Christmas giveaway winners!

As of 11pm EST 10 December 2017 (phew) this giveaway is closed. 

Thank you for your comments! They make wonderful reading and give me a real sense of good lives being lived, across the US, as well as very close to home.

The winners have been chosen by random number generator.

And the winner of the ten gifts is...

Jo, from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Congratulations!

The four runners up who will receive a copy of Toast and Jam are:

EmmyG from Flushing, NY
Patricia Forsyth, from the Hill Country of Texas
Sevans10, from outside Pittsburg, PA
Anita K, Jackson Heights, Queens

Please email me so that we can arrange for your gifts to reach you.

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Christmas could come early. I am so excited to share this giveaway with you.

For Gardenista I compiled my Gift Guide for Botanically Minded Cooks and Mixologists. It's a personal selection of my favorite things -  things that have made me happy, and that I think would be lovely gifts for you or for the cooks and cocktail lovers in your life. They range from lime trees to purple potatoes, and from books to beach plum gin.

Every item on that list can be won here by one lucky commenter. (I contacted everyone on the list and they each generously offered to be part of this giveaway.)

The monetary value is just under $500, before shipping, and shipping will be covered, so no need to worry about that, either. You can keep them all, or have them sent to friends. There is even a consolation prize for three runners up: a copy of Toast and Jam, provided by Roost Books.

The giveaway is open to US residents only (for shipping reasons). To enter, please leave a comment below telling us: 1. Where you live, garden, cook and shake up drinks. The deadline for the giveaway is Sunday, 10 December, 11PM EST.

Here are the details:

1. Any size tree from Lemon Citrus Tree.

I bought my beloved Thai limes (now overwintering in our bedroom windows, first picture) from LemonCitrusTree.com. Carol Kim, the new owner, is generously offering a choice of any tree you like on the site, as well as any size tree. It could be a Meyer lemon, a Thai lime like mine, a Key lime, Persian lime, a minneola,  an orange - there are lots of citrus choices. There also avocados, pomegranates, loquats and figs. And olives! All my favorite things. Go over and have a look.

Important: Not all states may receive citrus trees, and Lemon Citrus Tree spells that out on every tree's listing. If the winner (or receiver you designate) resides in one of those states, you may choose a non citrus.

2. I first met Cecil and Merl's delicious, small batch Apricot and Cherry bitters at a party for Remodelista, where I shook up - memorably - 500 cocktails. Their latest bitters batch is turmeric, with burdock. Right up my foraging alley. For this giveaway Cecil and Merl are offering the pictured combo of their handsome tote bag, Apricot and Cherry Bitters (both fantastic), and Made in Brooklyn, an inspirational catalog of the artisans and makers at the epicenter of Brooklyn's food and drink renaissance.

Bitters are not just for cocktails. Check out Cecil and Merl's recipes, too.

3. Two 1 oz packets of spicebush. My favourite spice, usually foraged, and native to the US east of those Rockies. If you can't forage it you can find it at Integration Acres. I will mail two packages to the winner.

If you like it, you can head over there and buy more. Include it in your holiday cookies and cakes.

4. Sansho, sumac, saffron and mahlab (above - cherry kernels) are my selection of spices from Raw Spice Bar, who contacted me some months ago about their spice offerings. I usually forage and grow these spices, but not everyone can. And I am including many recipes using sansho, sumac and mahlab in Forage, Harvest Feast, my new book. Having a good resource for readers who only forage online is fantastic. If you don't like my choice of four (but you should!), you may instead choose four other spices from their selection using a code that will be provided.

5.  Greenhook Ginsmiths make my favourite dry gin. And their beach plum (Prunus maritima) gin, above, is just plain exciting, especially for a forager. Our native fruits and herbs and spices are still massively underexplored or forgotten. These beach plums, ripe in very late summer, come from Long Island and are given a good, long soak in gin, with the addition of some sugar. A dash of this in your Champagne flute will make a very good Plum Royale...

6. Californian wildcrafter and foraging friend Pascal Baudar's New Wildcrafted Cuisine is stellar. It is packed with innovative techniques and original research, and has a wonderful list of edible Californian flora in its pages. The methods Pascal details can be applied to any region. His work is authentic and trend setting, and packed with integrity. His next book will be all about wild brews...

7. Emily Han's Wild Drinks and Cocktails is an elegant handbook on making just about anything botanical into something very good to drink. Her recipes are clear, simple and very appealing.

8. Stephen Orr's The New American Herbal is, for me, one of those classics that is not only collectable but hugely practical and informative. It is a fat, solid, beautifully photographed collection of hundreds of herbs, A - Z (some very unusual), and many ways to use them, including recipes. When he is not writing books, Stephen is the editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens. He will sign the copy that wings its way to a winner.

9. From ceramicist to rosarian to baker to award winning cookbook author, nothing Sarah Owens does is mediocre. Toast and Jam is her new book and it is filled with...toast, and jam! And tons more. Loads of bread, cracker, cake and scone recipes make up Part One, while everything that you can possibly put on top of them is Part Two. It's a beautiful, mouthwatering book. (You can read my 2014 story about Sarah in Edible Brooklyn.)

10. Ending on an earthy note: 5lbs of Purple Majesty potatoes could be yours from Grow Organic (shipped for spring planting). Even though I planted my potatoes way too early this year, and had them zapped by a hard freeze, they made it (there they are, above). A mound of mulch over the rows may have helped.

I planted Grow Organic's garlic just a few weeks ago, and my vegetable garden is amended with their crushed oyster shells (to raise its pH, which it did, admirably). Their packaging is how all packaging should be: plastic free.

There you have it.

What do you think?

Reminder: This giveaway is open to US residents only (for shipping reasons). To enter, please leave a comment below telling us: 1. Where you live, garden, cook and shake up drinks.

The winner and runners up will be chosen at random and announced on Monday the 12th of December, here. Please check back, then.