The Gift that Keeps on Giving: A Guide to Giving Homemade Goods
Editor’s note: This post is part of NatureBridge’s 12 Days, 12 Ways countdown, in which we are highlighting ideas and practices for celebrating a more sustainable holiday season. Courtney Lane is a guest blogger and an Environmental Science Educator and Evening Manager at NatureBridge Yosemite.
When I was growing up, my family spent the Saturday before Christmas every year putting together bags of fruit for the congregation of our church. We would create an assembly line to put together bags filled with apples, oranges, baked goods and an assortment of candy. As the years have gone on, I have really enjoyed exploring and having the opportunity to share homemade and baked goods with my loved ones over the holiday season.
One of my favorite gifts to give is a loaf of sourdough bread along with a jar of sourdough starter. Giving the gift of a sourdough starter creates a window of opportunity for folks to make their own bread, practice new recipes and also share something they’ve created with the people they care about. Sourdough starter can be a low waste and often zero cost option for gift giving, and you can share your favorite recipes with the recipient as well.
Taking the opportunity to share the universal love language of food through favorite recipes, sourdough starters and homemade treats is a wonderful way to spread joy and knowledge and to share a recipe you love with the people you cherish.Courtney Lane, NatureBridge Environmental Science Educator and Evening Manager, Yosemite
Another low waste and low cost way to share homemade goods is writing up your favorite baked good recipe for cookies, brownies or other sweet treats and putting all the dry ingredients together in a jar. Tie a piece of string with the recipe and baking instructions attached to the jar and voila! All you need for these types of gifts are jars (I often save glass sauce jars throughout the year for this occasion!) and dry recipe ingredients such as flour, baking soda, sugar, baking powder, salt, etc.
Buying gifts for the holidays can often bring unnecessary stress and worries about spending money or not knowing what to get someone. Taking the opportunity to share the universal love language of food through favorite recipes, sourdough starters and homemade treats is a wonderful way to spread joy and knowledge and to share a recipe you love with the people you cherish.
Courtney Lane (she/they) is an Educator and Evening Manager at NatureBridge Yosemite. If Courtney is not out in the field with students or providing first aid care, she is usually out wandering around in the park with one of her many film cameras in hand, learning to play a new game or trying to identify the local flora and fauna.
Photo courtesy of Courtney Lane
Stories
2024 Student of the Year: Kai Diaz
At NatureBridge, we celebrate the stewards of today and foster the development of the stewards of tomorrow, working to inspire environmental stewardship in all our participants. Our goal is to motivate our students to make waves and be changemakers in their communities and for our planet.
Each year, NatureBridge honors a student who has demonstrated leadership, growth and a commitment to protecting our natural world as a result of their participation in a NatureBridge program. This year’s honoree will be recognized and will speak at An Evening Outside with NatureBridge on Thursday, May 16 at our Golden Gate campus.
We are thrilled to announce our 2024 Student of the Year: Kai Diaz.
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