Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I’m on my way to celebrate the holiday with my family in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I plan on eating a generous helping of my favorite Thanksgiving side dish: oven baked cornbread stuffing!

Sage is a classic addition to stuffing because it adds a savory undertone to the buttery bread bits. My very favorite culinary sage is ‘Berggarten’. This fabulous German variety has a very mild flavor and it almost never flowers, which means you don’t have to worry about the leaves developing a resinous taste and a tough texture. Berggarten grows quickly—forming a three-foot wide mound in the space of one growing season—and its velvety silver leaves make lovely garnishes and fry up nicely. I just love it! The leaves get a bit bedraggled by the end of winter, so I usually shear the mound back by about 1/3 in late spring and it rebounds in no time. This sage also looks great in containers, especially if paired up with dark foliaged plants like purple shiso or ‘Ararat’ basil.

I hope you all enjoy your holiday. I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the next few days so I can concentrate on eating my way through Santa Fe. I’m planning on hunting down some of those famous Hatch chiles, so stay tuned for some New Mexican inspired recipes soon.

Photo via Jim Henkens.

Sweet Pure Honey is the kind of small businesses that I absolutely love supporting. Kelly Snowden from Food & Wine first introduced me to Sweet Pure Honey when she included a few beeswax tea lights in her Recipe and Seed Swap package. I had just gotten my honeybees and I loved the candles, the packaging, everything. So I got in touch with Stella, who co-owns Sweet Pure Honey with her husband, Sheldon, and we’ve been chatting by email ever since.

Stella just has a wonderful presence and she is so passionate about honey, and her business, and her family. She and Sheldon raise bees–and three beautiful children–on the plains surrounding the small farm community of Porcupine Plains, Saskatchewan. Like so many beekeepers, Sheldon often has to work away from home during the winter to make ends meet, so they decided that rather than sell all of their honey to wholesale honey brokers, they would start a business that directly sells honey and beeswax products at a fair price for them and their customers.

They put together a wonderful selection of products–honey, lip and body balms, and long burning candles–made with honey from their hives.

They are committed to providing fair compensation for their partner farmers, giving back to their local community, and building a business that allows them to support their kids Marley, Sierra, and Lauren (who are almost too cute to handle, don’t you think?).

I am obsessed with their lip balm (it is pretty much the only thing that helps my constantly chapped lips) and their honey has an amazing floral flavor. Anyways, I just love Sweet Pure Honey and I hope you guys do too! You can find them online at Facebook (just search for sweetpurehoney.ca) and at their soon to be up-and-running website.

The young British poster artists, Lucas Lepola and Hayley Thwaites, burst onto the design scene a couple years ago with their graphic Keep Calm and Carry On poster. Their online store, Keep Calm Gallery, now features a wonderful collection of posters, tea towels, mugs, and cards.

This uber talented duo, along with Matthew Green and Lucy McLauchlan, recently put together a limited edition collection of three screen prints whose sales will benefit Garden Organic, a really amazing UK non-profit “dedicated to teaching people to grow organic food at whatever scale they can.”

Garden Organic has a heritage seed library and organic demonstration gardens, including the restored Audley End Organic Kitchen Garden, plus they research organic farming and gardening techniques, teach school children to grow food, and offer a Master Home Composting program. Like me, the organization “believes that active involvement in food production, at whatever scale, is vital in terms of reconnecting people with the foods they eat.”

If you need a reason to add some more art to your home, now you have one. I’m partial to Hayley & Lucas’ poster featuring a list of my favorite vegetables—look carefully and you’ll notice the green letters spell out a message.

Also, check out their tea towel collection—the towels are so fun, they might actually make drying dishes enjoyable.

My friend Robin got a greenhouse this year and I’ve been beside myself with jealousy ever since. It’s really a gorgeous little space and I want one. Badly. So I asked Robin if she would mind writing up a little guest post about her greenhouse and some tips for those of us who are considering investing in one. ~ Willi

For years my husband and I have dreamed of adding a greenhouse to our mid-sized residential garden in Seattle. In 2008, we invested a meager $100 on a cheapie hollow aluminum frame greenhouse that was held together with plastic clips and covered with plastic sheeting. During the spring and summer, we enjoyed this foray into greenhouse gardening, but fall rains rapidly rusted out the cheap frame. Then, in our record snowfall, the whole thing came tumbling down. I was able to recycle some of the aluminum tubing as training stakes, but the rest was a big pile of trash. Learning from our not-too-costly mistake, we resolved to add a more permanent, sturdy structure to the garden. Our challenge became finding an affordable greenhouse that fit our garden aesthetic.

Initially, my handy husband Bob ordered greenhouse construction plans from The New Yankee Workshop. But, before he got started building, we went to the 2009 Northwest Flower & Garden Show where several greenhouse vendors were displaying their floor models. So, we did some comparative shopping.

First, we looked very briefly at some of the fiberglass greenhouses. Honestly, they pretty much gave me the creeps. They were dark, with short ceilings, and to my eye, they were ugly. Then, we dreamily window-shopped the booths filled with ornate glass greenhouses framed in powder-coated steel with fancy filigree, but they were beyond our budget. Finally, I found myself talking with a couple of vendors offering reasonably priced greenhouses similar to the style Bob planned to build from scratch. They offered twin polycarbonate walls, cedar or redwood frames, a few footprint sizes, and simple pre-fab construction that looked doable to me.

After comparing prices, time requirements and construction materials and formats, Bob agreed that these kits were a good option for us and much less expensive than building the greenhouse from scratch with the plans. So, we ordered the Mt. Hood Sunshine greenhouse kit. And about three weeks later it arrived. Within just a few hours on St. Patrick’s Day, Bob had put it up on our back patio—with just a little help from me.

I should note that we negotiated a few custom modifications to the standard kit (without being charged for the difference). First, we ordered two Dutch doors rather than the standard one door with an opposite self-opening floor vent. This adjustment allows us to enter from the patio and exit on the opposite side into a renovated garden bed. This simple change helped us better integrate the beds surrounding the greenhouse into our overall garden plan (see above).

Having worked in large greenhouses, I wanted multiple shelves made from expanded metal instead of the redwood slat shelf that came standard with the kit (see above). Metal is easy to clean and doesn’t harbor insect and disease. Along with making these modified shelves, Bob changed the door hardware to improve the locking system and allow us to anchor the top of each open Dutch door to nearby fence posts. And, he added ground-bolts (available from Sunshine Greenhouses) to keep the structure in place should it get excessively windy.

Our greenhouse is a beautiful and well-used addition to our garden (see below). It has served us well for propagating edibles from seed, growing tropical lilikoi, and ripening tomatoes well into fall. It serves as a backup location for leafy greens and other hardy cool season crops just in case the ones I have under hoop houses don’t quite stand up to winter. We haven’t added lights or heat to the greenhouse, but even on cool fall evenings, it manages to trap enough heat to remain warm overnight. We’ll see if additional sealing is required in winter.

The small, semi-permanent structure is just right for our residential garden. Sure, I could fill an enormous greenhouse given the chance. But, by carefully planning my planting rotations, monitoring my crops regularly for pests and disease, and spacing my plants carefully, I’m content with the amount of greenhouse space I have. At least once daily regardless of weather, I duck inside where I harvest fresh, homegrown, organic produce; inspect plants for pests and disease; water; or just simply soak up the warm, moist, herbaceous atmosphere always waiting inside my little horticultural dream house.

Here are a few tips if you’re considering a greenhouse of your own:

Kit, DIY Plans, or Installed? A kit worked for us, but we did make several modifications that required additional investment and Bob’s handyman skills.

Consider Space. Think about how you plan to use the greenhouse and how much footprint you have for it. You’ll need a solid, level spot on which to build your new structure where it will get enough – but not too much – light and warmth from the sun.

Make sure you have water nearby. In the heat of summer, I often had to water in the greenhouse a couple times a day.

Controlling heat. Our greenhouse came with a roof vent that requires no electricity yet opens automatically as heat builds too high. On extra warm days, we have the option to open both Dutch doors open to create a great pest and disease-deterring cool breeze.

To read more about Robin’s greenhouse and her really amazing edible landscape, check out her blog Garden Help.

Spring is often thought of as planting season and it’s understandable—after a long, drab winter nothing feels better than putting a blossoming new tree in the ground. But fall is a much better time to plant trees and shrubs, including fruit trees, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, even raspberry and blackberries. In the fall the soil is still warm, temperatures are moderate, and precipitation, in the form of rain and snow, picks up. All these factors help newly planted trees and shrubs settle into their new home. Also, even though you can’t see them, roots grow throughout the winter. This means that fall planted trees and shrubs have larger, more established root systems the following summer, which helps them deal with the stress of hot, dry weather.

We recently planted three maples in our parking strip. I snapped some pictures as we planted and pulled together some tips that I learned at the tree planting workshop the city gave in early October:

Before you start digging call your local utility companies and have them mark any gas, sewer, water, or fiber optic lines. The last thing you want to do is drive a shovel into a pipe! When planting fruiting trees, think about their placement, as dropped cherries can get messy around sidewalks and patios and big falling apples have been known to dent cars.

The planting hole for your tree should be approximately three to four times bigger than the container it is growing in (or the size of the root ball if it is balled and burlaped). This gives the tree’s roots plenty of loose soil to extend out into as they mature. A simple way to determine the size and location of the planting hole is to place the container where you ultimately want the tree to be and then dig an outline of the hole around the container (see above). Shoveling the excavated soil onto a tarp makes clean up really easy.

You’ll want the hole to be exactly as deep as the tree’s root ball, as trees planted too deeply don’t develop well. So, after you have the outline of the hole dug out, stop digging and turn your attention to the tree’s roots.  Take the tree out of it’s container. For balled and burlaped trees, unwrap the burlap and completely remove any wire caging. Rootbound trees (like the one pictured above) will never extend their roots out into the soil. The roots will keep circling round and round. This stunts the growth of the tree, makes it prone to falling over during windstorms, and significantly shortens its lifespan.

It is very important to completely loosen up the roots before planting. We used a hori hori knife and a 3-pronged hand cultivator to loosen and untangle the roots. Don’t worry about hurting the roots—it is much more detrimental to put a plant with coiled roots into the ground.

When you plant the tree, you want the root flare—the point where the trunk flares out into the roots—to be even with the soil line. Many container trees are planted too deeply in their pots. So, if you don’t see the root flare, remove soil from the top of the root ball until you find the flare. As you can see, we had to remove about three inches of soil before we uncovered the root flare on this tree.

Once you’ve uncovered the root flare and loosened the roots, measure the depth of the rootball. Then finish digging the hole, making it the same depth as the rootball.

Place the tree in the center of the hole. Lay a shovel across the top to double check that the depth is okay. Then, backfill the hole with the same soil you excavated. Do not amend the soil. Research has shown that trees planted in amended soil are less likely to send their roots out into the native soil, resulting in small, unhealthy root systems.

Once you’ve filled in the hole, water it well to remove any air bubbles surrounding the roots. Place a 3 inch layer of woody mulch around the base of the tree. Keep the mulch away from the tree’s trunk—you want the mulch to look like a doughnut around the trunk, not a volcano. The best way to help your new tree establish is to keep it well watered during the summer months. The city arborist told us to give the tree about 15 to 20 gallons of water each week during the summer for the first three years.

There should be at least another 1/4 cup of caramelized onions strewn across this tart shell, but they never made it out of the pan. I ate them, a little bit at a time, until I was sure the onions had reached a sufficient level of buttery brown goodness. And that is the problem with this tart. It is elegant and so easy to make—if you can resist eating up all the onions with a spoon!

Caramelized Onion Tart

I was inspired to make up this recipe by a bunch of tennis ball-sized Walla Walla sweet onions that I harvested earlier this fall. They were beginning to sprout, so I cut them in half, removed the green shoots and then sliced them thinly. I ended up with about five cups. You can use any sweet onion in the recipe, and if you have any random white or red onion chunks leftover in the fridge, slice those up and throw them in, too.

What you’ll need:

1 sheet of puff pastry

2 large sweet yellow onions (about five cups thinly sliced)

2 tablespoons butter

Salt

¼ pound Gruyere cheese, grated (about 2 cups)

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 egg, lightly beaten

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a floured surface, roll the pastry out into an 8- by 16-inch rectangle. Carefully transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a sharp paring knife, score the pastry 2 inches in from the edges to create a rectangular border. Inside the border, use a fork to poke rows of holes spaced at ½ inch intervals. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. If the center puffed up, use the back of a spoon to depress it, being careful not to crush the border. Don’t worry if the tart shell isn’t a perfect rectangular shape—it tastes just as good when it has lovely rustic borders.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed dutch oven. Add in the onions, sprinkle them with salt, and toss to coat. After about a minute, when the onions begin to sweat, turn the heat down to medium low. Partially cover the pan and let the onions cook, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft and caramel in color (about 40 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.

To assemble the tart, sprinkle half the cheese over the center of the pastry shell. Sprinkle the onions and thyme in an even layer over the cheese. Top the onions with the remaining cheese. Brush the border with the egg wash. Return the tart to the oven and bake until it is heated through and the edges are a deep golden brown (10 to 15 minutes).

On Halloween morning several neighbors gathered at our house for warm apple cider and pumpkin bars. After my friend Katie and I gave a quick tree planting demo, we all fanned out down the street, planting Hedge Maples and Frontier Elms in our parking strips. Our whole block is really very excited about the new trees, but it will definitely be a few years before they yield enough leaves to actually warrant raking. In the meantime, I’ll have to continue stalking the alleyways of my neighborhood looking for yard waste bags filled with leaves. This weekend I got lucky and a man a few blocks up the street gave me all the leaves from his lawn! He even bagged them up all neat and tidy. So I rolled over there this morning and picked them up.

I’m planning on stockpiling the leaves and using them next summer to make compost. Here are a couple more ideas for putting leaves to work in the garden:

* Add them to a worm bin as bedding

* Put a 12 inch layer in your chicken run to keep mud down during the winter

* Use them as mulch around the base of raspberry and blackberry canes

* Hill your potatoes with leaf mold (leaves that have broken down over the winter) instead of soil. It makes them so much easier to harvest.

There are really only two things to keep in mind with leaves. First, avoid using broadleaf evergeen leaves (i.e. from magnolias, rhodies, etc) in compost because they take forever, and I mean for-ev-er, to break down—they do however make a fine mulch in ornamental beds. Second, leaves tend to form a big, mushy mat when they get wet. Prevent this problem, and help them break down faster, by shredding the leaves before using them in the garden.

If, like me, you do not happen to own a chipper shredder you can lay them out in a line on the lawn and run over them with a mower that has a bag attachment. The mower chops up the leaves, mixes them with grass, and deposits them in the bag. So easy! You can also fill a clean garbage can 3/4 full with leaves. Then, stick a string trimmer into the can and give the leaves a good zap, zap—it’s just like using an immersion blender to puree soup!