Homemade gift ideas from the garden are a great way to create unique and personal hostess, and family gifts. The garden is a great source of gift items, including herbs, and fruits, to make hundreds of gift-able things. The best part of gifts from the garden is that they hold a hint of your heart, making the gift even more precious to the recipient.
Turn Your Garden Harvest into Homemade Gift Ideas
As you are working hard to preserve the harvest, put some of it by for gift giving. Your garden has many homemade gift ideas for you. Homegrown jams, jellies, wine, liqueurs, honey, fruit, and dried herbs make unique and appreciated gifts. Add a handmade accent like a honey dipper, beeswax candles, or handmade soap. A vintage treasure adds to the uniqueness of the gift, too. Consider adding an antique spoon or teacup, and you have a gift that is perfect for someone special.
I like to present homemade gifts in a small basket, lined with an antique linen napkin. If the gift is a surprise, cover the whole basket in a large tea towel. If the gift doesn’t require wrapping, let the basket be its presentation. Inexpensive wicker baskets can be found for a few dollars at thrift stores. Or you can make them out of willow and other pliable branches from your garden.
As you are putting by jams and jellies for your own family, put by some smaller decorative jars, too. When you are looking for homemade gift ideas later in the season, you’ll have a head start with these pretty jelly jars, all made up and ready. Decorate the jelly jars with a square of fabric over the lid, and a pretty label or leave them plain.
I had an abundance of crab apples this year and made Hot Pepper Jelly and this Apple Pie Chai Jelly. I put it in decorative jelly jars so it will be ready for gift giving, this winter. If you don’t have crab apples any tart apple can be used. It doesn’t need commercial pectin. There is enough pectin in the apples to gel this.
Note: When you are finished draining the apple pulp, to make the jelly, put the pulp through a food mill and make apple sauce or fruit leather from the leftovers.
The Apple Pie jelly, made with chai spices is a great option for autumn canning. It’s sweet and warming, and goes well on toast, with cheese and crackers, or even paired in thumbprint cookies. It can also be given as gifts, or as part of a wellness basket. There are many other homemade gifts you can make from the garden, including herbal ones. Lavender and other herbs make great gifts, or foundations for other items. Look here for herbal gift ideas, and plan some of your autumn harvest for later gifting.
Use Homemade Jelly for homemade gift ideas from the garden
Here are a few themed homemade gift ideas to stir up the flame of your creative fire. There are many great homemade gift ideas below, and you can always combine some of them if you need a bigger gift.
Hostess gift
For a hostess gift, skip the flowers or the bottle wine and bring along a jar or two of homemade jelly. Add a pair of beeswax candles, some tea from your garden herbs, or a handmade vintage jam spoon, if jelly alone is not enough. If you want more than apple jelly, you can try this spicy version, or a nice black current chutney.
Apple Themed Gift Basket:
Package this recipe in decorative jelly jars, and give an apple themed gift basket with apple fruit leather, cowboy candy fruit leather, hot pepper jelly, apple pie chai jelly, and dried apple slices. Pair it up with an apple print tea towel. Stitch up an apple shaped pot holder or if it’s for your favorite young adult, an iTunes gift card (there’s an apple on the card.)
Homemade bread:
Wrap a loaf of homemade bread in a linen bread bag, and include a jar of jelly and a vintage silver jelly spoon for spreading. Include the recipe for homemade bread, and the apple chai jelly recipe on handwritten cards.
Snack Basket
Homemade crackers, a jar of apple pie chai jelly, a jar of hot pepper jelly, a bottle of homemade wine, and a homemade cheese ball. Add vintage linen napkins and a vintage silver butter spreader to complete the gift. If you like foraging you could try your hand at this lemon-y Oregon grape jelly.
More great options for homemade gift baskets include dried fruit, or dried fruit blends. If you have a dehydrator, fruit leather is also a very appreciated gift for many people. Or this fruit leather version that’s spicy and also known as “cowboy candy.”
Romantic Breakfast
Homemade bees wax candles, a loaf of French bread, presented in a handmade linen bread bag, Baby Gouda cheese rounds, and a jar of apple pie chai jelly (this recipe). Add a jelly spoon made from a vintage silver spoon to make it memorable.
I hope this stimulates your creativity and lets you think about your efforts to preserve the harvest as something more than simply a full larder.
Back to you:
What’s your favorite homemade gift that you’ve ever received?
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