Create a Thanksgiving centrepiece by using what is traditionally associated with Thanksgiving - the harvest. Beets, apples, tomatoes and red cabbage make this modern take on a cornucopia a stunning focal point for the centre of your Thanksgiving table.
It's beautiful. It's shockingly beautiful. It is made entirely out of produce. If grocery stores displayed their food like this it would be a disaster. People would come in and faint at the beauty before they even bought any groceries. Although smelling salt sales would go up. If the year was 1872.
Anyone can do a vegetable arrangement for the centre of their table, you don't have to garden or have 3 matching zinc pedestals ... you could do it on a platter. Or a bowl. Or basket. You get the idea, because you're quick like that. I will have a few tips for you in a minute though that are important to the success of your faint-worthy vegetable centrepiece.
I actually bought these 3 zinc pedestals at a local kitchen store, but they're a popular item that a LOT of independently owned kitchen stores carry across North America. I found you something similar on Amazon, a 3 tiered galvanized cupcake stand, that would work great and costs less than my 3 stands totalled.
Which brings me to Tip #1.
Don't do shiny. Whatever you use as your stand or vessel should be dull looking. When you think vegetable harvest and Thanksgiving you don't think sparkle and crystal and glittery. You think rustic and tarnished and worn. The vegetable harvest at the end of the year is a lot of hard, dirty work and that's kind of what your centrepiece should look like. Not hard and dirty like a lady of the evening. Hard and dirty like an old rusted combine.
When I first decided to do something of a modern day cornucopia for my Thanksgiving table this year I was convinced I was going to do it out of tomato leaves. A big, long, runner of tomatoes leaves with sage and rosemary and all the herbs used in stuffing. When you ran your hands over it it would SMELL LIKE THANKSGIVING DINNER!!! A few vegetables here and there and it would be complete. It would most definitely make people gasp. So I did a practice run with tomatoes leaves and herbs from my garden and people DID gasp. Pink Tool Belt specifically. We both inhaled sharply at the sheer hideousness of it. It was. Wrong.
So I rethought my plan and came up with the idea of doing a 3 tiered arrangement of all vegetables on a cake stands.
My first run at it produced something not quite as hideous as the great tomato leaf runner, but not the eyeball popping extravaganza of beauty I'd envisioned either.
At this point I was really beginning to question my future in the highly competitive world of vegetable floral design.
The first time I tried this I used all of the different vegetables from my garden. Yellow Potatoes, leeks, orange carrots, bright red tomatoes, jalapeño peppers ... The result was something that would never make anyone, save for the most delicate of creatures, faint. Which brings me to Tip #2.
Go monochromatic. And DARK. The dark red, Burgundy, green and purple in the final version of my Thanksgiving centrepiece are what make it work. It all blends and has the same tones throughout. The dark colours give it a moodiness you just can't get with lighter colours or a lot of different colours.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
It looks perfectly great without any flowers, but I wanted to add something flowery to it for one main reason. Movement. When you have trailing or winding flowers it brings the arrangement to life because it gives it the illusion of movement. Not like it's going to walk away but like it's windblown.
And guess what? Those flowers are actually food as well. Amaranth. It's a grain.
And that's really all you need to know to make pretty much anyone faint at the sight of your Thanksgiving centrepiece this year. Of course the best part about it is there's no waste. Not of money or materials. You're decorating with food that, once Thanksgiving is over, you can eat. And if you want to store the beets and carrots you used in your arrangement do it like this.
To take some of the guesswork out of it for you while out picking vegetables or rolling around the grocery store here's a list of all the produce I used.
Thanksgiving Vegetable Arrangement Materials.
Red beets - $1.88 for 10 pounds on sale. So these were my filler. The things I used the most of.
Plums - Again, got them on sale and they're a great colour
Red potatoes - garden
Avocados
Local apples
Tomatoes - garden
Purple cauliflower - store
Purple carrots - garden
Red Cabbage - garden
Black Futsu Squash - garden (seeds from Cubits)
Glass Gem corn - garden
Flowers - Green & Red Amaranth from La Primavera Farms at local market
Ornamental cabbage
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers. Enjoy your roast turkeys, stuffing, gravy laden mashed potatoes and sweet, delicious pumpkin pie topped with dollops of luscious whipped cream this weekend. And to my American readers ... sucks to be you.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Lianne Raymond
Beautiful. You may have another career path here - have you seen how much Paulette Tavormina photos sell for? http://www.paulettetavormina.com
Karen
Holy crap! Those photos are insanely good! Everything about them is astonishing! Yeah. Um .... I'm not quite there yet, lol. ~ karen!
Lynn
Have to say you out did your self Karen , an yes I know I am late to the party . My excuse my Appendix ruptured on Wednesday an I just got released . I was so looking forward to thanksgiving, always do I agree best holiday ever. This year I have to stay home to sore to be any company an just to much fabulous food I can not touch as of restrictions to diet. Really bad timing to have a tummy blowout . Just wanted to say wow loved your center piece.
Barbie
Great idea! I love it! I use amaranthus in almost all my arrangements ....think I may try to grow it next year in the garden. Also, like you...I want to use a part of my garden simply for "cut" flowers. As always thanks for the good ideas! Happy Thanksgiving.
Nancy Blue Moon
Wow Karen...sorry I'm late but I had to tell you how gorgeous this is...everyone is right...It looks like an old painting...You may have outdone last years centerpiece...I know you are busy today preparing for tomorrow so I will say..Happy Thanksgiving to you and you your wonderful family...and...don't eat the centerpiece....
Karen
Thanks Nancy! And you're too late. I already ate an avocado. I'm having dinner on Monday which means tomorrow is cleaning, table setting and food prep day. I can't wait. :) ~ karen!
peg
BEAUTIFUL! thanks for sharing.
Karen
Thanks Peg! I'm pretty happy with it. ~ karen!
Lesley Ann
Stunning. Happy thanksgiving!
Ann Brookens
This is an absolutely gorgeous centerpiece! What are the fat caterpillar-y flowers trailing off the bottom? I noticed them in last year's centerpiece, as well., and your post said you grew them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians!
Bellygrrl
Beautiful picture - love the spill of light from the side and the soft shine on the plums. Artsy-fartsy!
Mia
Also remind everyone to revisit the centerpiece from last year's Thanksgiving; it too was a beautiful work of art!
Karen
True! My sister absolutely loved that arrangement. She still talks about it, lol! https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/thanksgiving-2014-the-rustic-table/ ~ karen
Karol
Seems like everyone should have a Thanksgiving Day, just because we all have things to be thankful for. I'm very thankful for the smile I get 3 times a week from this blog.
Sara
http://amzn.to/1JXvDgU
This is also a good galvanized stand.
Kathy
Holding ice pack on forehead while I type
Water dripping onto laptop
Fainted at kitchen table
I can't thank you enough for your great writing and wonderful work!
Sending lots of love and best wishes for Thanksgiving
Teddee Grace
Love it! A Great Masters still life. The tips were right on. You've been Pinned to my Autumn, Thanksgiving and Floral Design Pinterest pages.
Sara
Did you not take any pictures of the failures? I am dying to know what at tomato leaf runner looks like!
Karen
I did! But it looks better in the photos than real life. In fact it doesn't look nearly as hideous in a photo. It actually looks kindda good. Well, not good, but passable. That's why I didn't include the photo because it really didn't show how gross it looked. ~ karen!
Karin
wow..... *swoon* just wow, that is the most beautiful thing i've ever seen on your blog. i'm blown away. i'm just gonna stare at it for the rest of the day. this is utter harmonious perfection. you are IT. enjoy gobblefest.
Ev Wilcox
Well, Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians! Was wondering, are you celebrating a pseudo "Feast with Natives" and pilgrims, etc? Do the children have the hats with buckles, etc? I think a general feast of produce and maybe a turkey would make more sense, at least for us in America, and call it Harvest Day or something! I doubt if any of our Native Americans feel like celebrating the day though. How about the Native Canadians? Anyway, I imagine your home will be charming and beautiful and the food wonderful! Have a great time!
Jan in Waterdown
Nope . . . pilgrims didn't come to Canada!! So, no hats, no buckles, just food, glorious food!
Linda
Truly a beautiful center piece!! Happy Thanksgiving from Illinois to you.
Ann Brookens
Linda, I'm from Lincoln, Illinois, myself! It's nice to know there is another Karen fan instate!
Linda
Ha Ann you are just a hop and a skip away from me, I'm in McLean. I love Karen's blog. Nice to know we are both on Karen followers.
Melissa in NC
I added your faint worthy Thanksgiving centerpiece photo to my screensaver photos. Yes, I did. It's in the mix with my sacred pics of my Grandson, and pics from adventures in Italy, France and Switzerland.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.
Sarah @ onesuchlife
This is gorgeous. I'm so bad at centerpieces and table setting. You make it look so easy!
Ruth
I have never decorated with food... Then again, we have no seasons to decorate for.
At this point, could we just call #drought2015 a season and be done with it? Maybe decorate with bare tables and empty plates.... no, we can do cake. That's it. We'll decorate with cake... not carrot cake, since local carrots are non-existent and the imported stuff tried and fails at 'carrot-ness'. Orange cake is off-limits too since all citrus trees have become shadows of their former selves.
Plain cake it is. We'll admire your handiwork... and go decorate with cake. Done. :D
Ruth
**tries