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Month: November 2021

Planting for the Harvest Table

The most celebrated meal of the year is a few days away.  If you grow your own food, there is a good chance that the holiday feast will showcase selections from your garden.  For the ultimate planners, perhaps the entire meal (minus turkey) was harvested from your backyard.  My gardening style is more off-the-cuff, but there are a few items that I plan to grow every year for the holidays.  I think that homegrown foods are just tastier than store-bought (and nothing impresses guests more!)

If you want to try your hand at growing your Thanksgiving Day feast, early to mid-summer is the time to start planning.  It does take some forethought, but serving fresh, healthy foods from your own garden harvest is an inspiring reward.

Here are a few ideas of plants to grow for Thanksgiving:

Pumpkins:  Growing pumpkins for fall foods and décor starts well before autumn arrives.  Although we call pumpkins a ‘winter squash’ because they last a long time in cold storage, they grow when the weather is warm.  Large pumpkin varieties are lovely, but smaller pumpkins are tastier and have a better texture for cooking and baking.  A few of my favorites are Jack Be Little, Sugar Baby, Gold Nugget, Jarradhdale, Little October, and Lumina.

Winter squash:  Besides pumpkins, there are many varieties of winter squash, including Acorn, Delicata, Dumpling, Blue Hubbard, Banana, Buttercup, Marina Di Chioggia , Butternut, Sweet Dumpling.  GASU carries Spaghetti Squash and Waltham Butternut.

Summer Squash: These varieties don’t store as along as winter varieties due to their thinner skin.  But you can certainly blanch and freeze a few for the fall.  You can find Early Prolific Straightneck Squash, Dark Green Zucchini and Black Beauty Zucchini on our website.

Gourds:  Gourds are easy to grow and they make lovely décor.  GASU has both Birdhouse Gourds and Large Mixed Gourds in stock.

Flowers:  As part of my holiday décor, I really enjoy having flowers (both fresh and dried.)  There is a long list of varieties growing in my garden, including Strawflowers, Gomphrena (Bachelor’s Button, Globe Amaranth,) Chinese Lantern, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Rudbeckia (ie. Black-Eyed Susan,) Mums, Mexican Hat,  Allysum, Ipomea Sweet Potato Vine, Gaillardia (Blanketflower, Firewheels,) Geranium, Snapdragons, and Broom Corn and Marigolds.  GASU carries a varied selection of flowers that are beautiful and useful for attracting pollinators to your garden.

Corn: The flint corn served at the first Thanksgiving feast differed greatly from sweet varieties that we enjoy today.  GASU carries delicious Golden Bantam sweet corn.  A harder variety, Reid’s Yellow Dent, is available for growers who want to grind their own cornmeal or flour.  Perhaps our most popular variety, Glass Gem Corn, is also good for grinding.  But many people grow it simply for its beautiful colors.

Beans and Peas:  Grow beans in the summer and freeze or dry them for Thanksgiving.  Our favorites that we carry are Anasazi, Tepary, Bush Blue Lake 274, and Dry Black Beans.  When the weather cools, plant peas.  GASU has Mammoth Melting Snow and Sugar Ann in stock.  Additionally, we offer Broad Windsor Fava beans which are an unusual bean variety that is plant in the cool season.

Herbs:  The addition of fresh or dried herbs makes a meal particularly delicious.  Rosemary, anise, green onions, oregano, mint, cilantro and sage are a few favorites.  GASU stocks  a collection of fantastic herbs, including Italian Large Leaf Basil, Slo-Bolting Cilantro, Bouquet Dill, and Curled Forest Green Parsley.

Onions: Like herbs, onions are also key to flavoring recipes, from sweet yellow onions and mild bunching varieties to aromatic reds.  GASU stocks Red Grano and Texas Early Grano storage bulbs, as well as Sweet Yellow Spanish Utah Onions and Nebuka Evergreen Bunching Onions.

Winter Veggies: We certainly can’t forget about cool season veggies and greens. There is so much variety in this category, including collards, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, lettuces, kale, arugula, spinach, Swiss Chard, carrots.  Kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, beets and parsnips.  GASU carries and large selection of cool season crops.

If you have them growing, consider using the following for food and décor:

Artichokes, persimmons, pomegranates, grape leaves, eucalyptus, apples, pears, Purple Fountain Grass, citrus fruits, fig leaves. pinecones and branches, cinnamon sticks, Pyracantha or ferns.  Additionally, succulents are a popular decorative plant that can be grown indoors when the weather grows cold.  If you live in USDA climate zone 7 or above, Lantana is a lovely plant whose purple, orange, yellow or red flowers last in fall cut flower arrangements.

Tips

 

  • Order seeds for next year early.  Seed companies start to run out of popular varieties in January when gardeners tend to start shopping. Beat the rush by ordering before the new year.
  • 2-4 weeks before Thanksgiving, hang flowers and herbs to dry.
  • 1 week before Thanksgiving, visit your yard/garden to look for items that can be used in your table-scape.  Test leaves and flowers for durability (i.e.. Make sure they are not going to wilt immediately when you cut them.)

Where to get ideas:

Natural Thanksgiving décor: http://anita-faraboverubies.blogspot.com/2011/11/organic-thanksgiving.html and http://peekingthruthesunflowers.blogspot.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-tablescape-ideas.html

Thanksgiving Harvest: What to Plant Next Year for Your Thanksgiving Table https://newengland.com/today/living/gardening/thanksgiving-harvest-what-to-plant-next-year-for-your-thanksgiving-table/

Twelve Things to Grow for Your Thanksgiving Garden: https://montegattafarm.com/garden/how-to-grow-a-thanksgiving-garden/

Growing a Thanksgiving Centerpiece: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/lifestyle/thanksgiving-centerpiece-plants.htm

Evening Elixirs of Joy: Grow Your Own Herbal “Tea”

Written by Belle Starr

Every evening after we settle in for the night’s activities my husband Bill McDorman puts on a pot of water and goes out to the garden to harvest his latest soothing elixir of goodness. This is a ritual I have been part of for almost two decades and I always take it for granted that there will be some delicious mix of herbs and other interesting leaves and twigs to round out yet another busy day.

Unbeknownst to me until recently, I learned there is actually a name for what Bill does. It is called tisane (tea – zahn) and he engages in this process regularly. Tisanes are infusions of leaves and various other garden delights, but technically are not considered teas.  “Tea” is a specific variety of plant (Camellia sinensis.) Teas are created from leaves of white, green, black, and oolong tea shrubs.

Bill’s cornucopia of choices includes mint (always in production around here), lavender, lemon grass, Mexican sage, rosemary, lemon balm and oregano. While one would suspect that some of these herbs may overwhelm the taste buds, in just the right amounts they play well together and taste delicious! I can’t say that Bill combines all the aforementioned herbs every time, but mixes and matches as he desires.

The good news is that all these herbs are great for us and have so many beneficial characteristics. Not only can they taste divine when used in the right amounts, their essential oils and constituents serve our bodies in so many ways.

  • Lavender is known for its calmative properties, its antifungal ability and support of digestive issues.
  • Sage is antiseptic, antibacterial and is used for various kinds of inflammation.
  • Oregano is an antioxidant, and like sage, is antibacterial.
  • Mint of course is great for indigestion and helpful for respiratory function. It also makes breath smell fresh.

A typical evening libation might be a small handful of mint, a few leaves of lavender and a small sprig of rosemary. Bill pours slightly cooled boiling water over the leaves in a tea diffuser and lets it steep longer than a traditional tea (4 minutes).  The longer the steep, the more flavor and more release of the essential oils and constituents. There is always immediate feedback of smell and flavor, and every evening another trial tisane is served.

One of the added benefits of having the remnants of a pot full of tisane greet us in the morning is what we call the morning rinse. It is always so delightful to drink up last night’s mix as a precursor to indulging in delicious coffee.  And it is so good for our digestive systems.

Of course, herbs in the garden are a welcome component to any diverse and ecologically healthy landscape. They act as natural insect repellents and attract all kinds of beneficial insects (butterflies, insects, birds, etc.)

Oh, and did we mention, that most are delicious in an array of various dishes?  Cooking with homegrown fresh herbs isn’t just for gourmet chefs. Learn what you need to know about growing and preserving herbs for culinary and medicinal purposes here:  Growing Culinary Herbs by Kari Spencer.

****Join us this Tuesday at 6 pm (Mountain Time, 5 pm Pacific) for Seed Chat when Bill McDorman and Greg Peterson discuss Culinary and Aromatic Herbs.

Those who join in will received a free electronic copy of the booklet, Eat, Drink and Be Merry: Herbs That Please Our Palettes and Keep Us Healthy