A Columbus Day Lunch at Skylands

October 12, 2017

So many of you enjoy reading about my trips to Skylands, my beloved home in Seal Harbor, Maine. Thank you for all your great comments on yesterday's photos from our hike around Jordan Pond.

During this last visit, I also prepared a lovely Columbus Day lunch for all those who take such great care of Skylands, and for a few who work at my Bedford, New York farm and accompanied me for the weekend. Whenever I entertain, there is always so much to do - harvesting, cooking, baking, and table setting. Fortunately, I always have lots of help, and everything went perfectly as planned. It was a very delicious and enjoyable meal for everyone.

Enjoy this gallery of pictures.

: The table in my Skylands kitchen gets so much use. Cheryl and Gretchen set a beautiful fall table complete with the Skylands lobster bibs. My “Great Wall of China” can be seen in the back.

: Cheryl and Gretchen created a centerpiece using pumpkins and squash grown right here at Skylands.

: These artichokes are also from my garden here in Maine – I love when we can use home grown produce.

: As each artichoke was prepared, it was placed in water with citrus slices to keep them from browning.

: Fresh greens from the garden are washed and dried for our salad.

: Here is Shqipe removing the centers from the artichokes, so they could be stuffed.

: The stuffing includes garlic, capers and cornichons – small French sour pickles made with mini gherkin cucumbers, which are one to two inches in length and harvested before reaching full maturity for an extra-tart bite.

: Shqipe peels the garlic after it is roasted. We roasted the garlic with salt, pepper and olive oil, then after it is all peeled, I sautée it with more olive oil to make a paste for the pasta.

: All the garlic we used was grown at Skylands – we had a very bountiful garlic season this year.

: We also sliced and sautéed garlic to make garlic chips.

: Using garlic chips instead of chopped garlic is a nice switch. We cooked them until they were golden brown – about 15 minutes. Once they are cooked, they are drained of all the oil.

: Here I am filling the artichokes before they are cooked.

: I also baked some delicious apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, raisins, and citrus.

: Here is a closer look at them fresh from the oven – they really smell so amazing.

: Here are the stuffed artichokes ready to devour.

: Everyone was so hungry – our meal was nearly ready.

: I made pasta with bucatini – also known as perciatelli, it is a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. The bucatini was served with greens, garlic broth and garlic chips.

: Here is Cheryl with our delicious lobsters from Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound in Trenton, Maine. It’s one of my favorite sources for great seafood and delicious lobster rolls. http://www.trentonbridgelobster.com

: The delicious salad with stuffed artichoke – plated and ready to eat.

: Everyone stopped for a quick photo before feasting on this wonderful first course.

: And here is our mouth watering baked apple dessert. Everything was so delicious.

: After lunch, I walked out onto my expansive “ice terrace” to see how the succulents had grown – look how beautiful they are in this antique planter. They grew so much since I planted them in May.

: And here is the long trough – also overflowing with gorgeous succulents.

: The dahlia garden continues to bloom spectacularly.

: This is Dahlia ‘Jane Cowl’ a stunning informal decorative dahlia first released in 1928 – it has deep peach centers, which open up to glowing bronze petals dusted with gold.

: Dahlia ‘Hy Sockeye’ is a small, more formal, dark red dahlia.

: This dahlia is ‘Pencil Watermelon’. This variety’s big, shaggy blossoms come in an irresistible blend of peach, pink, lavender and yellow. They are fabulous cut flowers and in high demand for weddings.

: These blooms are Dahlia ‘Hy Mom’. They have an incurved cactus form with spectacular big white flowers – it was first introduced in 2001. We have so many beautiful dahlias this year.

: We also took rides on Skylands II, my Hinkley Picnic Boat. It was pouring for much of the afternoon, but we still enjoyed the time in Seal Harbor. We saw some trees and noticed this one red maple among all the spruce and fir trees – so pretty.