Oprah's Favorite Holiday Gifts 2008: Garden Gift Baskets

Remember all the hard work you put into growing your crop and carefully preserving it this past summer? Well, Oprah does, too. In her Oprah's Favorite Things show, she featured multiple thrifty ideas for gift giving. Among them were this Garden gift Basket idea.

A Garden Gift Basket is a gift basket that consists of the delicacies you have created from your garden crop. Salsa, soups, fruits, jams, vegetables, jerky, fruit rolls, dried fruits and relish are all things found in Garden Gift Baskets. Top off your gift basket with other homemade goodies to accompany your bottled works of art. Homemade crackers, pie crust mix, homemade bread, and homemade cookies round out the basket, and fill in empty spaces. Be sure to add appropriate recipes and instruction cards, too.

Your Garden gift Basket can be a mish-mash of items, or you can choose a theme. A Garden Gift Basket can include all the ingredients you need for a meal, or it can include all the ingredients you need to make a particular item such as pizza. Throwing in a store-bought item or two is perfectly acceptable.

Food items are a great gift, though make sure you use some care when you put together your basket. Some people have special dietary restrictions, and may not be able to enjoy your goodies. A few examples of potentially harmful ingredients are nuts, gluten, wheat, eggs, and sugar. Some people choose not to eat certain foods due to their personal ethical standards. Some of these foods may include meat, eggs and dairy, and honey. If making a basket anyone in any of these categories, pay careful attention to every ingredient you use in your own foods, as well as those you add from the store.

Not sure how to put together a Garden Gift Basket? Companies that sell food gift baskets can be a tremendous source of inspiration. One such company is Gifts.com. This company has a wide variety of baskets with fabulous pictures from which to glean inspiration.

Sources:

The Oprah Winfrey Show

Have a Thrifty Holiday - Garden Gift Baskets

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081118_tows_holiday/6

Gifts.com

Food Gift Baskets

http://www.gifts.com/categories/food-gift-baskets/ohrai36x34cp