This past Sunday, a group of colleagues and friends accompanied me to the event in the picturesque town of Lakeville, Connecticut. The philanthropic sale draws growers, dealers, and artisans together to sell unusual plants, garden antiques, and other unique outdoor objects. Trade Secrets was developed by interior designer Bunny Williams in the year 2000 when she conducted the very first sale to downsize her collection of plants in her greenhouse. It was a success from the very beginning and is now the principle fundraiser for Project SAGE, a non-profit domestic violence agency serving Northwest Connecticut and the surrounding communities in New York and Massachusetts. At this year's Trade Secrets, I was also invited to conduct a book signing for my 101st book, "Martha's Gardening Handbook." It was a most productive and fun day for everyone.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I always like to get to Trade Secrets bright and early. I leave my farm promptly at 5:45am and always pull in to the parking lot shortly after 7am. Vendors and event coordinators already have everything in place.
Trade Secrets is held at Lime Rock Park, a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury. The views on this day were gorgeous.
At least 50-vendors from around the northeast region set-up under tents on the Lime Rock grounds. It is all very well-organized with lots of room for vendors and all the visitors.
Here I am with my niece, Sophie Herbert Slater. Yes, gardening runs in the family – Sophie and I are both very passionate gardeners.
One of my first stops was the Orangerie Garden + Home tent. The Orangerie is owned by my friends Anthony Bellomo and Christopher Spitzmiller. There were many beautiful plants and other garden objects to see. The Orangerie Garden + Home shop is located in Millbrook, New York – do stop in if you’re ever in the area.
In this tent, lots of blooming lupines, those colorful plants cultivated for their long showy racemes of blue, purple, white, or yellow flowers. I grow many lupines in my flower cutting garden.
Trade Secrets is a wonderful place to learn about interesting and unique plants. Vendors are extremely well-informed and willing to answer questions or offer tips.
If you’re a peony lover, you’d definitely want one of these, a strong, steel peony support that will last through many seasons. I have these for the peony plants outside my greenhouse and in my flower garden. I use a stake and twine grid system to support my giant peony bed designated for just herbaceous peonies.
Peony Envy sets up their tent every year at Trade Secrets – most if not all their peonies always get sold.
Dave and Bonnie Ferriss are dealers from Lake Luzerne, New York who specialize in art, prints, architectural pieces, and country furniture.
Recognize these two? My special projects producer Judy Morris and my head gardener Ryan McCallister. They also accompanied me to this event and left with lots of their own goodies.
There were items big and small. These are giant early 20th century hand crafted steel pots. There is a lot of energy and spirit at this sale – everyone always walks away with some kind of treasure.
Trade Secrets has so many beautiful plant specimens from which to choose. This is Hepatica, native to woodland habitats in the Northern Hemisphere and parts of Asia. This perennial is well known for its dainty flowers and interestingly shaped leaves. Two friends bought one each for themselves – I bought the rest.
Here’s my operations manager Matt Krack with his son, Charlie.
Once can always find interesting planting containers at Trade Secrets. These are antique faux bois urns.
Under this tent, cut flower vases and other tabletop offerings.
In this tent, many interesting and more utilitarian objects for the home and garden including all sorts of different brushes, markers, and insect swatters.
And here – a variety of baskets.
Look who else is with me – these three dedicated plant loving colleagues: Susanne Rupert, Ryan Mesina, and Patsy Pollack.
And here are the Ryans… Mesina, McCallister, and Conway.
When buying items at Trade Secrets, everyone is assigned an ID number, which is then tagged on each purchase and taken to a holding area for pick-up at the end of the visit. This very organized system makes it convenient for patrons to continue shopping. It is always so nice to see how much people buy for the great cause, Project SAGE.
My book signing was scheduled for mid-morning. Before the book signing event started, visitors were able to buy copies of the book.
The line was very full the entire time. It’s nice to always meet such enthusiastic readers and gardeners.
I always try to stop for quick photos at these events. And look closely, I am using a green pen – to match the book, of course. It’s another small detail that is important to me.
Here are two happy purchasers of my book “Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing.” Do you have a copy?
And look at this happy customer – who even had me on his shirt! It was another successful and enjoyable Trade Secrets event. Hope to see you all here next year!
Spring is always a wonderful time for a garden tour.
Every now and then, I agree to open my gardens for a small number of private walking tours. Last week, I gave the first one of the season. It was for a group of business colleagues and retail partners. I walked them through various gardens, groves, and allées. I spoke about the history of my farm and the many changes I've made over the years. And, I taught them all about the many plants and trees we saw along the way. Remember my saying, "learn something new every day."
Here are some photos, enjoy.
The group started with a walk through my main greenhouse, out through the flower garden and then a stop at my Pin Oak Allée. A recognizable trait of the pin oak is that its lower branches hang down. It also has horizontal middle branches and upright upper branches forming a most interesting growth habit.
In my perennial flower garden, we saw some beautiful spring blooms. This is one of many irises. Iris is a genus of almost 300-species of flowering plants with showy flowers. The blooms consist of upright petals called “standards,” pendant petals called “falls,” and fuzzy, caterpillar-like “beards” that rest atop the falls.
The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that blooms in a variety of colors during spring. With soft-mounding scalloped leaves and delicate blossoms nodding on flower stems, columbine is ideal for borders, cottage gardens or naturalizing wooded areas. This columbine is a rich, dark purple.
Nearby is my Soccer Field, which is adjacent to the pergola. It is looking so lush and green. On one side are six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. When my grandchildren come up to visit, my grandson, Truman, loves to play soccer here – it’s one of his favorite spots at the farm.
The group admired my stand of bald cypress trees along this carriage road. Taxodium distichum is a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. I told the group I have four miles of carriage road that meander around my homes, my gardens, my pastures, and through the expansive woodland. They are 12-feet wide and covered with native washed stone.
This is a beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground.
I pointed out the old corn crib, with Its unique “keystone” shape, flaring from bottom to top and more pronounced from the front and back sides – a design used to shed water. Corn cribs are also often raised to keep vermin away and to prevent moisture from the soil.
Another interesting stop is my Basket House, where I store my basket collection. I have hundreds of baskets – some are rare and antique, some are vintage, and some are more contemporary. Guests also took a quick peak inside.
The pergola garden was hard to miss with all its beauty. The purple alliums are so prominent right now. Allium species are herbaceous perennials with flowers produced on scapes. They grow from solitary or clustered bulbs.
Up the road, the group saw the apple espaliers and these blooming “Miss Kim” Korean lilac standards. This upright, compact lilac blooms later than others, extending the season with clusters of highly fragrant, lavender flowers.
I spoke about my weeping katsura just outside my Winter House kitchen. It is one of three around my home.
My herbaceous peony bed is just coming to life with the bold green foliage and all the many buds waiting to open. My herbaceous peony collection includes 11-double rows of peonies, and 22 different varieties of peony plants – two varieties in each row. It will bloom in less than two weeks.
These tall and striking sugar maple trees, Acer saccharum, are located at one corner of my farm – just outside my Summer House and its formal sunken garden. These maples are covered with climbing hydrangea, and beneath them is one of my favorite gardens this time of year… the tree peony garden.
There are very few plants that can compete with a tree peony in full bloom. They flower from late April through early May, but the season often varies from year to year. The pink varieties are more fragrant than others. This one has slightly ruffled petals with a gold center.
Tree peonies come in colors that include all ranges of white, yellow, pink, magenta, and dark maroon.
Across the carriage road are my old pink azaleas that are flowering with gorgeous deep pink color. My azalea collection starts in a lightly wooded area where they get lots of filtered sunlight throughout the day. I extended the garden down the carriage road and planted more than 400-azaleas.
The smaller, younger azaleas are looking more beautiful every year. Azaleas are generally healthy, easy to grow plants. Some azaleas bloom as early as March, but most bloom in April and May with blossoms lasting several weeks.
Azalea petal shapes range from narrow to triangular to overlapping rounded petals. They can also be flat, wavy, or ruffled.
And then we headed down to the stable to see my horses and these horse chestnut trees. They always grab everyone’s attention. Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree also known as conker tree. All the horse chestnuts are blooming so profusely right now.
The blossoms appear on erect, eight-inch long panicles at each branch tip – they’re very attractive, and very accessible to bees and hummingbirds.
Here’s a view of them from my Boxwood Allée. It was the perfect prelude to a very productive and interesting business meeting.
Sometimes, getting out of the office and enjoying a business meeting and a delicious spring meal at my farm... is a very good thing.
Yesterday, I hosted a delightful luncheon at my home for a group of business colleagues and associates. My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, and I, collaborated on a delicious menu for 16-guests that included chopped salad, a variety of baked breads, green and white asparagus, spinach pie, buttermilk fried chicken, and chicken wings with saffron. For dessert, we had strawberry shortcakes with homemade biscuits and whipped cream. It was a delicious meal and a most inspiring and productive discussion.
Enjoy these photos and be sure to see my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see more.
I enjoy hosting business gatherings at my farm where guests can have comfortable and inspiring meetings away from the corporate environment.
Originally I planned to serve lunch outdoors, but this day was very cloudy and weather forecasts warned of showers, so it was too risky. I set my long table inside the Brown Room instead and it looked perfect.
As an added surprise for the group, I set a different place setting for each guest – for interest, for ideas, and for fun.
Potted plants from my greenhouse lined the center of the table.
In my kitchen, serving platters, bowls and other necessary utensils are laid out. This can be done at any time to ensure the right pieces are pulled for the right foods. It also saves any rush for items when it comes time to serving.
By mid-morning, cooking is already underway in my outdoor kitchen and flower room. Here is one of three spinach pies coming out of the oven.
The biscuits for dessert are made and set aside.
Do you recognize these flatbreads? I chose to serve bread baskets similar to those at The Bedford by Martha Stewart, my restaurant in Las Vegas. These are so thin and crispy, made with vegetables and herbs.
Other breads such as these charming spiral rolls are also baked for the event.
This is buttermilk fried chicken, cooked to perfection.
I developed this recipe years ago – saffron chicken wings.
I also served asparagus stalks in green and white. They are always so delicious. I like to peel the bottoms of the asparagus stalks before blanching.
The buffet is set up with two large baskets of gorgeous homemade breads including slices of herb baguettes from MARTHA: THE COOKBOOK.
The spinach pie is decorated with one allium flowerhead from the garden.
The asparagus is also decorated with Nasturtium leaves. Nasturtium leaves are completely edible and have a slightly peppery and sour taste.
The green asparagus is dressed with radishes and radish greens.
This is a rendition of my daughter Alexis’s Chopped Salad – also found in my 100th book, MARTHA: THE COOKBOOK. It includes at least 10 different vegetables, depending on what is available, and a light dressing of rice vinegar and olive oil.
The fried chicken is plated with greens…
… and served with three sauce options – ketchup, barbecue sauce, and Green Goddess.
And here are my saffron chicken wings – also very flavorful and delicious.
At most of my luncheons, I serve this pomegranate juice made with pomegranate concentrate, lemon, and slices of fresh citrus. I love the pomegranate juice from our friends at POM Wonderful.
My plate full – a little of everything.
And then the dessert – strawberry shortcakes with the freshest sliced fruits and homemade biscuits, and topped with homemade whipped cream and a sprig of mint. It was a lovely meal and meeting of the minds…
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