The Best Gifts for Homesteaders, Gardeners, and Cooks

Gifts for Gardeners

You might not be thinking about gifting gardening items if the holidays are cold where you live, but trust us – any gardener would be ecstatic to receive any of these items at any time of year.

• Composter: Gift your gardener friend a composter so they can go green and give their crops a nice fertilization, too! You may want to combo up an outdoor composter with an indoor compost pail with carbon filter for scraps.
• Grow lights: Help your favorite gardener get started growing from seed with a grow light setup!
• Gardening gloves: We firmly believe you can never have too many gardening gloves as we go through these a lot.
• Pots: Oftentimes we don't buy ourselves nice pots, so it would be a treat to receive an attractive one like this as a gift. Consider whether your gardener keeps indoor houseplants or just gardens outside, and buy a pot that is appropriate for the situation and weather. 
• Fruit tree or berry bushes: Does your gift recipient have some land and want to grow their own fruit? A fruit tree or berry bush is the gift that keeps on giving!

Gifts for Bakers

Anyone who is really into baking (as we are) will tell you there is no such thing as too many baking gadgets. But for this one, we wanted to think a little off-the-wall with the gifts as most serious bakers have conventional tools (e.g. baking sheets, cooling racks, etc.). So for some fun baking ideas your recipient may not already own, consider the following:

• Cast iron combo cooker: If your gift recipient wants to get into sourdough bread baking, this is the perfect tool. Loaves baked in an enclosed vessel like this achieve super crispy crusts.
• Specialty pastry molds: If your giftee is more into sweet than savory baking, why not gift them some fancy molds for patisserie? One of our favorite pastries is canele, and the best ones are made in these beautiful copper molds.
• Silicone gloves: Jeremy bought me silicone baking gloves as a novelty gift one Christmas, and they have since become one of my favorite must-have kitchen accessories. These beat conventional oven mitts any day!
• Specialty flours: For the baker who has everything, try gifting some specialty flours. Jeremy gifted me some amazing emmer, spelt, einkorn, and other flours a few years ago and it was such a thoughtful gift that lasted all year!
• Tartine: This was my gateway bread cookbook, the one that got me hooked on the sourdough bread-baking lifestyle. It's a visually stunning book with incredibly detailed descriptions of the technique, plus lots of other recipes that utilize bread (like ideas for toast toppings, sandwiches, and more).
• Flour Water Salt Yeast: This cookbook feels more technical than Tartine- it appeals to the engineers in us. This is a great book for understanding how ratios, dough temperature, and rise time affect the final outcome. Plus, this book has the recipe for our all time favorite pizza dough!

Gifts for Cooks

Much like for home bakers, if your gift recipient is seriously into cooking, odds are good they have some of the most commonly used tools out there. So we go a little offbeat with our recommendations here for items that are a real treat:

• Sous vide immersion circulator: I bought one of these for Jeremy as a Christmas present several years ago, sort of on a whim, and it has gained prominence as one of our most-used kitchen tools. Perfectly cooked steaks, fish, chicken, veggies, and more are all easily within reach with a sous vide. There are many great sous vide accessories you may want to check out, too!
• Ooni Koda: Have a bit of budget and want to surprise your favorite pizza fan? You can't go wrong with an Ooni Koda pizza oven. We love our 16″ gas-powered Ooni!
• High-quality wok: Nothing beats upgrading to a high-end wok. This is one of our most used kitchen items next to our cast iron. Don't forget some great wok accessories, too!
• Instant read thermometer: I received an instant-read thermometer as a Christmas gift one year, and I honestly wonder how I functioned without one before it. It takes the guesswork out of cooking meats, and it's also super handy for baking.
• Immersion blender: Another fun kitchen gadget we use all the time is an immersion blender. This was a big game changer for us and allowed us to ditch our conventional blender completely.
• The Flavor Bible or What to Drink With What You Eat: If your giftee likes to experiment with flavors in the kitchen, either of these books are game changers. The former book lists ingredients and then flavor combinations that coordinate with that ingredient, while the latter book is all about wine and beer pairings for different ingredients.

Gifts for Coffee Lovers

Have a coffee addict on your gift list this year? There are several amazing options that will bring them incredible joy.

• Bonavita kettle: Being able to set a precise temperature is key for brewing coffee manually. This kettle has served us reliably for years.
• Escali scale: A scale is indispensable for those just getting in to manual coffee brewing at home. We like this brand as it has taken a beating from us over the years and is still going strong.
• Grinder: If your giftee wants to take their coffee grinding to the next level, consider getting them a burr grinder like the Baratza Encore. Burr grinders enable a more consistent grind size and don't heat up the beans like blade grinders do, allowing for better flavors in the cup.
• Coffee Roaster: For the coffee geek who has everything, why not get them a coffee roaster? There are numerous options available nowadays for home roasters, but we are partial to the FreshRoast brand for the quality vs. price point. Don't forget some green coffee beans to get them started!
• Specialty coffee cups: You can never have too many specialty coffee cups. Some of our favorite brands are Acme and notNeutral.

Gifts for the Home Preserver

Home preservation can take on an array of meanings from dehydrating to canning. So in this one, we wanted to run the spectrum with a number of preservation-based gifts!

• Dehydrator: If your giftee gardens or has access to excess produce, a dehydrator is great for preserving the summer surplus. It's also useful for things other than dehydrating (yogurt and amazake making, to name a few) since it can hold a constant elevated temperature.
• Canning jars and canning tool kit: For those just getting in to home canning, there are a few specialty tools needed like jar lifters, magnetic lid snatchers, and head space rulers. And of course, any home canner would always welcome more canning jars.
• Cookbooks: It's crucial to use tested recipes when canning at home for food safety reasons, so good cookbooks are essential. For a very traditional, comprehensive book check out the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. For a more modern take with some elevated recipes (like mango habanero wing sauce and red wine fig jam) try The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving.
• Pressure canner: While jams and jellies can safely be canned in a large pot in a water bath, things like vegetables and stocks must be canned under pressure. Go big or go home- we love our Presto 23 qt canner.

Gifts for Beekeepers

Jeremy started getting into keeping bees lately, and there is no shortage of products he can use to get the most out of his hives. Apart from beehives and the bees themselves, most of the tools and accessories used in this hobby came to him as a gift. A few suggestions for your favorite beekeeper can include the following:

• A beekeeping course: Do you know someone who is considering getting into beekeeping but hasn't committed yet? A course like those from the PSU Extension can be a great option. Jeremy received the Beekeeping 101 course as a gift before getting into the hobby and felt like it was a great resource.
• A new bee suit or high-quality gloves: If you have a beginner beekeeper in your midst, they'll need a great bee suit and high-quality bee gloves to get started.
• Bee tool kit: Much like a suit, a complete toolkit is an absolute must for beekeepers who are just getting started.
• A honey extractor: On the premium side, a honey extractor is a great option for those with many established hives who want to harvest their honey a bit easier. Note: you may need to confirm that your chosen extractor can hold their super frame sizes- these come in deep, medium, and shallow.
• Mead-making kits: If you have an established beekeeper, why not get them a mead-making kit to transform their honey into liquid, fermented gold?
• The Lives of Bees: While there are several great bee books out there, The Lives of Bees is a wonderful read for all those who are into this hobby.

Looking for more beekeeping accessories? Check out the options at Galena Farms and use the code HIPSTERHOMESTEADERS at checkout to take at least 5% off your order!

Gifts for Fermenters

Is your gift recipient getting into fermentation, perhaps for quick pickles, koji, or beer? There are a number of great gift options for them, too!

• Specialty cultures for fermentation: If your giftee is adventurous and loves fermentation, why not gift them some unique cultures from Cultures for Health? They've got cultures to make all kinds of things like cheese, yogurt, kombucha, tempeh, and more.
• Miso, Tempeh, Natto: Speaking of weird ferments, this book is what really started our journey into funky fermentation. It's such a practical, approachable resource with great recipes for the ferments themselves plus recipes for cooking with them.
• The Art of Fermentation: Sandor Katz is one of the fathers of the modern fermentation movement, and this book belongs on the shelf of any home fermenter. Although there aren't many strict recipes here, there is a wealth of knowledge on fermentation history around the world and rough guidelines for fermenting pretty much anything you can think of.
• Fermentation vessels: If your geeky friend has really gone down the fermentation rabbit hole, chances are they will always welcome more vessels in which to ferment things. A beautiful ceramic crock makes a great gift and Jeremy even bought me a kioke one year!
• Beer brewing equipment: If your favorite fermenter is looking to get into brewing beer or wine but doesn't have the equipment yet, a brewing kit would be a great gift idea, too!

Have you received the perfect gift for your home or garden? Comment below to share what it was and why you like it!