Mother’s Day is this Sunday. How are you planning to make the moms in your life know how special they are to you?
While you may be tempted to splurge on an indulgent gift, some of the gifts busy moms most wish for are the gift of time. That includes both time to themselves and time 1:1 with members of the fam. Read on for some ideas for how to make this Mother's Day special and sustainable.
Make Mom a Local, Seasonal Brunch
Whether or not it's breakfast-in-bed or brunch on the patio, making mom her favorite brunch treats is always a welcome Mother's Day celebration. Here are a few menu plans that are sure to be a hit.
Breakfast In Bed
A deluxe breakfast in bed always looks adorable on TV and in magazine ads. But spending the day doing laundry afteyr your Frenchie jumps on the bed and knocks over your breakfast tray isn't quite the relaxing Sunday your mom hopes for. So it's important to keep this breakfast plan simple and relatively mess-free. Our top picks:
- Coffee, tea, or juice in a no-spill mug
- Pastries or muffins served on a sturdy small plate
- A seasonal smoothie with fresh berries
Make these treats yourself, or pick them up from your local favorite restaurants. In San Francisco, some of our favorite places include The Plant Cafe Organic, Wildseed, Jane, and Tartine.
Brunch with the Family
For the mom for whom brunch is a way of life, make the meal a leisurely affair. Here are some can't miss special occasion brunch dishes:
- Freshly squeezed citrus juice
- Coffee from a local roastery like Blue Bottle, Ritual or Sightglass
- Bowls of local strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or apple slices
- Belgian waffles. Consider making them with cheese, giving them a paleo protein boost, or adding in chocolate chips to make them a little bit extra.
- Oven-baked french toast
- Crustless quiche or frittata with spring veggies like asparagus and peas, paired with Sonoma County goat cheese
Get recipes and shopping lists for your Mother's Day brunch meal plan by logging into our free meal planning tool Jupiter Lite or your Jupiter account.
Brunch-in-a-Box
Although we can't necessarily be with our moms in person this year, as COVID-related travel restrictions remain, that doesn't mean we can't celebrate them with brunch. Goldbelly helps small artisanal food producers, specialty restaurants, and other food industry small businesses market and ship their food direct to consumers. You can ship mom sweet or savory San Francisco treats fromThe Slanted Door, Boudin, Brenda's French Soul Food, Craftsman & Wolves, and more.
Skip the Flowers and Gift a Plant Instead
While many moms love the gift of freshly cut flowers, a live plant gift is a more sustainable option that smells just as sweet.
- Stop by a local nursery like Clement Nursery, Flowercraft Garden Center, or SF Plants and find the ideal indoor or outdoor plant that will thrive in your mom's microclimate.
- Speaking of microclimates, did you know there’s a tomato plant that’d designed specifically for our foggy weather? That’s right, you can get San Francisco Fog heirloom tomato seeds if you can’t find some as plant starters at your local nursery.
- Short on space, or looking for a way to grow your own food indoors? Consider a vertical garden farmstand from Lettuce Grow.
Sign Up for a Sustainable Cooking Class
We had a blast hosting our recent sustainable spring meal prep class with Empowered Kitchen, and highly recommend an online cooking class as a fun activity to do with your mom and even the rest of the extended family. Whether your mom is gluten-free, vegan, or a locavore, one of these virtual cooking class purveyors are sure to be a fun family activity:
- 18 Reasons, the SF nonprofit, has taken its popular cooking classes online. Classes range from cocktails to canning to global culinary traditions.
- Sustainable Solano, the Benicia-based mostly volunteer nonprofit, has an eclectic selection of classes that are free to attend but with a donation to continue their sustainable food work in Benicia and the surrounding communities appreciated.
- Forks Over Knives has applied their plant-based eating mission to a 90-day online cooking course promising to share 100+ recipes and cooking techniques.
- Slow Food USA envisions a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet. They are putting this into action with their free online cooking classes, with a focus on pasta for May.
Even More Sustainable Mother's Day Gift Ideas
Still looking for a little something extra for mom? Try one of these ideas for a gift that makes sustainable living a little bit easier (and more fun):
- Pick up one of these cookbooks that help prevent food waste, as recommended by Chowhound
- Put together a gift box of eco-friendly cooking and kitchenware from Food 52
- Send her a zero-waste starter kit from The Wild Minimalist
- Upgrade her compost game with an OXO compost bin that sits on the kitchen countertop but locks in odors to make capturing food scraps effortless
No matter how you choose to celebrate this Mother's Day, we hope you have the opportunity to share it with the moms who've made a special impact on your lives, even if it's doing so virtually.
Happy Mother's Day!
