St. Honoré Local Treats

St. Honoré Boulangerie is known for their great pastries and baked goods, but did you know that they source a lot of local ingredients for their tasty treats? For example they get their wheat for baking from Shepherds Grain, an Oregon company, and their apples from Kiyokawa Orchards in Hood River. Chef Dominique Geulin joined us at their Division Street location to show us a pastry and a dessert that uses local hazelnuts. Chef Dominique said they get their hazelnuts from Freddy Guys Hazelnuts in Monmouth. Freddy Guys shells and roasts the nuts to order so they get a consistent high quality product for their baking. The first thing Chef shared with us was a Hazelnut Caramel Dacquoise. This dessert has layers of caramel ganache, chocolate praline and hazelnut buttercream between hazelnut dacquoise cake. It was wonderful! Then we saw something new that is being offered, a Hazelnut Chocolate Croissant. This croissant had a filling that was a special creation of Chef Dominique that had hazelnuts and chocolate. Delicious!

The best part of our tour was to see them working on all their holiday treats. You can stop by and pick up something special for friends and family, or you can check out their special catering menu. They can help you with just about any occasion or gathering. They don’t just make desserts, they can also deliver sandwiches, salads and entrees. Check out St. Honoré for great baked goods any time of year!

Timber Press Holiday Gifts

During the winter months it is tough for the gardener. The temperatures are too cold to do anything in the garden and a lot of people don’t know where to start with indoor gardening. One thing that can keep us gardeners happy and excited about the upcoming season are great gardening books. We stopped by Timber Press, the world leader in garden publishing, to see what they recommend for the NW gardener. Emma Met with William at their main office in downtown Portland to show us 4 books that she would recommend. We started with Cultivating Garden Style by Rochelle Greayer. This book is laid out like a ‘mood board’. Broad topics are broken down into simple concepts with lots of visual examples. You can pick a theme and there are concrete examples of how you can achieve that ‘look’ in your own garden. The next book is one for the garden explorer, the Pacific Northwest Garden Tour by Donald Olsen. We featured this book before on the show and felt like it is a book that everyone should have, whether you are a gardener or not. It is not only a reference book with all the details you need to visit and learn more about the featured gardens, but he also fills you in on the history and personal stories of the designers and original owners. He also brings attention to areas near the gardens that you should also check out on your travels. The third book was made for the Pacific Northwest as well. The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy looks to help local gardeners bring nature and bio-diversity back into their gardens. One of the best parts of this book is at the back of the book. It has a list of different plants and then breaks them down into ‘Landscape Functions’ and ‘Ecological Functions’. You can see whether a plant has great fall color or fruit, and also what type of wildlife it attracts. A great book if you are trying to get ‘nature’ back into your landscape. Finally, we saw a book on one of the hottest plants in the market right now, Tillandsia. This book, ‘Air Plants: the Curious World of Tillandsias’ by Zenaida Sengo not only covers the care and feeding of these unique plants, but also shows you how to use them in a variety of settings. You get design tips and ways that you would never think of using them when decorating.

These are just a small portion of the great garden books that Timber Press publishes. Check out their website for more great book ideas!

Holiday Heritage

Ever wonder why we use holly in our holiday decorating? What is the story behind kissing under the mistletoe? William and Judy covered the reasons why we use specific plants during the holidays. Holly’s origins are based on both Christian and non-Christian traditions. In one tradition, the holly protects the home from evil spirits. In another, the holly represents the crown of thorns of Christ’s passion and its berries represent the drops of blood. Ivy is a very misunderstood plant. We sometimes see it growing all over trees, almost smothering them. In the Middle Ages ivy meant prosperity, and if it died financial hard times were soon to follow. Mistletoe has a longer history. It has various meanings that include fertility, immortality and love. Of course the best meaning involved kissing. In proper English society you could not kiss your spouse-to-be in public. During the holidays you could kiss under the mistletoe, but you had to remove a white berry every time you did. Naturally, twigs with lots of berries were highly prized! So next time you are decorating your home, take some time and learn some of the meanings.

Sealing Greens

The smell of fresh greens in the home during the holidays is intoxicating! But after a few days those fresh cut greens can become ‘dried’ cut greens and a fire hazard. We found a product that can help seal in the moisture and prevent those greens from drying out. Wilt Stop from Bonide can be sprayed on your greens to seal in the moisture and help them last longer. It can also be used on your outdoor conifers to seal in the moisture and help prevent winter wind and cold damage. We found this product at Cornell Farm (503-292-9895) but this product is available at most of your independent garden centers.