The Perfect Holiday Dinner From Your Organic Garden

Whatever you’re celebrating this season, here’s our guide to a holiday table created right from your organic garden.

The joys of cooking from your own garden are endless. Is it the fresh flavor that you love most about garden-to-table meals? The ease of grabbing ingredients right outside your back door? Nutrient-packed organic food for your family and friends? Getting creative in the kitchen with what you have in your weekly harvest?

We’ll go first: All of the above!

Sautéed Greens

Leafy greens are a Fall and Winter favorite and may be able to grow throughout the cold season, depending on your climate. Any mixture of greens works for a simple but succulent, sautéed green dish — always a favorite side dish at any holiday meal.

Try a mix of greens, such as spinach, collard greens, mustard greens, chard, or kale. Every variety of greens works well, and the different colors and textures of leaves can add a pleasing visual aesthetic to your holiday table.

Cooking Tips for Sautéed Greens:

The best part about making sautéed greens is that they’re hard to mess up! Especially when picked fresh from your own garden and full of flavor. Maybe you prepped your greens this Fall with seabird guano for an extra lush harvest!

It’s easy to overcook sautéed greens, so be sure to cook this dish when you’re ready to pay full attention to the stovetop for a few minutes.

The other big difference between mediocre sautéed greens and fantastic sautéed greens is seasoning. You don’t need to do anything fancy to get great flavor in this dish, but you do need to do something to those leafy greens.

The best flavors enhancers for sautéed greens:

• Garlic (chopped or powder)
• Coarse salt (not too much!)
• Lemon
• Shallot
• Slivered almonds
• Sherry vinegar

Follow this Easy Sautéed Mixed Greens recipe from The Spruce Eats for a quick and simple preparation.

Roasted Root Vegetables

The versatility of roasted veggies makes it another easy dish for the holiday cook — and the tastiness makes it a go-to favorite for everyone at the table.

Not only are root veggies going to add an incredible rainbow of color and flavor to your holiday feast, but they’ll also provide a huge boost of nutrition to the meal. Some people are hesitant about the prep and cooking time for roasted vegetables, but we guarantee it’s worth it.

Preparing root vegetables, such as beets and potatoes, can take a good dose of elbow grease to peel and cut, . Which can be followed by a seemingly long time to roast these pieces into tasty morsels. However, they can be chopped and prepared ahead of time, and they won’t suffer from being reheated briefly in the oven before serving if timing is a concern.

One of the best things about any roasted veggie dish is how simple it is to combine whatever root vegetables you have on hand. Beets, carrots, red potatoes, and sweet potatoes make a tip-top roasting combo.

Ready to roast?

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Peel beets and carrots, and remove any scars or eyes from potatoes
• Chop into 2-inch cubes
• Peel, chop, and add a few garlic cloves (to taste)
• In a big bowl, toss in a light coating of olive oil
• Add sea salt and ground black pepper
• Spread evenly on baking sheet
• Cook for 45-60 minutes or until tender
• Toss some sage and rosemary leaves on the pan about 10 minutes before cooking is complete for extra zest and crunch

For more flavors, try parsnips, sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes), golden beets, and red onions. And try adding just one of the following: a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, a dusting of paprika, or a drizzle of truffle oil right out of the oven.

Winter Squash

There’s such a wide variety of Fall and Winter squashes, each with its own unique character, flavor, and color. Their unique beauty makes them delightful for holiday celebration menus, and their versatility fits into any meal.

We’re partial to delicata squash for holiday meals because it’s quick-cooking and doesn’t need to be skinned. Delicata is also a bit more flavorful than the super-popular butternut and tends to be more tender than its tougher cousin, the acorn squash.

The oblong delicata squash is also the perfect boat-shaped bowl for your favorite stuffing — making it the meal’s star entrée.

Try out this mouth-watering Sausage-Stuffed Delicata Squash Recipe from Southern Living (you can use pork sausage, as suggested, or a turkey or plant-based sausage if preferred).

Don’t Forget The Centerpiece

Displaying cut flowers from your own garden can make the holiday table atmosphere more special to you and those gathered there.

Gardening in a climate that’s too cold for fresh flowers in Winter? Try snipping sprigs of holly or other cold-loving shrubs, evergreen branches, or decorative ornamental grasses like yellow Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans).

Pine cones from around the yard make gorgeous table decorations, as do any squashes or gourds that you didn’t use for the meal. If these options aren’t available to you, try creating a new holiday tradition by bringing some lush indoor potted plants to the table.

Get creative — your table is your masterpiece! The winter holidays are a time to cherish hearth, home, and health. Taking a few moments to decorate, share gratitude, and appreciate the comforts of home and garden are what this season is all about.

Dig in!

Fall Harvest Recipe Ideas

While Summer can seem like the ultimate harvest season, a delicious and health-boosting bounty awaits the patient Fall gardener. Ready for some inspiration for cooking from your Fall garden harvest?

If you’re like us, the most exciting part of tending a Fall garden is chowing down on the delicious seasonal meals made from nutrient-packed home-grown food. As temperatures and leaves start to drop, cool-weather crops reach their full potential.

Fall Harvest Crops

Remember: Crops will grow slower as days get shorter and plants get less sunlight. Although it may take those colder-weather vegetables a bit longer to mature, their bounty is well worth the wait.‍

‍Apples

While most of us are used to eating apples all year-round, their natural harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere is later summer and into Fall. Depending on your region (hello, Pacific Northwest!), September through November may be prime apple picking time—and prime apple pie time.

Beets

A classic Fall crop, beets are more versatile than you might think (if you’re new to growing and cooking them). Keep reading for a delicious oven-roasted recipe to introduce your whole family to this immune-boosting root veggie.

Squash

The chillier season is squash’s time to shine! There are so many varieties of squash to choose from—and if you’ve prepared your garden for a happy, bountiful Fall, there should be plenty of room for these viney plants to flourish.

Leafy Greens

Kale and other hardy greens love the cold. Before frosts, arugula and spinach will thrive, too. These are top-notch immunity foods, so go wild with greens in the kitchen.

Be careful, though—most greens (and many other crops) are sensitive to frost and freezes, despite their hardier-than-average nature. Especially with more tender greens, consider covering rows with a lightweight protective layer when temperatures start to drop below freezing at night.

Brussels Sprouts

Some climates yield Brussels sprouts in warmer late-summer months, but these sturdy stalks do love the cold.

Brussels sprouts are another misunderstood and much shunned veggie, just like beets—but we’ve included a delicious, easy, family-friendly recipe below to introduce them into your Fall menu.

Hardy Herbs

Fall and Winter are the feature seasons for shrubby perennial herbs. Don’t forget the flavor just because Summer is done!

As bright Summer annuals like basil and dill go to seed and are pulled up, shift to “warmer” flavored herbs that can enhance soups, stews, and roasted root veggies. Our favorites are thyme, rosemary, and oregano.

What’s On The Menu?

Let’s get to the recipes!

Roasted Veggies

Roasting is a historically cold weather staple for many reasons, least of all the warmth that the oven provides to your home as those delightful dishes are cooking.

It’s fun and easy to get creative with a roasted vegetables dish by adding fruits, herbs, and nuts—you almost can’t go wrong! Try rosemary, apples, sliced almonds, or even some pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top after taking the dish out of the oven.

This recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash from The Spruce Eats adds even more flavor and texture by adding pecans and cranberries.
Some folks are reluctant to put beets on the family table, since they can be tricky to cook to perfection and have such a unique flavor. Try a simple and lovely dish like Pure Wow’s Oven Roasted Beets and Potatoes to bring beets to your table.
For a more complex flavor, try this dreamy Roasted Beets with Quinoa and Pears dish.

Salads

Don’t discount salads just because summer is over! So many of the crops above can be tossed together for incredible seasonal salads.

This delectable Fall Salad recipe from Better Home and Gardens uses pears, pecans, and maple dressing to weave Autumn flavors together. Feel free to substitute the salad greens for anything you have growing in the garden, like arugula or kale.

Soups & Stews

And now for the champion of all Fall and Winter dishes: soup! Soup and stew can seem boring and bland, but when you harness the many possibilities of flavor, texture, and ingredients, soup might become your favorite meal.

A beautiful blended soup is the way to go for picky veggie eaters, and can be easily made in batches and frozen for later. Our mouths are watering just thinking about this Kale and Broccoli Soup from Food Network.

For a heartier version of chicken soup, take inspiration from this Easy Fall Chicken and Vegetable Soup and add your garden’s flavors.

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Immune-Boosting Bounty

Embracing seasonal eating not only connects you and your family to nature’s rhythms, it can also help boost your immune system for cold and flu season.
Many Fall vegetables and fruits are packed with immunity-supportive vitamins and antioxidants your body needs to defend against illness and keep you cozy in cool weather.

Did you know that healthier, more microbially rich soil actually boosts the nutritional value of the food that grows in it? That’s just one of the reasons why we’re so passionate about soil health and regeneration here at TRUE. Healthy soil is essential for a healthy planet, and humans rely on it, too.

Beautiful and tasty!

Soil isn’t just dirt. 

‍Here at True Organic, we’re obsessed with soil. And it’s not just because healthy soil is the backbone of the farms and food that sustain us. Healthy soil is also one of the keys to sustaining and restoring our planet and atmosphere.

Replenishing our soil plays a vital role in sequestering carbon, improving water retention, and enhancing soil fertility. It’s a mission that sits at the heart of our company.
Let’s take a closer look at the role soil plays in carbon sequestration.

Soil + Carbon = Happy Plants

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Dirt is considered simply mineral matter, like sand and bits of rock. (It’s not alive.)

Soil contains some of that mineral matter, plus a lot of organic (living) matter. Bacteria, fungi, earthworms, and all sorts of other living organisms live and thrive in soil.

Plants need to take in carbon to sustain their own energy, and soil needs carbon as well. More specifically, all those microbes that live in soil need carbon!

It’s a symbiotic relationship: the happier those soil microorganisms are, the happier plants can be. As happy plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), bacteria and fungi in soil feast on carbon and other macronutrients for their own livelihood, too.

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Let’s Talk About CO2

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Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas (“greenhouse” means that it lingers in Earth’s atmosphere and soaks up infrared radiation, trapping heat). While carbon dioxide is and always has been a naturally produced part of life existing on our lush planet, some types of human activity increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Right now, there is a lot more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there should be for sustained, thriving life on Earth as it’s meant to be.

Other gases, too, like methane and ozone, have become too plentiful in Earth’s atmosphere. This imbalance of greenhouse gases is harmful to our planet and for us humans.

But it’s particularly that CO2 that we most urgently need to take care of. That’s why carbon sequestration is so important, and why agriculture has such a big role to play.

It’s why we started True Organic.

What Is Carbon Sequestration?

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It seems like magic: drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ground, where it’s actually an essential part of life. But it’s real! And nature actually does it all on its own.

The process of capturing carbon from the atmosphere and placing it into soil is a natural part of plants’ photosynthesis process. It’s happening all the time, all around us. Grass does it, trees do it, even the curly kale and tomato vines in your garden do it.

Biologic carbon sequestration refers to atmospheric carbon getting taken in by plants and deposited back into soil (and sometimes aquatic and geological environments).

To understand how that works, let’s take a stroll through the garden.

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Photosynthesis

Thinking back to Earth Sciences and Biology classes at school, photosynthesis is the way plants sustain themselves. It’s how they get nutrients and nourish their cells. With the help of sunlight and minerals from the soil, plants have the ability to break down CO2 and H2O to create their own ”food”.

Under our feet when we’re taking a stroll on green grass, above our heads when we’re hiking through a canopy of trees—all those plants are happily taking in carbon dioxide through their leaves, soaking up sun and water, and turning that into fuel to stay alive.

So what happens to carbon after plants absorb it in the form of CO2?

First, it’s broken down into its elemental parts—carbon and oxygen. The oxygen is released back into the atmosphere. Which is great news for all of the lifeforms that need to breathe oxygen to live! (We’re lookin’ at you…and ourselves…and all other animals.)

Carbon sequestration refers to the process that puts that carbon back into the soil, where it’s stored.

Agriculture Can Make a Difference

Ready for a dose of hope?

Farming and gardening have massively powerful potential to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere and put it back in the ground.

It requires thoughtful, soil-friendly techniques that help plants thrive in an organic environment while rebuilding soil’s natural potential.

Sustainable, regenerative, organic farming methods encourage and enhance carbon sequestration, and those types of farming practices are booming. Reforestation, too, has been shown to be incredibly effective for carbon sequestration.

What’s more, those organic methods increase yield over time, produce super healthy harvests, and support biodiversity.

Carbon Sequestration In Your Home Garden

While nature does carbon sequestration all on its own, we can help it along. The more plants we tend (including farms, forests, grasslands, native plant sanctuaries, and gardens), the more carbon your plants will eat.

Yes, you can even help capture carbon and nurture soil at home. You don’t need a huge farm or forest to join the movement to rebuild soil to its carbon-capturing, plant-supporting true nature.

Look more into the wonders of regenerative farming and home gardening in our National Soil Health Day blog. 

It’s Our TRUE Mission

True Organic was founded with all of this in mind. We set forth on a mission to revitalize soil’s massive potential to support thriving life in all its forms.

We began by providing organic, soil-rebuilding fertilizers to large-scale agricultural enterprises. The big picture is important; we help some of the biggest growers in the country operate with soil health at the forefront.

But change happens on the individual level, too, and we believe it’s vital to support home gardeners make a difference.

Our mission now is to help everyone, from big farmers to community garden tenders, learn about what soil and plants need to thrive—and help you do that every day.

Upcycled Gardening Ideas

Your garden is a place to express your creativity and enjoy your outdoor space. It’s also your way of caring for the Earth—nourishing plants, restoring soil, and sustaining your own kitchen table.

How about adding even more of your unique style and giving the environment an extra helping hand by creating your garden landscape with upcycled materials?

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What Is Upcycling?

Sure, garden and homegoods stores sell plenty of lovely outdoor decor that will give your garden or yard a special sparkle. But combining store-bought items with some upcycled, crafty projects to decorate your garden is the perfect way to meld functionality with creativity.

Upcycling means that you’re taking something old or discarded and giving it new life again. It is often considered the artist’s way of recycling! Think of it as reusing with flair.

But, of course, you can follow whatever rules and definitions you want when you’re finding upcycling projects for your garden! Let your creativity shine as you save previously used items from landfills and beautify your backyard oasis.

For some basic tips on designing an amazing garden space, check out our blog all about Edible Landscapes!

Let’s look at some materials to use for your upcycled garden projects.

Wooden Pallets

Sturdy wooden pallets, the kind that packaged goods are shipped and delivered on, are a garden upcyclers dream item. They’re versatile and abundant.

You can find them for free at almost any lumber or feed store, usually tossed out back near the refuse containers. If you’re not seeing any at the stores (be sure to ask!), look at local neighborhood listings and “free” pages online and on social media.

Pallets can be made into compost pile corrals, chicken coops, fences, and even the structure for a hanging garden.

Pallets can have sharp edges, nails, and industrial staples in them, so be careful and remove those before you start working on upcycling a pallet.

Metal Cans

‍Empty, clean metal cans (dog food, soup, cranberry sauce!) are adorable as planters.

Be sure to very thoroughly clean and dry cans so that absolutely no food is left inside! Remove labels by soaking cans in warm, soapy water—the labels should slide right off.

The fun thing about using metal cans in the garden is how light and portable they are. Try hanging a row along a fence or from a patio, arbor, or pergola. Poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Get fancy with paint and coverings!

‍Tires

Using old tires in your garden landscaping is such an amazing favor to planet earth—not just saving you a trip to a refuse facility, but saving a huge item from ending up in a landfill.

A really important note about using tires in your garden: be absolutely sure that the tire is incredibly clean before putting any soil or plants in there! You can imagine all the buildup from the road that sticks onto and into tires, and that stuff is a big no-no for soil and plant health. Ick! Only clean tires should be used in the garden or for any objects humans are going to touch, sit on, or swing from.

After cleaning, you may want to paint, finish, wrap, or decorate your tire planter to spiff it up and give it a more natural feel.

Reclaimed Wood & Furniture

Ready to get really crafty? All sorts of reclaimed wood pieces, furniture, and fixtures can be refreshed as useful, cute (maybe a little quirky) garden decor.

We love pursuing yard sales, second-hand furniture shops, and building reclamation centers to look for anything and everything that could be fun and functional in an outdoor space.

What kind of reclaimed items should you look for?

• Wine barrels
• Dresser drawers
• Travel trunks
• Benches
• Wooden crates

Even reclaimed wood from home builds or remodels can be used in your garden for walls, pathways, even making your own raised beds.

Before taking it home, check wood for sharp things (like nails and staples), mold or water damage, and cracks. Choose sturdy hardwood that hasn’t been painted—or, sand paint down before using for planting.

Go Wild!‍

Once you let your imagination loose, it may feel like anything can become an upcycled decoration or planter for your garden. Silverware, mirrors, bottles, and even old bathtubs can make their way into a gorgeous, creative outdoor wonderland.

We can’t wait to see what you create. Share your upcycling ideas with us by tagging us on instagram at @true_organic.