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Besides providing wonderful fresh vegetables and herbs during the
growing season, the kitchen garden is the source for great gifts you'll enjoy making and giving to friends and family. Here are
some of my favorites for easy cooking and crafting projects
Cucumbers
Everyone loves condiments and pickles to add flavor and spice
to meals, and homemade jars of condiments in beautiful jewel tones
are satisfying to both give and receive. For cucumber pickles, plan
early to trellis your pickling cukes up short supports. This way
they'll grow straight and clean and the fruits will color up evenly.
My favorite varieties are versatile "Garden Oasis" and slim
"Chelsea
Prize." Pick them small and young before they get
seedy for best flavor. Cucumbers need consistent moisture and rich
fertile soil to grow well and have sweet flavor and crisp texture.
Plant 3 or 4 hills so you'll have big harvests to process. Other
good pickling vegetables include green
beans, baby
carrots, button
onions, pac choi,
kohlrabi, jalapeno
chiles, and sugar
snap peas. All are delicious when flavored with garlic and
aromatic herbs like dill, tarragon, basil, or thyme in a good all
purpose vinegar brine. If you like cucumbers, check out my Ginger-Lime
Cucumber Chips recipe!
 Tomatoes
Bags of dried cherry
or plum tomatoes
are also colorful presents. To prepare them, just slice cherry
tomatoes in half or cut plum
tomatoes into ¼ inch slices. Spread in a single layer on oiled
racks and dry in a 160-200 degree oven until leathery - but not over
crisp. While an electric dehydrator is best, good results can be had
in a very low gas oven. Modern electric convection ovens also do a
fine job of drying tomatoes. Rotate trays several times during the
drying process, for even results. Be sure to open the oven door
occasionally so moisture can escape. Drying time will be 6 - 10
hours depending on your oven. Bag up the dried tomatoes or mix them
with good quality extra virgin olive oil and chopped fresh basil in
jars. Keep refrigerated and use as a rich flavored ingredient in
pasta, pizzas, soups, or stews.
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Renee's
Garden
Seeds shopping list -
To create Renee's gifts from the
garden, add these plants to your garden:
Babette"
Baby French Carrots
"Piñata"
Jalapeno Chiles
Cajun
Hot Cayenne Chiles
"Garden
Candy" Cherry Tomatoes
"Pompeii"
Italian Sauce Tomatoes
Super
Sugar Mel Peas
Tricolor
Bush Beans
Tricolor
Pole Beans
"Chelsea
Prize" Cucumbers
"Garden
Oasis" Cucumbers
Italian
Pesto Basil
Sweet
Green Basil
Dukat
Dill
French
Thyme
True
Greek Oregano
Hidcote
Lavender
To purchase these and other Renee's Garden Seeds, click here
Try
these great recipes from
Renee's cookbooks:
Green Bean Pate with Basil
Lavender Shortbread
Green
Tomato Mincemeat
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 Lavender
If you have lavender
plants, plan on harvesting their sweet aromatic florets for dried
arrangements and sachets. Harvest lavender
just as the florets begin to open. Cut off long stems, giving the
plants a complete haircut and leaving a neat mound. This kind of
harvesting yields lots of stems for crafting dried keeps your plants
nicely pruned so they have a compact dense habit.
Harvest the stems in small bunches and tie them snugly together
with string or rubber bands. Hang the bunches upside down to air dry
for about a week in a dry place with good air circulation out of
sunlight. Once dry, you can re-tie the bunches with pretty ribbon
and wrap them in lavender tissue paper for gift giving. Their
wonderful perfume and soft color will be much appreciated!
To make sachets, rub the lavender florets off the stems with your
fingers over a sheet, then collect in a bucket. Fill little muslin
bags and tie with satin ribbons. Or buy lacy baby socks, stuff
loosely with lavender florets and close with a few stitches under
the cuff. Lavender sachets are delightful when tucked into the linen
closet to softly scent sheets and towels or help protect and freshen
wool sweaters.
 Chiles
To make handsome, decorative chile strings, pick the fully
colored chiles off the plants. Using dental floss or fishing line
and a big crafting needle, string up the chiles by piercing them
through their stem ends and then hang the strings up to dry
thoroughly. They make brightly colored Christmas tree decorations to
use in the kitchen after the holidays are over.
 Click here to return to Renee's Garden home page
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