Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a very safe and enjoyable holiday!
This morning I am busy cooking in my kitchen like all of you - preparing all the delicious dishes for today's feast. Yesterday I was busy baking pies - one for every member of my staff here at the farm to thank them for all their hard work during the year. And all this week, we have all been scurrying around cleaning and decorating, pulling out all the necessary plates and platters, setting the table, grooming the terrace gardens, and more.
Enjoy these photos of my holiday preparations.
I love spending Thanksgiving here at my farm, where I can host an enjoyable holiday gathering for family and close friends. Today is expected to be sunny to partly cloudy with temperatures in the 50s – a nice autumn day for a delicious Thanksgiving feast.
Around my home, the boxwood hedges are all freshly groomed on my terrace parterre – all ready for my holiday guests.
Inside, I always display beautiful houseplants whenever I entertain. This is a potted rhipsalis – I have many types of rhipsalis growing in my greenhouse. Rhipsalis specimens have long, trailing stems making them perfect choices as indoor plants on pedestals or tall tables. Also known as chain cactus or mistletoe cactus, the thread-like succulent stems are narrow, green and can grow several feet long.
Guests always admire my Chinese money plants, Pilea peperomioides. The Pilea peperomioides has attractive coin-shaped foliage. This perennial is native to southern China, growing naturally along the base of the Himalayan mountains. It is also known as coin plant, pancake plant, and UFO plant.
This stunning Thanksgiving Cactus originally belonged to my mother, Big Martha. My late sister, Laura Plimpton, found two small stem segments, called cladodes, in the back of a drawer several years after our mother died. We took a chance and planted them, and they thrived. This is the plant now. Laura would have loved it.
Here is another holiday cactus in yellow. Thanksgiving cacti are the earliest and longest bloomers, typically producing flowers from late fall through mid-winter. Christmas cacti tend to bloom from early winter to mid-winter. There is also Easter cacti that blooms from late winter to mid-spring.
For Thanksgiving, I display lots of beautiful turkey figures. I made these turkeys years back for a shoot. We casted numerous turkeys from a material called PermaStone, a lightweight, durable cement and then gently tinted them in various earth tones.
Here are more turkeys. I have a large collection of turkeys – I love taking them out for the holiday. After all, I once lived on “Turkey Hill Road”.
Here is another turkey standing next to another potted rhipsalis. Recently, during a visit with my niece, Sophie, and her young son, I asked him to count all the turkeys he could find. He counted up more than 80.
And here’s yet another turkey figure. Succulents grow in so many different and interesting formations and colors. They are best planted in clay or terra cotta pots with proper drainage holes because the vessels dry quickly, and prevent water from building up. Echeverias are some of the most attractive of all succulents and they are highly valued by plant enthusiasts for their gorgeous colors and beautiful shapes.
This is Euphorbia lactea, also known as a “Coral Cactus.” It is a species native to tropical Asia, mainly in India. The showy part of the plant, the section that resembles coral, is called the crest. The ridges are spiny, with short spines.
There are also pumpkins displayed around my home this time of year.
More turkeys on my servery counter. I originally purchased the gold colored turkey in papier mache, and then gilded it with faux gold leaf.
In the kitchen, we’re preparing the “mis en place” – a French term meaning “set in place”. It refers to having all the ingredients prepped and ready to go before cooking. Look at these gorgeous carrots that we harvested from my vegetable greenhouse.
The leeks are all rinsed and peeled.
And on the stove, the cranberries are cooked with citrus until they pop.
Here – roasted butternut squash. It will be used in my butternut squash and leek soup.
And did you see my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48? I made 22 pies for my hardworking staff here at the farm. Each chose from chocolate pecan, pecan, butternut squash, or lemon curd. All the pies were wrapped carefully in cellophane and labeled for each recipient. I handed them out before they left for the Thanksgiving holiday.
These dark amethyst turkey dishes are on a side table in my Brown Room.
Nearby, another amethyst turkey at the dining table. I try to set the table so it is a little different every time. I work with my housekeeper, Enma, on choosing just the perfect combination of plates and linens.
The entire table seats 18. One tip is to always be prepared for extra guests just in case someone decides to bring another along – it does happen. Soon, this table will be filled with close friends. I hope you all have a joyous Thanksgiving with those near and dear. I’ll be sure to share more photos of my day in another blog. Happy Thanksgiving.
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and here at my Bedford, New York farm, everyone is busy getting ready.
Yesterday, we began gathering all the ingredients for my holiday feast, including harvesting vegetables from my indoor greenhouse - a special structure I created several years ago that was inspired by Eliot Coleman, an expert in four-season farming. My gardeners, Ryan and Brian, began planting in my vegetable greenhouse earlier this fall, and over the last few weeks, we’ve seen wonderful crops of beautiful organic produce emerge.
Enjoy these photos.
This greenhouse has 16 wooden garden boxes to fit the entire length and width of the space, so we are able to plant many crops. Raised bed gardening allows good drainage, prevents soil compaction, and provides protection for those plants that may otherwise get trampled. I am so happy to have this greenhouse where I can grow fresh, delicious vegetables during the cold months.
I asked Elvira to pick lots of beautiful carrots from the garden for our Thanksgiving feast. We planted two boxes filled with carrots.
Here is one ready to harvest. When picking carrots always be gentle. With some harder soils, it helps to loosen it first with a garden fork before pulling the carrots up. The beds in this greenhouse are constantly being tended, so the soil is soft and the carrots slide out pretty easily.
In just a few minutes, Elvira picked all these carrots. She picked both orange and yellow carrots – carrots also come in red, purple and white varieties.
Nearby is our bed of growing beets. These are the leaves of the beets. Beets are sweet and tender – and one of the healthiest foods. Beets contain a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains, which provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support.
This is curly parsley. This comes from the same family as flat-leaf parsley, but curly parsley leaves are thicker and ruffled. Some also say its flavor is a bit stronger in curly parsley than in the flat-leaf varieties.
I also grow bok choy, one of the popular Asian greens. Asian greens include bok choy, mizuna and the mustards. Bok choy, pak choi or pok choi is a type of Chinese cabbage. Chinensis varieties do not form heads and have leaf blades with lighter bulbous bottoms. These grow so well inside the greenhouse. They come in bright green…
… And this red. This special variety has dark red leaves with green undersides.
And look at these beautiful lettuce heads. I have several boxes filled with just lettuce.
These lettuces are slightly more mature. We always plant in succession. Succession planting is a practice of seeding crops at intervals of seven to 21 days in order to maintain a consistent supply of harvestable produce throughout the season. This dramatically increases a garden’s yield, while also improving produce quality.
It’s a real treat to have lettuce like this all year long. I am often asked why I grow so many vegetables. My daughter and her children are vegetarian, so I grow lots of greens for them, but I also share them with friends, use them for television and photography shoots, and of course serve them when entertaining.
The gorgeous Swiss chard stalk colors can be seen from across the greenhouse. They are so vibrant with stems of red, pink, yellow, and white. Chard has very nutritious leaves making it a popular addition to healthful diets.
This Swiss Chard has more pinkish stalks. The most common method for picking is to cut off the outer leaves about two inches above the ground while they are young, tender, and about eight to 12 inches long.
I also grow a lot of spinach. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron and vitamin B2. We use a lot of spinach at the farm for my green juice – a must-have every morning of the year.
These are broccoli leaves. We just started growing broccoli indoors this year. They are all developing so beautifully. To grow broccoli successfully indoors, it must get at least six hours of direct sunlight per day or grow lights timed to provide the same amount of direct exposure. And they need room – each broccoli plant should be allowed at least a couple feet of overall space and six to 12 inches of soil depth.
Celery is part of the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, parsnips, parsley, and celeriac. Its crunchy stalks make the vegetable a popular low-calorie snack with a range of health benefits.
The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, and mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. Long scarlet radishes like these have a straight, tapered shape, similar in appearance to a carrot with curved shoulders and a distinct point.
Also stored in this greenhouse is this grapefruit tree, which finally bore fruit!
Not far is a Star Fruit tree. Star Fruit is juicy with a delicious tart flavor. The yellow fruit is three to four inches long with a waxy skin and five prominent ridges. Star Fruit is low in calories and low in sugar. When it’s grown in the tropics, one Star Fruit tree can provide fruit for up to three families because of its prolific fruiting habit.
I am looking forward to a season filled with bountiful harvests from my vegetable greenhouse – there’s nothing quite like the taste of fresh organic vegetables from one’s own garden. Now — on to all the Thanksgiving feast cooking!
It’s always busy at my Bedford, New York farm. My outdoor grounds crew is working hard to complete our long list of autumn tasks - including planting our next crop of garlic.
Although garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. This allows extra time for the bulbs to grow and become more flavorful for the summer harvest. Every year, we plant a big crop of garlic from Keene Organics, a family owned farm in Wisconsin that sells certified organic and naturally grown gourmet bulbs for both eating and planting. Garlic is great for cooking and very good for your health. It is well known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and carries many antioxidant properties. Knowing that I also grow the garlic myself makes it even more special.
Enjoy these photos.
It’s always exciting to get a delivery from Keene Organics filled with a variety of garlic bulbs for my garden. I’ve been planting Keene Organics garlic for several years, and am always so pleased with their growth and taste. The garlic is one of the last crops we plant before winter. Some of the varieties we are planting include Chesnok Red, Russian Red, Romanian Red, Armenian, Georgian Fire, Leningrad, the big Elephant garlic, and many of the seed garlic types from this year’s crop.
When planting garlic, look for the largest most robust bulbs. The entire garlic is called a “head” or “knob.” And each small, individual segment of a garlic head is the garlic clove. Each head is carefully broken to separate all the cloves. For the best results, plant the largest cloves from each bulb and save the smaller ones for eating. These are two good cloves to plant.
Before planting, all the cloves are treated with a solution. To prepare it, Ryan first drops a scoop of baking soda into a bucket with a strainer.
This is fish emulsion, which is available at garden supply shops. The garlic cloves can be soaked in fish emulsion to give them a fertilizer boost and rid them of possible diseases, which could have been carried by the garlic.
Ryan adds the fish emulsion into the same container as the baking soda.
Next, Ryan adds water until the container is filled.
The cloves are dropped into the solution and kept submerged until they have absorbed enough of the mix.
And then the garlic is strained and left to dry for a few minutes.
Lastly, they are all sprayed with isopropyl or rubbing alcohol. This helps to sterilize the cloves. If you don’t have alcohol, you can also use hydrogen peroxide or vodka.
Once treated and dried, the cloves are all placed on baking sheets and carried out to the garden.
Garlic comes in various sizes. The Elephant Garlic is in the middle – the largest of these garlic varieties. Elephant garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor. It is most commonly found in grocery stores.
We plant the garlic in a bed behind my main greenhouse. This bed has been cultivated and fertilized. Brian also placed each clove where it will be planted.
Doing this first creates straight, pretty rows, but it is also important to give each clove enough room to grow and develop. When planting multiple rows of garlic, be sure the rows are at least one-foot apart.
This is a dibber. The T-grip on the dibber allows the planter to apply enough pressure to create a consistent depth for each hole.
Using the dibber, Brian makes holes in each row – six inches apart.
Each hole is also about four inches deep.
Here is a single seed garlic. It is clear which end is the pointed end.
Brian plants each clove – each one pointed end faced up, and the root side faced down.
He gently pushes the clove to the bottom of the hole.
And then backfills with soil.
If the soil in the bed is well cultivated, this should be a fast and easy process. It took Brian less than an hour to plant all our garlic.
The stakes surround the area and remind passers-by that the bed is now planted – and no walking. The visible sprouts are from garlic that was planted a couple of weeks ago – the warm weather confused them and they started to grow through the soil. The garlic will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun. This crop will be ready to harvest mid-July to August. I can’t wait.
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