Valentine’s Day Gifts from the Garden

Updated Thursday, February 2, 2023.

Living in the frozen North (the middle of Wisconsin, to be exact) not much can be done in the garden, especially when the garden is under a foot of snow. Because you so diligently prepped the bounty of your fall harvest, you can now create some simple yet delightful Valentine’s Day gifts for your loved ones.

We always have an abundance of dried herbs in our garden.

Choose an interesting small jar and fill it with a dried herb, make a pretty label, tie it with a ribbon and you have a great gift for your culinary friends. If you have enough variety, you can prepare an herb blend. For Italian, use basil, oregano, fennel, and thyme. For a French blend, consider lavender, dried chives, rosemary, and tarragon. For soup spices, try bay leaf, chervil, parsley, sage and coriander.  Hint: If you add kosher salt and black pepper to the soup blend, you have a great meat rub.

Don’t forget the tea drinkers in your life. Dried Mints make a lovely tea–any of them really. Lemon mint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint, and rose mint, as the name would imply each of these mints have a complimentary underlying flavor. For a citrusy, fruit-flavored tea, dried hibiscus flowers make a lovely tea. For your salad lovers herb-flavored vinegars and olive oils are always welcome.

Gifts from the Garden: Homemade jams and jellies

The cupboard is also always full of great homemade jams and jellies. Some even come in unexpected flavors, like rose hip jam which has a romantic-sounding name. Red currant jam is divine on a toasted low-carb tortilla. Black currant jelly is yummy in homemade yogurt. And if you have never tried mint jelly on grilled lamb you are missing out. Jams and Jellies make great sweets for a sweet, without resorting to chocolate.

You can always create your own gift

If you are more craft-minded you can always create your own gift. A simple unscented white candle from the dollar store with dried lavender looks and smells great as do bay leaves pressed into candles. It is relatively easy to get the herbs to stick with a hair dryer to warm the wax, or a simple alternative is a drop of white school glue that will adhere the leaves to the candle; add a fun ribbon and you’re good to go. A bouquet of fragrant herbs tied together makes a thoughtful gift. Bundles of lavender hung in a closet or added to a sweater drawer add a fresh scent and help keep moths away. Bay leaves and dried orange or lemon slices will do the same thing.

There are also living gifts. A single hyacinth bulb in a forcing vase is nice. When it blooms the scent will remind them of spring. A bowl of pebbles with paperwhites makes a nice flowering gift. Of course, a less expensive option is the amaryllis bulbs left over from Christmas. If you start them early enough there will be a bloom stalk starting to grow and the recipient will have the enjoyment of watching it finish growing and blooming in the weeks to come. Always check your local florist or greenhouse. They usually have something relatively inexpensive and unique. I shy away from the standard flowering azalea, cyclamens, or miniature rose plants available this time of year. Orchids and earth stars make longer-lasting gifts that seem to thrive with my friends who have less than green thumbs.

Gifts from the Garden: Don’t forget roses

Hopefully, these ideas will have sparked your own creativity to think outside the traditional roses and chocolate box. Of course, sugar-free chocolates are always welcome in my home, and I have been known to deflower the roses if they are a color that I don’t have in my own garden. Off with there heads and into the starter mix with a mason jar over it; new rose plants here we come! That is how I cultivated my favorite coral-colored roses that now grow in my garden. Happy Valentine’s Day and be sure to show your special someone how you feel with gifts of love from your garden!

More Valentine’s Day Recipes & Sugar-Free Holiday Options items.