Every year, as the holidays roll around, all the gift guides start popping up, and I have so much fun going through all of the ideas folks offer up. I love gifts from the farm, handmade gifts, and other kinds of gifts that people don’t see every day. Unique gifts that leave folks smiling and asking, “Where on earth did you find that?”

This year, I’ve been thinking through all the farmers we’ve interviewed here on the podcast, and there are so many that provide gifts that are bound to make the people in your life smile. So buckle up for the Grounded by the Farm Holiday Gift Guide! You can get these great gifts from the farm & share the farm’s story too!

Lavender Luxury

What is more luxurious than lavender? Lavender from Long Row Lavender Farm, just west of St. Louis, Missouri. Their online shop has everything from bath and body to food and cooking items (made with lavender, of course) to items for the home, like linen sprays and sachets. They’ve even got a men’s line of personal care products.

Tracy Smith, her husband Chad, and their four children started the farm several years ago as a way to spend time together outdoors. They would take things to local farmers markets and eventually decided to build a gift shop. Later a cafe was added and with seating around the farm, it’s become a popular destination. If you are nearby, make a next trip and get gifts from the farm!

• Visit the online shop: Long Row Lavender
• Listen to the Interview (includes a video tour!): Longing to Visit a Lavender Farm? Get to Making Plans!

Hams, Bacon & Other Southern Favorites!

Broadbent Foods seems to take over the steering of my car whenever I’m driving through Kentucky and my stomach says thank you. That was happening before I met and interviewed Ronnie & Beth Drennan. Since then, I may have been accused of starting a friend’s addiction to ordering online from Broadbent.

Whether I “need” bacon or not, a few packages of peppered bacon is always in order and I love the small end pieces for seasoning various things I may cook up. And putting some hot pepper jelly in a thank you gift for a weekend with friends may have earned me a forever welcome invitation.

• Visit the online shop: Broadbent Country Smokehouse meats and don’t forget to check out the pantry items, etc.
• Listen to the interview & see a behind the scenes tour: Hickory-Smoked Country Ham & Bacon on the Menu with Broadbent

Breakfast and Beyond

If you’re looking for something they really won’t find anywhere else, take a look at the Funks Grove offerings! You may remember Jeff Hake from our episode on pawpaws. Well, Jeff does more than just forage. We talked about the fruit leathers, but you have really got to take a look at their pancake and muffin mixes, sweetened with their very own pure maple sugar. If you’ve got a bread baker in your life, be sure to take a look at their heritage wheat which they sell either already ground or as whole berries for folks who either want them whole or want to grind the flour themselves. And then, of course, there’s the Maple Ramp seasoning blends, the maple black raspberry sauce, their very own, handmade fruit leather, and more. This is a small operation, so they don’t sell from their website, but you can reach out to them via email or phone and they will ship!

• Check out the Funks Grove offerings: https://www.funkspuremaplesirup.com/
• Give them a call or email to check availability: ​​(309) 874-3360 • info@funkspuremaplesirup.com
• Find shops that sell their products (in Illinois)
• Listen to the interview and take a tour: Foraging Pawpaws, Fruit Farming and Making Fruit Leather in Funk’s Grove

Fresh Avocado Delivery

The search for the perfect avocado is a familiar one for many of us. But avocado farmers like Mimi Holtz, who is known simply as Mimi Avocado online, know what to look for and what impacts the tasty goodness we all crave. Mimi and her family run a fourth-generation farm outside of San Diego, California, and they can take the pressure of finding the perfect grocery store avocado off by sending you the very best, perfectly picked and packed avocados directly from their farm. So if you know someone who loves their guacamole or avocado toast, an avocado box might be just the perfect gift!

• Shop for Avocados: CaliforniaAvocadosDirect.com
• Listen to the interview: Getting the Perfect Avocado For Our Kitchens & The Farm
• Take a video tour of the avocado farm

Gourmet Popcorn? Yes, PLEASE!

Something about popcorn just feels festive. But you’re not going to want to string Ella & Ollie popcorn and hang it on a tree. You’re going to want to eat every last, fluffy, delicious piece of it. Matt Helms and his family run a popcorn farm just east of St. Louis, and their popcorn is just *chef’s kiss* the best. Of course, you could string it to decorate your tree, but I prefer it drizzled with a little truffle oil or just simply air popped in their handy microwave popper and lightly salted. Seriously, this is good popcorn. In addition to giving it as gifts, I just keep it on hand for when I want a quick snack. (And yes, popcorn IS a whole-grain food!)

• Shop for popcorn, poppers, and accessories: Ella & Ollie Online Shop
• Listen to the interview: Popcorn… family legacy and local future
• Take a video tour of the farm: Family-Owned Popcorn Farm Has Quality Focus

Gifts for Teachers

The joy of discovery paired with the growing interest in where our food comes from makes food and farming a perfect way to enjoy learning. The Grounded by the Farm curriculum has a great fit for teachers, parents, troop leaders and others who spend time trying to unlock the magic of science, the utility of math, the comprehension of our language…. even ideas for entrepreneurship! It’s really limitless how many things the world of farming and food opens up.

• Grounded by the Farm Lesson Plans on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT)
• Grounded by the Farm Lesson Plans on Etsy
• Listen to our interview with Whitney Choate, the teacher who worked with us to develop this curriculum

The post Holiday Gifts from the Farm! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

(A full transcript of the podcast audio is available Talking about Curriculum that Pairs Food & Farm with Core Standards with Whitney Choate)

When we ended season two of Grounded by the Farm, we said we were needing to put some extra time into the educational materials we were creating. We have made incredible progress and now have lesson plans on a dozen crops available! In this episode, Janice talks to Whitney Choate, a teacher who worked with us all summer and some of the fall to develop this curriculum, the lesson plans, to bring the food & farm conversations we have fostered to classrooms (primarily grades 3-6).

We are selling these materials available through Grounded by the Farm shops on both Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) and Etsy. And hope to continue producing them — and perhaps work with sponsors as well!

The Basics

The joy of discovery paired with the growing interest in where our food comes from makes food and farming a perfect way to enjoy learning. That’s the mindset we are trying to create with the new farm and food curriculum. These educational materials accompany some of our podcast episodes to share farmers stories. And thanks to working with an amazing teacher / educator, we think we have achieved something truly unique.

Whitney Choate has been teaching 10 years. Working on this project was a chance to flex her teaching skills while learning more about food and farming!

This Grounded by the Farm curriculum has a great fit for teachers, parents, troop leaders and others who spend time trying to unlock the magic of science, the utility of math, the comprehension of our language…. even ideas for entrepreneurship! It’s really limitless how many things the world of farming and food open up.

What’s in a Lesson Plan?

Each lesson plan starts with a reading comprehension and vocabulary lesson on a given food or topic. Then it moves into sharing a bit about a farmer who grows it and gets students to fill in some thoughts or answer questions.

Some lesson plans have fun science activities, others encourage the use of math, while others bring in creativity and the arts! Teachers or parents have a number of tailor-made resources in the package too, making sure materials needed are clear up front, Whitney offers tips as a teachers who’s done the projects as well as links to podcast episodes and additional resources. And there are assessments available too!

And the information on TPT includes details on the various pieces of the core curriculum that is covered so teachers can use these materials to supplement what they are currently using.

Food & Farm Lesson Plans Currently Available

As we reviewed the various podcast episodes and Whitney thought about what may be of greatest interest to teachers, some episodes rose to the top.

We knew that community gardening and flower farming were really accessible, and the series on holiday foods (corn, cranberries, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, sugar and turkey) would likely have a good fit as students get anxious for the festivities that fall and winter bring. We also did materials on mushrooms, popcorn, tilapia and watermelon would all be of interest.

If You Teach or Homeschool, or Support Education…

We would love to see the lesson plans getting to classrooms. To give teachers a good feel for the content, level of detail, etc, the lesson plan on popcorn (Popcorn Farm-to-Table: A Lesson Plan with Science, Math & Entrepreneurship) is available for free download. If you use TPT, you will download it with that link but if you aren’t familiar with that platform, just send us a note through our contact page and we will email you the PDF so you can take a look!

The post Food & Farm Lesson Plans Bring Fun & Discovery to Classrooms  appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.