Since there is no better way to your show appreciation for friends and family than to give homemade gifts from your garden- we will be posting some of our best recipes for hand-crafted holiday gifts made from your school or community garden.
Ingredients for our organic teas, granola bars, cookies, chocolate bark, oils, honey, nuts, live herbs and succulents are all garden grown and hand-crafted at our urban garden in San Francisco. They will also be available for purchase on Etsy.com. Many of our gift ingredients are grown by our K-5th grade gardening classes.
Our Top 2 Gift Ideas: Organic Teas and Organic Hand Dyed Baby Clothes
These homemade gifts are high quality, healthy and more environmentally friendly than store-bought items. They are kid friendly and can be wrapped up using unique packaging or recycled materials- think empty tin cans, candy boxes, painted egg crates, or even cloth bags made of old curtains. For more packaging ideas click here or here.
Gift Idea #1: Organic Teas
YOU WILL NEED:
1.) Organic loose leaf tea and organic dried herbs. Harvest these from your garden or purchase at: Rainbow Grocery, theteaspot.com.
2.) Chlorine-free, compostable tea bags. Available at: Coffee Bean Direct Coffee Roasters.
3.) Self- sealing cellophane baggies, ziplock sandwich baggies or reusable plastic containers (optional). You can find a variety of printed or clear cellophane bags at craft and art supply stores.
4.) Adhesive printable address labels. You'll find these at Staples or Office Max.
5.) Decorative environmentally friendly packaging, such as fancy reusable gift boxes, jewelry boxes, recycled tin cans, cookie or tea tins, or cigar boxes. For a huge selection of fancy reusable boxes visit Flax Art & Design.
6.) Standard measuring spoons.
TO PREPARE:
2.) Use a baby spoon or teaspoon to carefully fill each chlorine-free tea bag with about 1.5 heaping Tablespoons of tea mixture. Fold over the top flap, making a sharp crease to keep tea securely in the bag. Place full tea bags in self sealing cellophane bag, plastic sandwich baggie or reusable plastic contain to keep fresh (optional).
3.) Use printable mailing labels to label teas, ingredients and directions for each type of tea you make. You may also want to include a note about the health benefits or medicinal uses for each of the teas and herbs used, which I've linked on ingredients below. Most herbal teas should steep 3-5 minutes (add honey for additional flavor). Lastly, package and decorate your finished teas using recycled materials or fancy reusable gift boxes.
TEA RECIPES:
Try these (crazyfortea.com, Squidoo tea, About Coffee/Tea) or some of our favorite recipes below:
Lavender Mint Tea:4 Tbsp organic dried, crushed lavender flowers
4.5 Tbsp organic dried crushed peppermint leaves (or spearmint leaves for a tea with more bite)
Chamomile Mint Tea:
3/4 cup organic chamomile flowers
1/4 cup organic spearmint leaves
Ginger Peppermint Tea:
4 Tbsp organic peppermint leaves
1-2 Tbsp organic dried ginger root
Catnip Chamomile Tea:
1/2 cup organic catnip
3/4 cup organic chamomile
1/4 cup organic lemongrass
1 cup organic lemon balm
1/4 cup organic peppermint leaves
Many parents want organic, chemical-free clothing for their newborns. This great gift idea is a fun project to do with kids (with supervision!) and creates gorgeous, earthy, one-of-a-kind baby t-shirts or baby onsies from natural dyes you'll make using organic fruits and vegetables from your garden. This is a simple 2 day process that will require overnight soaking.
YOU WILL NEED:
1.) 2-3 large pots for boiled ingredients down & overnight soaking
2.) 2-3 plastic or wooden spoons for stirring dye (wooden spoons will stain)
3.) Cutting board and sharp knives (to chop ingredients before boiling)
4.) Potato masher (optional- to crush boiled ingredients while boiling)
5.) Strainer
6.) organic cotton baby onsies or t-shirts (any size you like)
7.) Plastic hangers to dry each onesie after dying
8.) 1 cup salt
9.) Fancy ribbon, paper to make clothing tags
10.) Safety pins, staples or needle and thread to attach your clothing tags
11.) 1-2 lbs of fruit or veggies for every 1-2 onsies you want to dye
(Note: Beets, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, kale, and broccoli make the best dyes. Use beets, raspberries, and strawberries = reds. Blueberries and black beans = purplish blue grays. Kale and broccoli = greens and yellows. Dyes vary from batch to batch depending on the type and quantity of fruit or vegetables used.)
TO PREPARE:
Follow these directions- click here.
Or, here's how I do it:
2) Boil for about 30 minutes- this is to make the cotton color fast (so it holds
dye better).
3) While the onesies or t-shirts are boiling, wash off and chop up the organic fruits or veggies you'll be using. Keep separate from each other.
4) After 30 minutes, remove the baby clothes from salt water using a spoon and set in the sink to cool- they will be hot!! (Do NOT let children handle the hot clothes, water or dyes.)
6) Boil down the fruits and veggies down for at least 30 minutes, until a thick, concentrated color is created, using your potato masher if necessary, to extract extra color from the fruit/veggies- don't worry, you'll strain out the pulp and pieces later.
7) Wring out the baby clothes in the sink once they've cooled, and set them aside while you continue to boil down your produce.
8) As the fruit/veggies boil down to create your dye, a lot of the liquid will evaporate. Make sure enough liquid remains so that it will completely cover your garment once you put it into the pot. (Step 10.) It's best to dye only one garment at a time to ensure the deepest, most even color. Keep checking the amount of liquid and add more water and/or fruit/veggies if needed.
9) Once the dye has reached the desired color, carefully pour the dye and boiled-down veggies through your strainer and into a large clean bowl- you should do this several times if necessary until your dye is free of fruit and vegetable debris.
11) After about an hour, turn off the stove, cover the pot and allow the garmet to soak in the dye over night- you may want to place a metal spoon or other object to weigh down the garment so it doesn't float to the top while it soaks.
12) Remove the garment from the dye the next day, wring it
out in the sink (remember the dye will stain surfaces), pat it dry and then hang it on a plastic hanger and allow to air dry in the shower or bathtub. If when dry, your garment has a salty odor, you may wish to spray it with fabric refresher or toss it in the dryer with a dryer sheet for a few minutes.
13) The garment will have a beautiful handmade, slightly tie-dyed look to it. The dye will fade quite a bit when washed, so wash in cold water only, with like colors.
14) Use fancy ribbon and paper to make handmade garment tags, explaining your organic dyes and what you used (or grew yourself) to make the dye- safety pin, staple or sew on your tags
So there you have it- happy holiday gift making!
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| Organic French Chocolate Bark- a perfect holiday treat! |
Check back in a few days for Part 2 of the homemade gift-making series!
I'll share some of my best holiday treat recipes--
- French Chocolate Bark
- Gourmet Granola Bars
- The Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(all organic, of course!)
And in Part 3 of the series we'll cover even more homemade gifts- soaps, oils, herbs, and flavored nuts!
