flower Show featured quilts as a theme and to cook and bake, taking cooking classes from local chefs for years. She’s very thankful to have settled in Branford, which afforded her the opportunity to spread the joy of growing good food and flowers to others.
Letters of Nomination
It is my pleasure to nominate Malaine Trecoske for the Branford Education Hall of Fame. Malaine received her B A in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College and her M S in chemistry from The University of California at Berkeley. Malaine has lectured and taught chemistry at Wellesley College. Northern Seattle College (in WA) and at Middlesex Community College. Malaine joined the BGC ten years ago and has since been on the journey of educating our members in horticulture, ecology, conservation, and organic gardening. Around that time a community garden was established in Branford at the Early Learning Center (old Pine Orchard School). Malaine enthusiastically jumped on board and soon became president of this organization which rents out spaces for Branford residents to plant gardens. Not only does she organize and work at this garden, but she teaches others how to use the soil, plant, and nourish plants for home use. Malaine uses a very large plot of the garden to raise favorite and unusual vegetables to take to the Food Pantry and Community Dining Room each week so that the clients and guests might have nutritious and fresh vegetables. As a volunteer at the Food Pantry every Tuesday, I along with the clients, look forward to seeing Malaine come through the door, after getting to the garden at dawn. She brings baskets and baskets of beautiful, leafy vegetables, some of them strange looking. But Malaine educates the staff and the clients, as to what the vegetables are and how to prepare them. This is a real treat for so many of our town residents who cannot afford to purchase fresh vegetables every week. Malaine grew up on a family farm and has always loved growing things. Several years ago, she took the master gardener courses at U. Conn. and became a master gardener. She has used that knowledge to make the community gardens, and her own, produce bountiful and lucious vegetables., As the present horticulture chairman of the Branford Garden Club, Malaine teaches us something new each month from micro gardening to composting. We see her studied, academic approach in everything she does---the meticulous and methodical organization of the huge flower show which she chaired, her very precise discussion of our by-laws, and her wealth of horticulture knowledge about every horticulture specimen brought in. Malaine is a great horticulturist, environmentalist, and organic gardener who shares her knowledge with those she knows and strangers as well. A most compassionate person, Malaine gives the vegetables from her own garden and the community garden to those who need it most. How fortunate we are in our community to have Malaine amongst us.