Xmas gifts with things you grow or make

[clkeiper]

those felted slippers are fabulous!
I bake poppyseed kuchen for gifts. It is a Serbian and I suppose maybe even German sweet filled bread.

[pmcgrady]

Garlic jelly, Orange Habanero jelly, pickled/dried peppers and chili powder... are going to be Christmas presents this year,

[Rockporter]

I usually bake cookies, breads and make some candies for trays. last years gifts were on the pyrex deep dish pie pans that were their 100th year anniversary. So, lasting gift as well as goodies. This year it will be the pyrex dot bowls with lids but they won't hold near as much so I will probably just make a few candies to add in there.

[NewWestGardener]

Do you need a good 3 months head start? Would love to get a report on that if you proceed.

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

This year I've started Hardin's Miniature tomato plants. The idea is to give a couple small fruiting tomato plants at Christmas. (Not sure I have the timing right for that, though.)

Nan

[NewWestGardener]

I'm sure I would appreciate those gifts, I'll borrow the idea of including a recipe with the produce.

My family used to keep bees. I remember helping mom transferring tiny bee larvas to man-made wax cones to make royal jelly. Quite a process. Dad built the wire frames for the cones to stick on. Then he will melt the wax, dip a wooden dowel into water first then the wax, drop it onto the wire, there you got the cones. '
The larva would be taken out by tweezers in 48 hours. Then the royal jelly was scooped out by a soft brush.
The jelly was how we made money, sold by the ounce. How do people collect royal jelly now? I'm sure it's not like what we did then.

I will definitely try bee keeping in the future.

Originally Posted by brownrexx

Last year I gave out some clear cellophane bags with a mixture of my colorful dried beans and a recipe for making soup with them.

I also give honey from our beehives.

[NewWestGardener]

That sounds lovely! How to do dress up your jars?
I've made some cherry salsa, but I'm looking for ideas on how to dress up the good old mason jars.

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

My wife and I canned a bunch of our peaches as ginger-peach jam to be gifted. Then my wife canned blackberry and strawberry jam from bought fruit, so we will give three-packs of peach, blackberry and strawberry jam in 8 oz jars.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

That sounds lovely! How to do dress up your jars?
I've made some cherry salsa, but I'm looking for ideas on how to dress up the good old mason jars.

Check pinterest for jar decoration.

[NewWestGardener]

No photos on the wreaths? or something similar?
We have lots of cedar trees in our yard, lots of holy berries, and tons of big pine cones dropped into our yard from our neighbor. The cedar branches were sold in stores like $15 in small bundles, wish we could give out ours for free, with bigger brunches The yard gets too shady.

Wish I could make a few similar wreaths. I'll keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by carolyn137

On the farm where I grew up there were lots of wild grapevines, so in the fall when the leaves were off them I'd start pulling them off the trees,sometimes that didn't work so I'd have to get a ladder and climb up with some shears to cut them off.

Then I'd drag them back to a covered shed and weave them into a wreath, add red berries and pine cones and a bow.

My mom taught me how to gather what is called ground pine, bend a metal hanger into a circle,sit and weave ground pine around and around and then also add pine cones and bows and winter redberries.

She would take some of both to several craft fairs which were usually held in schools, and give them to the ladies to sell for Xmas as well as to our church.

And of course we kept some home for ourselves as well as for neighbors who looked forward to them every year.

For Xmas now I give fancy soaps and chocolates to many and I don't make either.

Carolyn, who almost forgot to mention that mom used to make lots of Xmas cookies,some with that tube thingie and some by cutting them out of the rolled out dough and pack them in boxes, wrap them up and give to personal friends and relatives.

[NewWestGardener]

Please post some photos when you have them ready.

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

Garlic jelly, Orange Habanero jelly, pickled/dried peppers and chili powder... are going to be Christmas presents this year,

[NewWestGardener]

Pyrex with lids are the best. You can't have too many. I like the big ones the best.
What candies do you make? I made some pate de fruit with our plums last year and it went well. My MIL calls them Turkish Delight. I want to branch out and try some gummy candies with home grown boysen berries if I get around to find the right mold.

Originally Posted by Rockporter

I usually bake cookies, breads and make some candies for trays. last years gifts were on the pyrex deep dish pie pans that were their 100th year anniversary. So, lasting gift as well as goodies. This year it will be the pyrex dot bowls with lids but they won't hold near as much so I will probably just make a few candies to add in there.

[NewWestGardener]

Thanks everyone for complimenting my knitting. I used to knit a lot of stuff, started the hobby as a kid. I even followed people if I saw something they wore knitted and interesting, just to figure out how to do it. I used to be able to knit pretty much anything I saw. But not anymore, not enough practice nowadays.

[Nan_PA_6b]

I started some Hardin's Minis near the end of July and also in mid-August. The earlier ones are just starting to fruit now in mid-October. The later ones will, I assume, start to fruit the end of October. So the timing is a little off. I showed my mother her Christmas presents today, complete with a few ripe fruits.

By Christmas they ought to be in full swing, as these produce continuously. Next year I'll know to give them just a 2 1/2 month start.

Nan

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

Do you need a good 3 months head start? Would love to get a report on that if you proceed.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

Pyrex with lids are the best. You can't have too many. I like the big ones the best.
What candies do you make? I made some pate de fruit with our plums last year and it went well. My MIL calls them Turkish Delight. I want to branch out and try some gummy candies with home grown boysen berries if I get around to find the right mold.

These are the bowls I have, most are in red dots. The price on these is ridiculous too. I bought mine at regular price for $4 each and then I bought a few on clearance for $1.89 each.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pyrex-100...-Lid/648859720

The candies I made are really easy, as standing and doing things like that are hard for me to do. I'm kinda glad my vessels are too small for cookies, I don't think I could handle a run on cookie making this year.

I make these mints because I like the designs on them. Although there are many different ways to shape these mints.

https://www.southernplate.com/cream-cheese-mints/

I make other holiday candies from her website recipes too. I just haven't pulled out the list for buying my goodies yet. Here is her holiday list.

https://www.southernplate.com/big-ol...outhern-plate/

I pretty much gave up on getting really good chocolate and molds around here so I started making dipped pretzels, some in ghiradelli dark chocolate and some in white chocolate. Then I drizzle the opposite color on them in lines diagonally across the pretzels. I think this year because my vessel is so small I will make lots of different colored mints and fill the bowls up instead of adding pretzels or other candies to the mix.

Edit: A thought just crossed my mind. I can dip huge stick pretzels and decorate those and tie them to the package with the ribbon and bow.

[MuddyToes]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

I want to branch out and try some gummy candies with home grown boysen berries if I get around to find the right mold.

Yum! I wish I were on your Christmas list!

[roper2008]

I give out pepper jelly as small gifts for Christmas.