You’ll need:

A ridiculous amount of cork

A strong 2-1/2″ embroidery needle

Ribbon or embroidery thread (any color!)   The thread or ribbon will be as long as you’d like your garland.

Paint if you would like to paint a few corks to disperse among the regular corks.

Putting the needle through a cork is a challenge. It’s funny because I could look at the wine maker’s name on the cork and say, “Hey, I remember this wine. It was expensive.” That expensive wine cork was typically very dense and super hard to get through. The cheaper wines usually had corks where the needle went through easily. So, in this case, cheap wine wins.

Put the threaded needle in the cork and then flip it over to put your weight on the outside edges of the cork . Force the bottom of the needle down on a hard surface  (pointy side is up in the cork). Use a hard surface like a kitchen counter that won’t scratch – not your wood table! Be careful, you don’t want to impale yourself. This is not an activity that you want to be watching T.V., or get distracted. This is why cork garland making is not for kids either.

I do recommend putting the hole through as I did in the picture. If you try and go end-to-end, you’ll break your wrist. This project is not for the weak!

The end result is very cool and well worth the effort. Remember you only need to make enough garland to wrap around the visual parts of your Christmas tree. Why make garland for ‘behind the tree’. Right?

Alternative ways of linking:

If you really want end to end links, you could use metal eye-hooks. Screw an eye-hook in each end and then you can attached the metal loops with metal rings, ribbon, whatever. This is probably the easiest pay to make an end-to-end chain, however I didn’t want metal on mine.

I’ve downloaded the #FreshSummit app and am marking off booths I wish to visit. Some stops of interest (and I’m adding many more):

Hurst Berry Farm – HBF International LLC, booth #1048 – A big thank you to them for inviting me to the Fresh Summit. They grow delicious berries (U.S. & International) and produce those fun little Kiwi Berries that I recently wrote about.

LotPath  – They are tweeting about giving away free Refractometers. Why would a blogger need a refractometer? And, what the heck is a Refractometer? A refractometer is an instrument for measuring a refractive index. What? Ok, let’s delve further. Without a refractometer, your beer and wine would taste pretty bad. A refractometer is an essential piece of test equipment used to determine the sugar content in a liquid, for example beer wort. You’ll often see vintners out in the field with a refractometer. Winemakers know there is a direct correlation between the amount of sugar present and the ability to make wine. This portable instrument (it’ll fit in your pocket) allows the winemaker to assess the ripeness of fruit by measuring Brix in the field or vineyard so he or she can decide the proper harvest time depending upon the readings taken.  So, again – why does a blogger need one? My husband brews beer and it would be useful. Secondly, next time I go wine tasting at one of the many wonderful wineries in California, I want to run out to the vineyard, whip this puppy out and do a Brix reading. It will most certainly freak everyone out.

LotPath creates software for capturing fresh produce inspections. My inner tech geek is dancing around my foodie persona right now. So, let’s say you are out in the field and want to track some real time data about the crops. Their app shares product quality data and photos as it goes from packing thru shipping.

Frieda’s Produce, booth #2830 – They will have some of the weird fruits I adore. I remember being on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and throwing my shoe at a Jack Fruit tree trying to knock one down. I’m so happy I don’t have to throw a shoe this time – I can just go sample some of my tropical favs. They will also have some weird ones I haven’t yet tried! #fearnofruit

Cal Poly SLO Ag Dept – Finally, they won’t have a booth, but the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science (CAFES)team  will be circulating and I hope to run into them as my husband and I are both Alumni. I received my B.S. in Dietetics ‘92 at Poly and it’s so exciting to see how much they have grown since then. For starters, they make wine now. I think of all those times when we drank cheap light beer and now these fancy pants Poly kids are now making wine. Clearly this is where my daughter will (also) be going to school. She has no choice.

If you have something creative-special-weird for me to see at the Fresh Summit, please hit me up so I may add your booth to my visit list.    info@boredmom.com

Can’t wait! #FreshSummit   

@HurstsBerryFarm @LotPath #CalPoly #FreshSummit