Gifts for Gardeners 2009 Edition
I’m sure most of you reading this blog are the gardeners in the family. In case you’re not, here are few great gift ideas for those gardeners in your life. Since today is Black Friday, the traditional kick-off for the holiday shopping season, I figured I’d talk about gifts for those gardeners in your life.
For the the gardener that loves houseplants and growing interesting things, how about a dwarf lemon tree from Four Winds Growers? I’m hoping to get one or two of these for Christmas. A Meyer lemon would be perfect as would a Mexican Lime.
A Seed Savers Exchange gift membership would be perfect for those in your life that are trying to focus on heirloom plants. This is a great gift for those activists in your life, even if they’re not gardeners. Seed Savers Exchange is the largest non-governmental seed bank in the United States. They ensure the safety of more than 25,000 endangered vegetable varieties.
How about a collection of seeds from a seed shop that tries to focus on heirloom & non-GMO seeds, like Bountiful Gardens, Freedom Seeds, Victory Seed Company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Botanical Interests, Renee’s Garden, Wild Garden Seed, Territorial Seed.
Of course I’m going to recommend a pair of Ethel Gloves for that special lady gardener in your life, or for that budding young gardener since they have children’s gloves now.
A mushroom growing kit would be a fabulous gift, especially for that young gardener in your life. I would have loved growing mushrooms as a kid. Most of the big gardening website have them, but I’d buy from a place like Cascadia Mushrooms (which I found on LocalHarvest.org), Peaceful Valley, Territorial Seed, or Mushroom Adventures.
My mushroom kit in effect! courtesy of mtoasty
A membership or a day pass to a local horticultural center or botanical garden would be a fantastic gift for that gardener that has everything. If you live near Kennett Square PA, Longwood Gardens is superb. Here in NE Ohio, Stan Hywet is nice. Most large cities have botanical gardens that would be wonderful to tour throughout the year with a membership.
I can’t go without recommending a Chiot’s Run calendar, it makes a great gift (and not just for gardeners). Many of my friends and family will be getting one.
I won’t be leaving the house today, I don’t like the crowds and most of my gifts are homemade. I will browse a few on-line sales> to see if anything I’ve been looking for is on sale.
Do you have any great recommendations for gifts you’d like to receive or that you’re getting for those gardeners in your life?
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Ballerina Chiots
Lucy’s costume was finished today on the way over to my mom’s. She loved it of course since she likes the attention she gets while wearing costumes. Our nieces & nephew thought it was the greatest thing and had a blast playing with ballerina Lucy.
Her ballerina costume was complete with ties around her feet, sans the shoes of course.
Lucy doesn’t like to have her photo taken and always looks away, but I got this one that was pretty cute.
Happy Halloween from Chiot’s Run, we hope your autumn weekend was a wonderful affair filled with lots of candy and dog biscuits.
Head on over to my Flickr stream to see more photos.
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Happy Halloween from Chiot’s Run
I love towns that celebrate Halloween on the actual holiday, not the Sunday before on Wednesday afternoon. My mom’s town celebrates on Halloween and we always head over there to go trick-or-treating with our nieces & nephew. Lucy usually has a costume as well and she walks around with us. Last year she was Wendy from the Wendy’s restaurant. This year she has a costume as well, I’ll post a photo later today so check back.
Until then here’s a photo that really shows the season, fresh apples and black cats. As someone commented on this photo over at Flickr: This photo is like everything I expect from an American Autumn and more!
How do you celebrate Halloween? any fun costumes this year?
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Making Sauerkraut for New Year’s
On Wednesday I started my sauerkraut for our New Year’s Day tradition. We’ve been eating sauerkraut for New Year’s in my family since I can remember. We used to go out to my grandma’s house and she would have a big roaster full of sauerkraut, sausage and dumplings. When my grandma died my dad took over. He developed his own special recipe, changing it each year to make it better. It’s not your typical kraut recipe, it includes carrots, apples, tomatoes and all kinds of delicious goodness. For a few photos of my dad cooking on New Year’s and the recipe see this post.
Sauerkraut that ferments at cooler temperatures – 65 or lower – has the best flavor, color and vitamin C content. The fermentation process takes longer at these temperatures, around 4-6 weeks. That’s probably why it’s traditionally made in the fall. Looks like I’m making mine at the right time, it should be ready by mid-December and waiting in the fridge for New Years!
Making sauerkraut is quite easy all you need is cabbage (red or green), salt, and time (generally 3T of salt for every 5 lbs of cabbage). First you slice up the cabbage as thinly as you’d like, I usually do some really thin and some thick for variety. Then you put some sliced cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle salt over it, then smash with a wooden spoon or potato masher and mix. Continue adding cabbage and salt and mixing and smashing until the bowl is half full.
When the bowl is about half full I let it sit for 10-15 minutes to take a break and to let the cabbage wilt a little. This makes it easier to stuff into the glass jar I’m using as a fermenting crock. Transfer the cabbage to the jar, smash it down and continue working until all the cabbage is salted, smashed and packed into the jar. Let the cabbage sit overnight, if the brine hasn’t covered the cabbage make some brine (1.5 T of salt to 1 quart of water) and pour over the cabbage. I use a canning jar to weigh down the cabbage because I’m not comfortable using plastic. Let it sit for 4-6 weeks until it stops bubbling and it tastes like sauerkraut. You really can’t get much simpler. I’m hoping to try a few of the recipes in my The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition
When I was making this I thought about all the women in past generations of my family that spent time each fall making sauerkraut for New Year’s. Connecting with our food heritage is such a wonderful thing. Hopefully our nieces & nephew will grow up with fond memories of eating Grandpa’s Famous Sauerkraut on New Year’s and continue the tradition with their families.
Do you have a specific food or menu that has been passed down through the generations of your family?
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Gardening Holidays: Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day
Today is Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors’ Porch Day – HOW FUN. I happened up on these great beauties for free at our local bee supply shop. We’ve been keeping up with ours, so this gave me the perfect fodder to celebrate this holiday!
Mr Chiots ran in to town yesterday afternoon (since I needed photos for today, we celebrated a day early). He put them on our friend’s porch, right on the porch swing.
Unfortunately he was caught in the act. Ollie, their crazy little dog wanted to keep the zucchini (I’m sure he thought it was a dog toy).
In the end the zucchini is back at our house (our friend’s don’t appreciate zucchini as much as we do). I sauteed it last night and it’s marinading in a balsamic vinaigrette in the fridge. We’ll enjoy it as a side dish, on pizza, or on a sandwich.
Are you going to celebrate this fantastic holiday (if so, snap a photo, put it on your blog, and link to it in the comments)?
