Holidays are so much fun, especially when I can celebrate with my daughter, Alexis, and her beautiful children, Jude and Truman.
This year, I hosted a small Easter lunch for 10 at my Bedford, New York farm. The weather was perfect - pleasant temperatures under the bluest of skies. I decorated my home with cheerful bunnies, chicks, and eggs of all colors and sizes. And we all enjoyed a delicious feast, prepared by me with help from Moises Fuentes - it included buckwheat crêpes with crème fraîche and ossetra caviar, white and green asparagus, warm artichokes with hollandaise vinaigrette, poached salmon with cucumber sauce, and a Cipriani meringue cake de Martha.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Easter weekend at the farm was beautiful – the daffodils and many other early springtime bulbs are now blooming in gorgeous bright colors.
And inside, every room is filled with charming Easter themed figures, more springtime blooms, and eggs in all sizes and colors. These two bright green bunnies are watching all the holiday activities from a faux bois seat in my indoor porch.
On this table in my foyer, guests are welcomed by these two larger than life-sized faux chocolate bunny figurines holding pretty daffodils from the garden. Wait until you see my long daffodil border this year – the flowers are coming up so wonderfully.
Kevin Sharkey gifts me with a beautiful Easter basket every year. And I save every single one. This was his Easter offering from 2017 with a sitting rabbit, a butterfly, and brightly colored eggs in shades of pink.
I always love to decorate with pretty plants and flowers. These are purple Easter hyacinths on a giant brass tray in my sitting room.
In the same room, I also display lots of other flowering plants such as this orchid. Most of my plants are kept in my glass greenhouse where they can be and maintained in a temperature and humidity-appropriate space. And when they bloom, I bring them into my Winter House where I can enjoy their splendor.
On my servery counter, a lovely scene of chicks and bunnies.
We picked some beautiful daffodils to place in the glass vase inside this paper maché chick.
Here is another big bunny – the same one I made for the April 2015 issue of Martha Stewart “Living.” This charming rabbit is also carrying a beautiful bunch of fresh daffodils picked from my garden.
Every year, I order these giant asparagus from Mister Spear in Stockton, California – they are always a big hit. I served them with a delicious hollandaise vinaigrette.
Everyone loves the jumbo asparagus I serve. This year, delicious white and green asparagus spears – cooked perfectly. I got them from Natoora in Brooklyn, New York.
Here are the large green asparagus spears. I like to trim an inch and a half off the bottoms of the asparagus stalks and then blanch them.
Our main dish was salmon with a delicious cucumber sauce. Everything was devoured – no leftovers.
And here is my dessert – my own rendition of the Cipriani meringue cream cake. I baked it…
… and my 11-year old grandson, Truman, browned the meringue with a hand-held torch. He did a beautiful job, don’t you think?
The table was also decorated with seasonal plants and flowers, a variety of colorful eggs, and Easter bunnies. The place settings are always so beautiful and different from year to year. This year, I selected muted tones of green and tan with these cheerful dark pink-lavender napkins folded like rabbit ears. Do you remember these place mats? They’re from my original Collection at Kmart.
More faux chocolate bunnies on these black lacquered tables in my Brown Room. One can never have too many whimsical animals sitting around a room on Easter.
This black swan basket was also an Easter gift from Kevin. He found the baskets, painted them and chose the color palettes for all the decorations he made to fill them.
And here is this year’s beautiful Easter basket from Kevin. It matched perfectly with the holiday décor.
What a wonderful celebration at my farm. I hope you all had a festive and memorable holiday. Share your Easter stories and menus in the comments section below.
As many of you know, whenever I am home I always decorate for major holidays. For Easter, I fill my Winter House rooms with lots of chicks, bunnies, and eggs. My dear friend, Kevin Sharkey, our Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director of Design for Martha Stewart at Marquee Brands, also enjoys decorating his New York City apartment for various occasions. This year, he created lovely Easter vignettes featuring colorful Easter themed candies, figurines, and eggs in all different sizes - some of his decorations were also surrounded by beautiful lilies and bird's nest ferns.
Everything looked so pretty, I asked him to take photos to share with all of you, enjoy.
Decorating for holidays can be lots of fun. One important tip is to start ahead of time. Kevin decorated his home several days early.
Decorative eggs fill this Easter bunny platter.
Here is a view from above – the more eggs the merrier.
Consider decorating with multiples of one item. Here, Kevin lined up bunnies on this credenza – each one tied with a little ribbon.
Here is a view of them from the front.
On this table, potted gorgeous, fragrant white blooms we know as Easter lilies, Lilium longiflorum. Easter lilies grow between one to three feet tall and bloom in clusters of trumpet-shaped flowers.
A large basket filled with eggs and flanked by bunnies sits on Kevin’s coffee table.
This is one of two Guanyin bodhisattvas. Guanyin is the Chinese translation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, mercy, and love. For Easter, both figures are adorned with decorated eggs.
Silver colored eggs and the one “golden” egg.
And here are jars of beautiful pastel colored candies and chocolates. Decorations don’t have to be expensive – just creatively and beautifully presented.
Here is another small bunny and a goose sharing a basket of orange jelly beans.
Place colorful candies in decorative dishes all around the home for guests.
Here, Kevin lines up a series of bird’s nest ferns in silver vessels surrounded by Easter themed figures and more candy.
Bird’s nest ferns form a series of long, bright green fronds that rise from a central rosette. In the center, Kevin “nests” a beautiful gold egg.
In between these two ferns is a dish of bright colored green jelly beans and more ceramic bunnies and birds.
Here is the other Guanyin bodhisattva – this one is holding up an egg with three others resting on her lap.
Details can be small – such as these bunny shaped clips on place cards.
All Kevin’s eggs and other Easter decorations looked even more stunning at night. Such beautiful decorations, Kevin – thanks for sharing them. And if you don’t already, be sure to follow Kevin on Instagram @seenbysharkey.
Potting up hundreds of trees at my Bedford, New York farm is a huge, yet exciting undertaking.
Every year I plant hundreds of trees, sometimes thousands. Trees are crucial to the environment. They provide food, protection, and homes to scores of birds and mammals. They also help combat climate change and release oxygen for all of us to live. This week, we received a shipment of bare-root cuttings from Musser Forests, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in conifer and hardwood seedlings and transplants. Bare-root trees are so named because the plants are dug from the ground while dormant and stored without any soil surrounding their roots. Once the young specimens arrived, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew placed them in tubs to soak and then hurried to pot them up in nutrient-filled composted soil, so their root systems could develop before they're planted in more permanent locations.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
I’ve bought many trees from Musser Forests Inc. over the years and have always been very pleased with their specimens. As soon as they arrive, the roots of the plants are immersed in water, so they can soak – doing this gives the plants a better start.
All our tree potting projects are done in my large Equipment Barn where the seedlings can be kept in water and protected from the elements during the potting process.
Bare-root plants should not have any mold or mildew. The cuttings should also feel heavy. If they feel light and dried out then the plant probably will not grow. Among this collection of trees and shrubs are black locust, red mulberry, swamp white oak, American chestnuts, pignut hickory, viburnum, and arborvitae.
We also have ‘Green Mountain’ boxwood – a vigorous evergreen shrub with bright green foliage that retains good color throughout winter. I have grown many of this boxwood variety and it does very well here at the farm.
And these are young junipers ‘Saybrook Gold.’ ‘Saybrook Gold’ is an evergreen shrub with a spreading, arching, feathery growth habit. It typically reaches four to five feet high and spreads horizontally to six feet wide. This juniper features mostly needle-like, bright yellow foliage with drooping tips.
We always pot bare-root cuttings in individual containers. The trees will only remain in these pots temporarily – eventually, they will be transplanted in various locations around the farm. We save pots whenever we can – they always come in handy for projects like this, and I always encourage the crew to reuse supplies whenever possible.
We ordered large rolls of heavy duty commercial grade landscape fabric made with durable, woven polypropylene. This fabric will line the space where the trees will be stored, to keep the area tidy and weed-free.
Previously, we used this area for our pumpkin patch. It did not work as well as we wanted for our pumpkins, but it is a perfect spot for all our potted trees. Brian raked the area flat and removed any old root systems and debris.
And then he unrolled the weed fabric on top, covering the entire space.
To keep it down, Brian and Ernesto overlap the pieces and then secure them with industrial sod staples.
We use these strong staples for many projects around the farm. They are made from steel and are available through garden centers or big box stores carrying garden supplies. They are designed to hold a variety of items in the soil, from artificial turf mats to weed cloth.
And they look just like staples when inserted into the fabric barrier and then into the soil.
Here is the space completely covered with weed cloth. It already looks so much better.
Back in the Equipment Barn, Phurba drops loads of composted manure and top soil onto a tarp for potting. Composting manure above 131-degrees Fahrenheit for at least a couple weeks kill harmful pathogens, dilute ammonia, stabilize nitrogen, kill weed seeds and reduce any objectionable odors. I am so proud of the nutrient-rich soil we make here at the farm.
Once a mound of compost is unloaded, it is amended with some good fertilizer and then mixed well. Ryan sprinkles a generous amount of fertilizer made with mycorrhizal fungi, which helps transplant survival and increases water and nutrient absorption.
Here is a closer look at the fertilizer – it comes in tiny pellets that are neater, easier to handle, and with reduced dust. Remember, if you eat, so should your plants and trees.
Here, each bare-root is carefully separated from the bunch and then placed into an appropriately sized pot.
The root section should fit into the pot without being crowded at the bottom. Healthy bare-root trees get off to a more vigorous start because their abundant, roots have already had a chance to develop unrestricted.
Each pot is prepared with a small layer of soil ready for the tree and backfill. The bare-root specimen is held still in the pot, so it is straight and centered in the container.
And then it is carefully backfilled. Here, it is also tamped down lightly so there is good contact between the tree roots and the surrounding soil. Each tree is placed at the same level it was grown by the nursery – where the roots start and the top shoots begin.
As each tree is potted, it is placed in a row with all like specimens. These pots are not quite filled to the top because we will also top dress each pot with mulch.
And then they are delivered to the fenced in area where they are out of the way and can develop. Most of these bare-root cuttings do not have leaves, so they are difficult to identify. It is important to keep them separated by cultivar and always properly marked. By late afternoon, dozens of bare-root cuttings are potted and carefully arranged. I am confident these trees will thrive in these pots and be in excellent condition when it is time to plant them in their more permanent locations around the farm.
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