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If you love a mystery, teamwork, New York City, or just being outside, this immersive event may be the ideal weekend activity for you.

Back for its second year, The Great Gotham Challenge will venture into Central Park on Saturdays throughout the summer.

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In the challenge, teams race around Central Park for an immersive puzzle adventure, finding clues throughout the park, while learning secrets and little-known history about the well-known space. At the end, teams will enjoy a picnic provided by the Great Gotham Challenge. Part trivia competition, part relay, this event combines teams’ savviness of New York food, live theater, history, plus embedded technology to create an unforgettable experience.

Teams of two to four people can compete. To succeed, teams will need to break codes, solve riddles, and Google some interactive clues to help win the challenge. 

All teams meet near Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain (the exact location revealed the day prior to the event) for the race to kick off and all ages are welcome. The challenge requires participants to walk at least two miles, and some stairs are also on the route. The events lasts 3-5 hours, depending on how quickly teams solve the clues and make it to the finish line. 

Teams must be fully formed before participating, but you’ll meet and mingle with competitors before and after the race. The first Great Gotham Challenge kicks off on Saturday, June 10 with starting times ranging from 1pm – 2:30pm, though some slots are filled out, as space is limited. Tickets are $199. 

* This article was originally published here

The weather for this week in NYC is looking gorgeous–perfect timing for GreenThumb to host the the sixth-annual Open Garden NYC event that opens the gates of hundreds of community gardens to New Yorkers for a weekend of free activities and exploration!

And with the start of June this week and the summer quickly approaching, what better time than to spend as much time outdoors as we can?!

Tbis weekend, hundreds of gardens across the city will be seeking out people to contribute a few extra hands for garden projects–from planting produce and flowers to hosting events. Beginners and experienced gardeners alike are welcome!

The GreenThumb community gardens are all volunteer run and serve as a great way for people to come together over growing food and community, meet new people, and explore some of the city’s best green spaces.

Events across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx include things such as cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts, garden tours, music, composting workshops, storytelling, and more.

Open Garden NYC is taking place on Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4. More information including a full list of free weekend events can be found here.

Open Garden NYC

Various locations

Saturday, June 3 & Sunday, June 4

The post Hundreds Of NYC Community Gardens Will Host Free Programming This Weekend appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

Can you smell what The Rock is … making? It’s ice cream and it’s coming to New York City as a pop-up.

Portland-based Salt & Straw, co-owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is known for its culinarily complex flavors and silky scoops and it is coming to Manhattan, but for one day only. 

The Salt & Straw pop-up will be at Blue Stripes Cacao Shop (28 East 13th Street) on Friday, June 9, from 4 to 7pm. On the menu will be three new Salt & Straw flavors exclusively available for the month of June, plus two signature flavors.

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The new June flavors come from Salt & Straw’s Upcycled Food Series, which highlights ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away, shining light on creative and delicious solutions to help reduce food waste, such as cacao pulp, whey and more flavorful ingredients that are often byproducts of popular ingredients (chocolate and cheese, respectively.

The pop-up menu includes the new Cacao Pulp and Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato created in partnership with Blue Stripes, and is made using the whole cacao pod including the shell and pulp. The gelato is striped with ribbons of dark chocolate stracciatella. In collaboration with The Spare Food Co., a Lemon Curd and Why flavor creates a tart, tangy gelato infused with upcycled whey based probiotic sparkling Lemon & Ginger Spare Tonic. The last new flavor is Salted Caramel and Okara Cupcakes, a vegan creation with Renewal Mill that’s based in a salted coconut oat milk ice cream studded with bits of dark chocolate cupcakes, frosted with vegan caramel and featuring okara flour, a flour made from the pulp leftover when making soy milk.

Sea salt with caramel ribbons, plus honey lavender, will also be available by the scoop. 

If you’re eager to check out more unique ice cream flavors, head down to the Heladería de Ernesto’s, a culinary collaboration with Morgenstern’s. At the Lower East Side summer pop-up, you’ll find scoops of egg custard, cinnamon black walnut, cafe bombon, Basque cheesecake, chocolate turron and more. 

* This article was originally published here