Business gatherings are always so much more enjoyable when accompanied by a delicious homemade meal.
Yesterday, I hosted a luncheon at my home for a small group of nine. My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, and I, collaborated on a delicious menu that included two garden salads - one with young lettuces and one with kale, sultana raisins, and pistachios - both using fresh greens from my garden. I also served tomato tart, onion tart, and a chilled broccoli soup with broccoli just cut the previous day. For dessert we enjoyed vanilla panna cotta with strawberries, also grown right here at my farm. It was an excellent lunch and a most productive and interesting meeting.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
The day was perfect for serving lunch outdoors under my pavilion. The weather was 75-degrees Fahrenheit with cool gentle breezes. I did the honors of serving my guests.
My pavilion is located just off the carriage road outside my pool. In 2021, after cutting down a large yew tree at my former East Hampton home, I decided the lumber would make a nice table. It has since become a favorite spot for warm weather entertaining.
These beautiful light colored roses were cut from my gardens. If you saw my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen other arrangements, large and small, decorating my Winter House.
Under the roof all around the edge of the pavilion, I hung several giant staghorn ferns. They are all planted in baskets and hung with very heavy, strong wire.
Each staghorn fern has antler-like foliage as well as flat, basal leaves. The flat leaves are infertile and turn brown and papery with age. They overlap onto a mounting surface and provide stability for the fern.
Depending on the fern variety, the foliar fronds may droop or be erect. These leaves resemble the horns of a large herbivore.
Enma set the table for nine using a spring green colored table setting.
Along with the roses, I decorated the table with potted Eucomis – a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, native to southern Africa.
One may recognize the plant by its flowers. Most species of this genus are commonly referred to as pineapple flowers or pineapple lilies. I’ve had these for years – they thrive in my greenhouse.
Here is our table – all set for lunch after a productive and informative meeting.
This is chilled broccoli soup made using broccoli just cut from my new half-acre garden the day before. My garden is producing the most wonderful vegetables.
I also offered two fresh and organic salads. This lettuce salad is made with young lettuces, also from my garden, dressed with a light vinaigrette.
This salad is made with kale, pistachios, and sultana raisins, which are small, seedless, dried white grapes that are sweet, juicy, and golden in color.
Our lunch was accompanied by a refreshing fruit iced tea. Enma makes each pitcher a little different depending on the fruits we have on hand.
Our main course – tomato and onion tarts.
Have you ever had a tomato tart? These savory, rich, vegetarian tarts are just right for brunch, lunch, or dinner.
Here’s another in a long rectangular shape. Tomato tarts are made using juicy slices of tomato layered with grated cheese in a pâte brisée pastry crust.
I also served this flavorful onion tart.
My guests could not resist having pieces of both – some even went back for seconds.
And for dessert – light and delicate vanilla panna cotta with fresh strawberries. Panna cotta means “cooked cream” in Italian and is made using sweetened cream thickened with gelatin. A wonderful lunch gathering and “meeting of the minds” – it’s a good thing.
Tours through my gardens are different every time - there's always something new to see.
Yesterday, I opened my gardens for a private showing to The Garden Club of America. The tour was part of their "On the Road" trip to Bedford, New York. 30 guests from various states across the country attended. Whenever I can, I always enjoy leading the walks through the gardens to see what is blooming and growing at the time, to share the farm's history, and to discuss how I care for all the many plantings. It was a lovely late spring morning and a very enjoyable garden tour.
Enjoy these photos.
My perennial flower garden is among the first stops along the walk – so many poppies are blooming, along with the roses, various irises, and Canterbury Bells.
The group arrived mid morning. Mine was the first of three tours the group was scheduled to see this day. Before the tour, I welcome everyone to Cantitoe Corners and talked about what we would see along the guided walk.
My Chow Chows made a quick appearance. Everyone loves to meet Emperor Han and Empress Qin.
I showed them the roses growing along the fence. These climbers and many others were transplanted from Lily Pond, my former home in East Hampton.
In the garden, there are gorgeous poppies blooming everywhere – those papery, tissue-like blossoms that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase.
The name “poppy” refers to a large number of species in at least 12 different genera in the subfamily Papaveroideae, which is within the plant family Papaveraceae. They produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
Papaver grows mainly in the northern hemisphere, including within the Arctic Circle, with one species found in southern Africa.
The plants typically grow to about two feet in height forming colorful flowers during spring and into summer.
Also open are the Canterbury Bells – these bell-shaped white, pink, blue, or purple flowers bloom in the early spring through midsummer.
And look at the colorful bold purple irises. Purple Dutch irises, also known as Iris hollandica, typically bloom in late spring to early summer.
Along the footpath, airy sprays of yellow flowers on the Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla mollis.
I walked the group through the berry gardens to see the currant bushes laden with fruits.
Just outside the flower garden, the group saw the tall bald cypress trees across from my pergola. These trees were just a few feet tall when I first planted them.
All my potted tropical plants are now displayed all around the farm. I told the group this is one of many sago palms I grew from cut “pups” off a parent plant. It’s grown beautifully over the years.
I also grew these boxwood shrubs from bare root cuttings that were nurtured in a bed before being transplanted to this pergola border.
Over a section of my pergola are the climbing vines of my beautiful Rosa ‘Veilchenblau’ – the violet rambler also known as ‘Bleu-Violet’, ‘Blue Rambler’, ‘Blue Rosalie’ and ‘Violet Blue’ that bloom from May to June.
From the carriage road, one can see the abundance of pretty blooms – my guests loved to stop, take photos, and “smell the roses.”
I walked the group through the vegetable garden. They admired the growing brassicas. Everything is doing so well.
Here is one of my Savoy cabbages – so perfectly shaped. Savoy cabbage is a versatile cabbage, similar to green cabbage but a bit milder and sweeter, with leaves that are looser and more ruffled.
Kale, also called leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage cultivars primarily grown for their edible leaves – these leaves are amazing and so delicious.
I pointed out all the growing broccoli heads. There are so many ready to pick.
And the group loved the tomatoes. I planted 120 tomato plants under these bamboo supports.
The tour met my Friesians. Hylke loves to greet visitors – he is always hopeful for a treat.
And before leaving, the group walked by the pool and learned about the staddle stones, which were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version. It was a fun tour with a very fun, enthusiastic, and curious group of gardeners.
My gardeners have been very busy in my large, half-acre vegetable garden. Last week, they planted the season's crops of onions and leeks which were all started from seed in my greenhouse. Onions and leeks are part of the Allium family. They are hardy, thrive in full sun, and are easy to grow in a variety of soils and climates.
Here are some photos.
Every year we harvest lots of wonderful, fresh onions. it’s one of our favorite crops to pick here at my farm. The onion, Allium cepa, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium.
Onions require 90 to 100 days to mature from seed, which is around four months. We start seeding our vegetables shortly after the New Year and then in spring we transplant them into the garden.
Onions should be planted when temperatures are still a bit cool once they start to grow, and then warm when they begin to mature. Early planting gives the onions time to develop tops and store energy for the bulbs.
This day was perfect for planting our onions and leeks. Here, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, measures the bed for proper placement. Healthy green plants should be 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep in rows 12 to 15 inches apart.
A dibber or dibble or dibbler is a pointed wooden stick for making holes in the ground so that seeds, seedlings or small bulbs can be planted. Dibbers come in a variety of shapes including the straight dibber, the T-handled dibber like this one, the trowel dibber, and the L-shaped dibber.
Onion seeds are less expensive than other growing options such as sets and starts. Starting onions from seed can also offer a wider variety of onion types.
Because I use a lot of onions for cooking and for sharing with my family, we plant many trays of onions.
Our seed packets are kept in plastic envelopes, and plastic bins – all are labeled and filed for easy reference and stored in a greenhouse refrigerator. Then, when it is time to seed our trays, we know they are well organized and in good condition. Here are many of our seeds for onions and leeks. We get our seeds from our favorite companies and wherever I find them during my travels.
Here is one tray of onions in our Urban Cultivator the day we started them.
Here they are a few days later…
And then last week, we took them all out to plant in the garden. Onions are closely related to garlic, leeks, shallots, scallions and chives.
Matthew separates the plants and places each one down in the row a few inches from the next.
Using the dibber, Phurba carefully positions the plant with the root end down and pushes it into the soil about two-inches deep until all the roots are well covered.
Onions are also categorized in two growing types: long-day and short-day. Long-day onions begin sprouting in late spring to summer when days are between 14 and 16 hours long. Short-day onions begin sprouting when days are between 10 and 12 hours in length – winter and early spring.
Be sure the top of the plant’s neck isn’t covered too deeply. If too much of the plant is buried, the growth of the onion will be reduced and constricted.
The two beds include red onions, white onions, yellow and brown onions.
Here, Matthew backfills the rows with the back of a soft rake.
Here is our bed of leeks. To thrive, leeks need lots of nitrogen and consistent soil moisture.
And two beds of onions. Next, they’ll all get a good drink of water.
We’re off to a wonderful growing season – it won’t be long now before I have bounties of fresh, nutritious vegetables.
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