The holiday season is among my favorite times to entertain.
Yesterday, I hosted a very special gathering for the entire staff at my Bedford, New York farm. All my employees work so hard during the year - caring for the property and my many pets and gardens, and helping me prepare for all the meetings, shoots, parties, and other events that are scheduled through the year. I planned a festive holiday meal, which was served buffet style in my Winter House kitchen. It included delicious sliced ham and biscuits, shrimp cocktail, caviar and homemade brioche toast, celeriac soup made with vegetables from my garden, stollen, Panettone, lots of tasty holiday sweets, and of course, my famous egg nog. It was a busy morning of cooking and preparing, but we had a most enjoyable end of year celebration.
Here are some photos.
I planned the gathering for 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Everything was ready just in time. Here is my famous egg nog, freshly made and positioned right at the end of the counter in my servery for easy access. It became a very popular spot to gather.
My egg nog is requested at every holiday party I host. The original recipe is in my very first book, Entertaining, Clarkson Potter 1982. There’s lots of everything – bourbon, cognac, rum, heavy cream, and eggs from wonderful chickens.
Tiered cake stands display cookies, brittle and other holiday sweets.
All the rooms in my Winter House are decorated for the holidays. I try to do it a little differently every time, but it always includes lots of trees – big, small, green, gold, and silver.
I also filled the rooms with lots of blooming orchids from my greenhouse. They’re all flowering so beautifully this year.
In my Winter House kitchen, I prepared a wonderful spread of food. Here are the trays of pre-sliced stollen, and Panettone.
I got the Panettone from Fatto a Mano, an artisanal Italian micro-bakery in Westport, Connecticut.
Homemade biscuits were served in another basket.
At one end of the counter I served shrimp cocktail from Mt. Kisco Seafood. It went very quickly.
And at the other end, I served delicious Black Diamond caviar.
The caviar accompanied sour cream and mini brioche toasts I made earlier in the day. It was also a very well-visited station at the buffet.
Holding their cups of egg nog are my operations manager, Matt Krack, and my gardeners, Josh Casali and Matthew Orrego.
Enjoying their first helpings are my stable manager Helen Paparo, my outdoor grounds crew foreman Chhiring Sherpa, and my head gardener, Ryan McCallister. I think everyone had seconds, and maybe even thirds of everything.
My resident tree expert, Pasang Sherpa, is enjoying a cup of celeriac soup I made from vegetables grown in my garden. Celeriac is a root vegetable variety of celery grown for its edible root instead of its stalks. It’s also known as celery root, turnip-rooted celery, or knob celery.
Here’s Ryan serving himself ham biscuit with ham I got from Stissing House in Pine Plains, New York.
Doug White is my property manager and JC Roberts is my business manager.
My crew member Fernando Ferrari and my driver, Andres Velastegui – they’ve both been with me for many years.
In this photo are Pasang, my housekeeper Enma Sandoval, and Pete Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew. Cin cin to all of you!
Jonathan Massas is from my security team. He’s enjoying egg nog with Matt.
Crew member Phurba Sherpa and Cesar Felix. Cesar takes excellent care of all my chickens, turkeys, geese, peafowl, and pheasants.
Here’s Jimmy Oliveros from my farm team and my director of events and podcast producer Heather Kirkland.
Here’s my housekeeper Elvira Rojas. It was so nice to see everyone having such a good time.
I prepared a bag for each member of my team. Everyone got a copy of my 100th book and a Martha on the Mantel doll.
I also planned a fun “grab bag” gift-giving activity – everyone picked numbers from a bowl and then lined up to make their selections.
It was a wonderful luncheon and gathering. I, along with my entire staff, wish you all a safe and joyous holiday!
In order to keep my working farm and all its gardens, allées, and groves as beautiful as possible, I pay lots of attention to the care and maintenance of all my trees.
The London plane, Platanus × acerifolia,is a deciduous tree. It is a cross between two sycamore species: Platanus occidentalis, the American sycamore, and Platanus orientalis, the Oriental plane. In 2019, I planted an allée of London plane trees along the carriage road in my middle hayfield. Since then, they've thrived, growing two to three feet annually. This year, I decided I wanted the trees pollarded, a pruning technique that involves the removal of a tree's upper branches to promote the growth of club-headed stems and dense new foliage. London planes are well-suited for pollarding and respond well to this practice. Last week, my gardeners took on the detailed task.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
The London plane is a large tree that grows up to 65 to 130 feet when fully mature. In recent years, I’ve planted London planes in my maze, outside a paddock, and here as part of a long allée in my middle field. Here is the allée in spring.
In landscaping, an allée, or an avenue, is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of like trees or large shrubs running along each side. To create this particular allée through my field, I started with a selection of 46 London plane trees. I also planted about 100 royal purple smoke bushes, Cotinus coggygria.
These London planes and the smoke bushes below them have thrived here, growing multiple feet every year. The London plane is one of the most efficient trees in removing small particulate pollutants in urban areas. In fact, it was planted extensively in Victorian times to weather the pollution of London.
The leaves of the London plane are thick and stiff-textured, broad, palmately lobed, and maple-like.
This year, after the trees had lost all their leaves, I decided to pollard them. London planes are often pruned by pollarding. A pollarded tree creates a distinctive shape that is smaller than what would naturally grow.
This photo was taken just before pruning began. It was a very cloudy day with snow showers, but not too windy so it was perfect for some tree work.
The best time to prune and pollard trees is when the trees are dormant, during the cold months. It’s best to complete all pruning before early spring when the buds begin to form. Dormancy pruning reduces the amount of stress placed on the tree. The reduced flow of fluids in the tree during the time helps the pruning wounds heal quicker.
Josh starts by cutting the “Ds” of pruning – dead, diseased, damaged or deranged – those branches that rub against other branches or point the wrong way.
Always use sharp secateurs, loppers, or a pruning saw to make clean cuts and avoid damaging the bark. Remember, a sharp tool always cuts clean, and helps the plant to recover better. Dull cutting tools rip and shred the plant tissue.
After pruning all the Ds, Matt starts pollarding, which is essentially pruning to form a “knuckle” or “bole” by removing growth back to the main stem.
All the trees in this allée are trimmed to the same height. Pollarding is started when a tree or shrub reaches a certain desired height.
On this cut branch, one can see the nodes. A node is the point on a stem where leaves or buds grow. When pruning a branch, one should cut just above a node on the stem, not below it; cutting below a node leaves a section of stem that cannot grow new growth and is prone to rotting and disease.
Another benefit of pollarding a tree is that it creates dense shade. Cutting back the trees encourages them to send out multiple shoots.
The bark of a London plane is usually pale grey-green or buff-brown and exfoliating.
Here is a section of a tree showing the peeling habit. London plane trees shed their bark in large flakes as a natural process to cleanse themselves from accumulated pollutants. It is a way to way to shed old bark for fresh, new and developing layers.
This entire process takes a few days to do properly by hand, but it is all worth the efforts to have well-manicured, healthy trees. Each year the long slender shoots that grow below the cuts will be removed, and a set of new shoots will develop creating a gnarled appearance.
Pollarding can help make trees live longer by maintaining them in a partially juvenile state and by reducing the weight and windage of the top part of the tree.
Regular and thorough pruning will give the branches more air circulation and room to grow.
Here is one tree all done – these will look even better in about three years. More thought and planning goes into pollarding than regular topping and lopping. Pollarding is similar to coppicing but plants are cut back to a stump, rather than down to the ground.
And here is a section of the allée all finished. Some of the other types of trees that can benefit from pollarding include beech trees, black locust trees, catalpa trees, hornbeams, horsechestnuts, mulberry trees, redbuds, and willows. I am looking forward to seeing the dense heads of foliage on these trees come spring.
Temperatures at the farm today are expected to be in the 40s with a big winter drop tonight and snow showers over the weekend.
So far, this December weather has been very erratic. Just a couple of days ago, we had springlike conditions with temperatures reaching almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The day before, I woke up to white covered gardens and grassy fields - the temperatures dipped just enough for a dusting of snow and then rose again for a full day of rain. It was a dreary, wet day, but still an opportunity to capture some pretty images.
Enjoy.
Earlier this week, we got enough snow at the farm just to cover the ground. Here are the trunks of the mighty pin oaks that grow alongside my large Equipment Barn.
In general, warmer winters have become more common in the Northeast. Forecasters say this season is expected to bring above normal temperatures and below normal snowfall. Here, the snow piled on this 100-year old white spruce fencing I purchased in Canada.
These garden beds are behind my gym building and Tenant House. The light fluffy snow forms when all layers of the atmosphere are below freezing. Because the air is cold, all the way down to the surface, snowflakes don’t melt. It was just about 32-degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning with temperatures rising to the low 40s by midday.
This is an allée of lindens between the paddocks. A long building at the end, perpendicular to this allée, houses a carport, my flower room, a generator room, and my studio.
The Boxwood Allée looks so different in winter. Our annual “burlapping” chores continue, but I am glad these boxwood are draped in burlap shrouds to keep everything protected from the snow, even if it’s light.
Japanese maples can tolerate snow pretty well, but when heavy snow accumulates on the branches it’s important to brush it off to prevent them from breaking, especially on younger trees. Thankfully this snow was not problematic.
Also covered in a light layer of snow – the evergreens in my pinetum. My pinetum is where I keep a collection of pines, spruces, firs, and others.
Just off the carriage road leading to my tennis court is this grouping of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, with their straight trunks. They are impressive trees by any standard and beautiful in any season. They have a very uniform conical shape with horizontal branching.
The base of the trunk is fluted and well buttressed. The bark of a dawn redwood is reddish in color and peels. As the tree ages, the trunk also develops a deeply fissured appearance, similar to a bald cypress.
My back hayfield is bordered on one side by these growing evergreens. A light coating of snow can be seen on the branches.
Thankfully, the wind was not strong on this day, so none of the trees suffered any damage.
And not far is my majestic sycamore tree, the symbol of my farm. It is one of the largest trees on the property.
More dawn redwoods are near the sycamore along the carriage road.
In October, the stream beds were empty. Now that we’ve had some rain, they’re filling up again.
Here are two of my handsome Friesians, Hylke and Geert, taking a morning nap in their pasture. Do you know… horses only get about 30 minutes of REM sleep a day? During this time, they often lie down. Horses sleep in multiple cycles, which can be as short as 15 minutes. These cycles include deep sleep, REM sleep, and an intermediate period of somnolence, or drowsiness.
In the middle field is my allée of London plane trees and smoke bushes. I planted 46 London planes in all here and they are doing so well.
On the left is my long clematis pergola bordered on both sides by boxwood. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China originally used as grape supports. They’re perfect as posts because they don’t rot over time like the wood overhead.
Next to my old corn crib is a row of six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. They line one side of my soccer field I set up for my grandson, Truman.
In the center of this part of my farm, it is hard to miss the stand of eastern white pine trees, Pinus strobus. White pines are the tallest trees in eastern North America. On the right is my peafowl enclosure. These birds have quite the view, don’t you agree?
Here are young evergreens planted in the field. I am so proud of all the trees I have planted around my farm – thousands and thousands. It’s one way I can give back to the Earth and help to create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable planet.
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