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| Click Here to download a copy of our November - December 2008 Garden Gazette in pdf format | ||||||||||
Traditional Holiday FareAs the wind is wailing and the rain is blowing horizontally across our porch, I am sitting in my Pop’s old chair next to a roaring fire that occasionally puffs smoke into the room when a gust of whistling wind blows down the chimney. It has been a very dramatic weather day and while it is only early afternoon it seems much later because the dark, gunmetal gray clouds are scittering low across the sky making it seem like nightfall. I am warm and cozy, enjoying the fire as I look for the recipes we use for our Christmas Tea in the Schoolhouse. Actually, right now the most important recipe to find is for molasses cookies…the cookies we serve with John’s apple cider. This recipe is a fairly new addition to my waxed paper sandwich bag of Christmas recipes. It came from Jan Johnson of Larkspur Farm and has been a successful addition to our holiday fare for many years now. Other recipes I search for are much older, including our family favorites from the American classics coming from our British ancestors combined with the unexpected additions from my Pop who never measured anything but always improved upon the English versions by using his French mother’s culinary magic just as he had learned it from her many years before. While searching for recipes I came across a recipe for Plum Pudding scribbled on a long business envelope in my Mother’s handwriting. Mom made this pudding every year, considered it a family recipe going way back in her lineage and served it to an adoring crowd of two people, Mom and me. I can only think that many of her ancestors loved this pudding made of ingredients most people of modest means would always have had in their cupboards or root cellars during the Winter. The main ingredients are grated raw carrots, grated raw potatoes, currants and raisins. With the addition of a little sugar, flour, butter, cloves and cinnamon, Mom would make this pudding weeks ahead of Christmas and age it for better flavor. I loved this pudding and since others preferred pumpkin or apple pie over this dessert, Mom and I were still eating it on Valentine’s Day. I have never made this pudding. Mom died unexpectedly a few days after Thanksgiving many years ago and I have not had the heart to make it since. Seeing her handwriting and knowing how much she wanted to keep this tradition alive in our family I think I can make it this year. My parents did not ever have alcohol in our house so this dessert did not make quite the impression it could have as the classic plum or figgie pudding referred to in English Literature and Song. It does always bring a smile to the faces of those who know anything about it because none of the old standard recipes had plums or figs in the ingredients. But they were all drenched in a liquor and set on fire for presentation to dinner guests. What a memory for our children and now our grandchildren! I think I will pour Calvados, a French apple liquor, over the pudding before lighting it on fire – this in honor of my Pop. It is the perfect memory-setting event for those in our family who are interested in family history because it is again the combination of English and French cuisine. And, who knows, maybe with the addition of the liquor, I may not still be eating our Plum pudding on Valentine’s Day! Toni Christianson |
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Primrose and the HolidaysLinda, our gift buyer, and I always enjoy the challenge of choosing from the wide array of items offered at the Gift Market. Each summer we hope to buy items that appeal to our customers during the Holiday Season. Usually it is a challenge for two reasons: buying five or six months ahead we can never be sure of trends, and buying during the summer without the inspiration of authentic holiday excitement is very different from buying during November and December. This year we had the added challenge of keeping the economy in mind. Thinking in terms of what we would like to receive during these uncertain times, we agreed the gifts should be practical – not something we would love to have but would never buy for ourselves, but something we need to have with a special holiday twist. With that in mind we are offering a much wider assortment of gift items that appeal to the sensible side in all of us. The very special coffees, teas, balsamic vinegars, chocolates (yes, chocolate is indeed a need) will all be welcomed by every gardening family member or friend on your gift list. These are items you could buy in the grocery store but by purchasing a product just a little more uncommon it becomes a gift both practical and festive… coffee from the Thanksgiving Coffee Company guarantees fair wages to the company’s employees and with each selection we are helping to save habitats for migrating birds around the world. These coffees are shade grown (taste better) and certified organic. Our teas are from Harney and Sons, a company well known for classic black and flavored black teas as well as herbal teas. Vinegars are from both Sparrow Lane and Restaurant LuLu. LuLu also makes a citrus grilling sauce, a garlic aioli, a fig-strawberry balsamic jam and a grilling vegetable sauce. We have a cookbook from Restaurant LuLu with wonderful recipes that will surely become family favorites. Our chocolates are from Seattle’s own Dilettante Chocolatier. Dilettante has been making chocolate truffles, sauces and Santa Clauses since 1898 and they offer beautiful gift-boxed chocolates for everyone on your gift list. A small box would fit nicely into a Christmas stocking as would the smaller chocolate Santa Clauses and any size box would be a welcome hostess gift. We also have a special line of candy from Canada called Truffle Pig that allows you to “wallow in dark chocolate truffle heaven.” Another candy line is from New Zealand and includes soft black licorice made from the real thing–licorice root, instead of artificial licorice flavoring. Both these products would be great stocking stuffers, especially for teenagers. We continue to have traditional gifts for young and old alike, including our favorite children’s books and musical instruments, plus a wide assortment of classic gifts and many new antiques for everyone else on your gift list. We will be ready for your Christmas visits beginning Wednesday, November 5th. |
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Nine Winter Wonders for Your GardenMany of our favorite plants flower at this time of year. These have become favorites because a flower bold enough to bloom in the stark winter garden is a standout in any gardener’s mind. Short, gray days of winter are incredibly brightened by a burst of color or fragrance in December and January. Starting to bloom now are the wonderful winter Camellias (C. sasanqua). Several varieties are available for containers, groundcover or hedges. The most fragrant evergreen bush we feature is Sarcococca. Its tiny white flowers offer a delightful vanilla scent that fills the air. They grow relatively low and love the shade. Another favorite, the Christmas rose, is not a rose at all, but the evergreen perennial Helleborus. It has single or double rose-like flowers that bloom from December into early spring. Our near year-round blooming Viburnum tinus has lightly fragrant white flowers which emerge from reddish buds to bloom throughout our winters. The flowers are followed by metallic blue berries in the spring. Or, plant the extremely fragrant Viburnum ‘Dawn’, with pink flowers from November through March. Plant a mix of other shrubs around this plant to disguise its rather awkward growth habit…well worth the trouble for the winter color and fragrance this shrub provides. The yellow flowers of the hardy (but not fragrant) Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) are just starting to peek open. Grow it as a vine or prune it like a shrub. The blossoms continue through January just as the Witch Hazels start flowering on bare branches with yellow, red or orange spidery flowers. Curling flowers in the cold mornings open as the day warms. And need we mention the Winter Heathers? Our favorites are the Erica carneas, the best for groundcover and blooming from January through April in white and pink. The Hardy Cyclamens will be blooming in February and their distinctive marbled foliage looks good even now. They are beautiful planted under Rhododendrons or in woodland gardens. All of these winter beauties remind us of nature’s restful beauty during a sometimes forgotten garden season. |
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Tabletop TopiariesTopiaries are now within every gardener’s reach with the onset of tabletop topiaries–miniature replicas of designs once relegated to the formal garden. These trained and sheared designs achieved popularity in the early part of the 17th century in England when the British borrowed the style from the Dutch whose formal gardens incorporated elaborate topiary forms. With interest continuing over the centuries topiaries have evolved into manageable heights easily accommodated in today’s home. All sizes and shapes abound varying from the standard tree form to those trained on trellises to the more traditional topiary shapes featuring two and three tiers, spirals, tetrahedrons, globes, cones, and varieties pruned to resemble geometric shapes and whimsical animals. With the holidays approaching consider giving one as a gift or featuring one in your home as a tabletop tree festooned for the season with accent lighting and fresh or faux berries and miniature ornaments. Among some of the most popular selections for these artful creations are lemon-scented Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’) which makes a striking addition with its lime-green foliage, the classic Myrtle (Myrtus communis), Tear-Drop Ivy (Hedera helix ‘Teardrop’), Creeping Wire Vine (Muehlenbeckia complexa) and Creeping Fig (Ficus repens). Visit our Propagation House to see our assortment of topiaries that will add interest to your home and a novel twist to your holiday decorating! |
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Annual Open House & Arts AlivePlan to attend our Annual Open House November 8 & 9 as we welcome in the holidays and pay tribute to La Conner’s Arts Alive Culinary Artists
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Cider Pressing
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Cooking with Herbs Series: Harvest Time
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Conifer Tour
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Design with Nature
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Arrival of Father Christmas
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Thirteenth Annual Christmas Tea
Our thirteenth Annual Christmas tea will officially usher in the holiday season. It is held in our historic Schoolhouse, which is transformed for this special occasion into a magical wonderland replete with boughs, branches and flowers draped with twinkling lights. The traditional afternoon tea will be offered to our guests who will dine to the music of autoharpist Bob Harper and violinist Dick Burkhardt. Enjoy hot, savory scones, tiny sandwiches, herbed crackers and, of course, holiday cookies, decadent cheesecake and chocolates accompanied by tea and coffee with cider for the children. Christianson’s Christmas Tea has become a Valley tradition and is our way of thanking you for your support. |
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Holiday Wreath Making
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Independent Wreath Making
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The Art of Topiary
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Bellevue Botanical Garden’s
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Fall / Winter Hours
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Looking Ahead……
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Pixels to Pictures: Digital Photography for Gardeners Made Easy
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Cooking with Herbs: Soup’s On
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Winter’s Cure – Indoor Gardening
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Flower Buses
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Christianson's Winter Calendar 2008
(back to index ) If you wish to attend any of the following classes or events, please call our Mount Vernon Nursery at (360) 466-3821. Preregistration is required for all of our classes, unless stated otherwise. |
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CLASSES & EVENTS
(back to index) See details above this list.
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Click Here to download our November - December 2008 Garden Gazette in pdf format
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