An Updated Gardener’s Guide to Thanksgiving Day Dinner Conversations

I’ve posted advice before about what gardeners should talk about on Thanksgiving, most recently in 2015… but… wait. What? 2015 isn’t recently? That was eight years ago?

Really? That’s not the kind of math I do as I get older.

Anyway, here’s an updated guide to interject a little gardening talk around the Thanksgiving Day dinner table.

1. Start off casually. You don’t want to scare people with your gardening knowledge. So, as you pile a big mess of the green bean casserole onto your plate, give an update on how your green bean harvest was this past year, even if the green beans in the casserole are French-style canned green beans. (Isn’t that the only kind to use in the casserole?) And don’t forget to ask others about their green bean harvests!
2. Warm them up a bit more with talk of sage and herbs! Surely the dressing includes sage as an ingredient? If so, you have an excellent excuse for talking about how to grow sage or really any herb. Everyone will be fascinated and no one has to know you only grew sage and never got around to harvesting any.
3. Time to really impress them now! If your meal includes both sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, you can fall back on an “oldie but goodie discussion” about how they aren’t even in the same plant family! You can pontificate about how sweet potatoes are more closely related to morning glories and potatoes are kin to tomatoes. Gosh, that’s a fun topic!
4. Now, soften things up a bit, especially if kids are around. Ask if anyone has ever heard of the Thanksgiving Thumper. No, it’s not a book—but who knows, maybe it will be someday? Then toss in a mention of your dried flower centerpiece, which you made out of Legos! Yes, Legos! The young ones will be super impressed.
5. Finally, finish with a flourish. Just as everyone is starting to eat their pumpkin pie, you can talk about how there’s a new record for the world’s biggest pumpkin. Impress everyone with facts about the price for the one seed used to grow that pumpkin ($600) and how much it weighed (2,794 pounds), etc. Then, the icing on the cake, the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie, will be your little joke about how if you don’t stop eating all the desserts, you might weigh that much by the end of the day.

And of course, before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner, don’t forgive to give lots of thanks, for the food, your family, your friends, and of course, your garden!

I hope this was helpful!

Happy Thanksgiving!