Here's a fun blog that originally ran on May 9th, 2018 - a luncheon right here at home, with my friend, Snoop Dogg.
I always enjoy entertaining at my Bedford, New York home, especially when guests include family and good friends.
If you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen some photos from last weekend’s wonderful lunch with Snoop Dogg. Snoop and his crew dropped by for a short visit at the same time my daughter, Alexis, her children and a group of their friends were at the farm. We all had such a lovely time. It was a perfect spring day - the gardens were bursting with color and Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, and I planned a delicious "Cinco de Mayo" meal for everyone.
Here are more photos - enjoy.
Snoop Dogg and five members of his gang stopped by the farm on their way to an event in New York City. Here we are on the steps of my Winter House with Tasha Hayward, Ted Chung, La La, Wall, and Tiny. Kevin Sharkey took this photo – see more of his photos on his Instagram page @seenbysharkey.
The weather was just perfect for lunch outdoors. We ate on my lower terrace parterre overlooking the farm.
We set the table in simple, neutral tones with Wedgewood drabware plates and gray plaid napkins.
In my Flower Room, Pierre always prepares the mis en place first. Mise en place is a French culinary phrase meaning “putting in place” or “everything in its place.” Here are trays of artichoke hearts, turnips, peas, carrots and asparagus. The carrots are from my vegetable greenhouse, while the asparagus is fresh from my outdoor garden.
We made turkey meatloaf from turkeys raised here at the farm. Here they are just out of the oven.
And here is the spinach quiche cooling. The spinach used is from my greenhouse. I love having all these fresh greens to share with family and friends.
Here is a snapshot of Chef Pierre meeting Snoop for the very first time.
Our buffet table was filled with a delicious and eclectic array of dishes – something for everyone!
We had fried chicken, potato salad with fresh radishes from my greenhouse, spinach quiche, and turkey meatloaf. The sauces included chili jam, pesto and of course, ketchup.
Look how crispy the fried chicken is – everyone devoured it.
The turkey meatloaf was precut into nice, thick slices and decorated with herbs.
Here is another snapshot of the table with our fresh green salad – all the lettuce was grown right here at the farm.
Another big hit at the buffet were the salmon tacos. The salmon filet is from True North, one of my favorite sources for seafood. I sell these flavorful six-ounce salmon filets from True North on QVC. http://www.truenorthseafood.com/
Everyone loved making their own tacos – they were perfect for Cinco de Mayo.
Every plate was filled – many went back for seconds.
Here’s Snoop eating a piece of fried chicken – I think he likes it.
Here are Wall and Tasha also enjoying their meal.
Here I am with my plate. Many of us took photos to post on social platforms.
This is Tiny with Enma, who works at my farm – Tiny is not really so tiny.
Our dessert included a platter of the most refreshing fruit.
Snoop posed with his dessert plate of watermelon and blood red orange slices.
After lunch, Snoop stopped for a quick photo with my housekeeper, Sanu.
And then it was time for a short tour around the farm.
Snoop loved meeting all my horses. Here he is with three of my five Friesians and my stable manager, Sarah.
Snoop even talked to Clive, Rufus and Billie, my three Sicilian donkeys. See a video and more of his photos from the visit to my farm on his Instagram page @SnoopDogg. It was a great afternoon “fo shizzle”.
Enjoy this encore blog posting which originally ran on September 27th, 2022. It features my visit to a wonderful and historic garden.
I love visiting gardens around the country and around the world - especially when they are as enchanting and as beautiful as Wethersfield Estate & Garden in Amenia, New York.
Wethersfield was the country home of philanthropist, conservationist, and banking heir, Chauncey Devereux Stillman. In 1937, he bought two abandoned farms where he designed and developed his estate and eventually expanded the property to its current size of approximately 1,000 acres. Situated at the top of a hill with breathtaking mountain views, the home and land includes a three-acre formal garden, a seven-acre wilderness garden, a working farm, a carriage house and museum, and miles of woodland trails for hiking and horseback riding. Over the weekend, I toured the gardens and attended a lecture on Wethersfield hosted by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art - a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding, and appreciation of classical design. Wethersfield Garden is described as the finest classical garden in the United States built in the second half of the 20th century - I do hope you take the opportunity to visit it someday.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This is the historic front gate at Wethersfield Estate & Garden. The leaded urns are topped with camels from the Stillman Family crest.
Visitors to Wethersfield Garden are able to view the property map, showing the formal garden near the main house.
Wethersfield’s Director of Horticulture Toshi Yano greets guests and thanks everyone for attending the ICAA’s Bunny Mellon Symposium.
Here, a tall limestone urn in the distance marks the boundary between the working and designed landscape. One can see the Taconic mountain range beyond.
This is the Tempietto at the Belvedere. From here, one can see distant views of the Berkshires and the Catskills. It was important to Chauncey that the design of his stately Georgian-style colonial home include sweeping views of the area.
Here, weeping beech trees are pruned into columns to mark the four corners of the East Garden. Look closely, and one can see Fuchsias overflowing from the leaded urns.
Fuchsias were among Chauncey’s favorite flowering plants. Fuchsia is a genus of tropical perennial plants that produce exotic-looking, two-toned flower blossoms.
Here is another view inside the East Garden with its handsomely manicured hedges.
This statue shows Cupid riding a dolphin in a lovely niche of shale and bluestone. The wall doubles as a rock garden filled with alpine plants.
This is a limestone finial atop a brick column at the Cutting Garden.
This is the “Schooling Field” where Chauncey would train his Hackney horses for four-in-hand carriage driving. A field that also has sweeping mountain views.
This statue is of a panned piper on one side of an arch cut into an arborvitae hedge.
This is a very well-executed ha-ha – a “blind fence,” or a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier. In the distance one can see the slight change in color toward the end of the lawn marking a four foot drop meant to keep the livestock out of the garden.
The swimming pool at Wethersfield has been converted into a reflecting pool.
The curvature of the oval reflecting pool is echoed in the steps where masses of scented geraniums fill the air with perfume.
I admired the cherub with a finger to his lips. Toshi says it suggests to visitors that “silence is golden.”
Wethersfield is filled with unusual limestone and lead ornaments – this one also caught my eye.
Urns designed by Stanford White are filled with Artemisia mauiensis, or Maui wormwood – a perennial plant native to the island of Maui with mounding, soft silvery foliage.
It also looks so beautiful in this parterre.
This is the goldfish pool at Wethersfield’s Pine Terrace. The shale retaining walls in the garden are made of stones from the farm’s historic field walls.
Sweet autumn clematis, Clematis terniflora, flows over a fence with its white fragrant blooms. The hills of the Taconic range can be seen in the distance.
This stone step mounting block shows visitors entering or exiting that the owner had horses, and in this case, a collection of riding carriages.
And this is the west side of the main house at Wethersfield, beautifully maintained inside and out. The entire property is now managed by the Wethersfield Foundation. Go to the website at Wethersfield.org to learn more about this fabulous estate and garden.
Here's an encore blog I posted after a memorable trip to Madagascar with my family earlier this year. It was originally posted on March 27th.
There is so much to see in Madagascar - it is incredibly rich in wildlife and natural beauty.
Remote and isolated, Madagascar is home to many unique plants and animals. In fact, nearly 90-percent of its wildlife is endemic to the island. The diverse terrains include volcanic mountain chains, rock formations, sharp limestone cliffs, rainforests, and beaches. My family visited Madagascar during its hot, wet season which extends from November to April. From May to October, it is cooler and much drier with temperatures dropping as low as 50-degrees Fahrenheit. Our daily excursions included walks through Madagascar's national parks, helicopter rides over the coastline, and visits with some of the local villagers. It was a trip we will be talking about for years to come.
Here are more photos, enjoy.
Once we arrived in Madagascar, we boarded a helicopter to Miavana, where we stayed. Our guide and photographer, Marlon Du Toit, took this photo as we viewed the incredible landscapes. (Photo by Marlon Du Toit)
Separated from mainland Africa and India during the Mesozoic Era, Madagascar has been nicknamed “land that time forgot” because of its biodiversity.
The sunsets from the Miavana piazza are breathtaking. (Photo by Marlon Du Toit)
Here is a view through the palm trees. One could see for miles and miles in all directions.
Here I am in front of a defunct lighthouse. While many lighthouses still stand and serve as visual aids, modern electronic navigation now plays a larger role in maritime safety.
Here is a view looking up from the inside of the lighthouse.
Miavana is an island resort located off the northeastern coast of Madagascar. I drove around it on this off-road vehicle – one loop took a couple hours with stops.
One this day, the children went scuba diving. They are very skilled swimmers and love the water. And although they were still too young to get officially certified, they did a great job and saw so much while underwater.
Our daily excursions started from the helicopter. Here is a view of one of the villages. Madagascar is among the world’s poorest countries. Day-to-day survival depends largely on natural resource use such as harvesting seaweed, drying it out, and then exporting to other countries.
This village is named Ampisikinana. Everyone was so friendly. The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French. (Photo by Marlon Du Toit)
I took photos of this classroom. The village children love their school and keep it in such good condition.
This is one of the first animals we saw while in Madagascar – it is a Madagascar day gecko. These geckos can grow quite large – up to a foot long.
Madagascar is home to more than 345 species of reptiles. This includes about half world’s 150 or so species of chameleons. Chameleons are small to mid-size reptiles that are known for their ability to dramatically change colors.
On one of our walks, we saw many Golden-crowned Sifaka lemurs. Here is a family with one lemur mother carrying her youngster. These lemurs are known to be some of our planet’s rarest primates.
Like all lemurs, these Sifaka lemurs are found only on the island of Madagascar. Unfortunately, lemurs are extremely endangered – and largely due to human infringement such as deforestation and hunting.
The eyes of the Sifaka lemur are captivating – although our cameras zoomed in for views, we were able to get pretty close to these amazing creatures.
My granddaughter, Jude, who was 11 years old during this trip, drew this lemur during an art class – she loves the animals and is a very talented artist.
Suarez Baobab trees are found in pockets across the landscape in Madagascar. Bats like to make their home in these trees. They are also responsible for pollinating the white flowers that bloom mostly at night.
Here is another view of the baobab tree. It is a succulent, which means that during the rainy season it absorbs and stores water in its vast trunk, enabling it to produce a nutrient-dense fruit in the dry season.
One of the many dishes we enjoyed was my grandson’s tuna – caught, cleaned and dressed by Truman himself. We were all so proud of him. It was delicious. Here is his grilled tuna served with salted collar steaks.
Marlon also took some amazing drone photos. This is of the clear beaches along the coastline. I hope you also saw all the photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. It was a lovely trip to Madagascar filled with wonderful memories for me and my family. (Photo by Marlon Du Toit)
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