Media Platforms Design Team
5:00 A.M. I wake up and take my three dogs—Francesca, Sharkey, and Genghis Khan—out into the courtyard. They write their own blog about goings-on around the farm, parties, and animal friends, so they have to wake up early too. I check my e-mails and make sure my own blog posts are online.
6:00 A.M. I walk through my four greenhouses to check their condition. I feel responsible for these plants—it's like seeing that the children are fed and dressed. Right now my peonies are giving me the most enjoyment. I have one garden with 770 peony plants, and they're all in full bloom.
6:30 A.M. My trainer arrives, and we do a combination of aerobic exercise—maybe a mile and a half on the treadmill or StairMaster—then weights, stretching, a little yoga.
7:30 A.M. I drink my daily green juice, made with vegetables from my greenhouse and gardens. It's usually a blend of cucumber, ginger, spinach, celery, and now mint. Maybe I'll throw in a piece of papaya, watermelon, half a pear, or an orange with the peel on.
7:45 A.M. I live on a farm outside New York, so I often have to pack extra clothes for appearances or evening events. My go-to pieces are from Lanvin, Hermès, Céline, and Loro Piana. A lot of TV people buy more than one of an item, in case they spot or stain it, but I don't like buying duplicates—it's wasteful.
8:00 A.M. My big luxury is my driver, who gets me into the city in about an hour. I read all my newspapers, magazines, and memos, do the crosswords and the KenKen, and take phone interviews. My Suburban is full coming and going. On the way out of the city at night, I take home tubs of edible compost from our office kitchens as chicken food, and I might bring back a big bowl of a couple of hundred eggs. I pack coolers of organic vegetables for my two grandchildren, flowers, and anything people ask to borrow. I could travel much more lightly if I took the train.
9:00 A.M. I start responding to several hundred e-mails as soon as I arrive at the office. I have a BlackBerry phone, a BlackBerry for e-mails, an iPhone, and two iPads, for e-mails and reading.
10:30 A.M. My executives get together at our daily operations meeting. We're putting a lot of effort into our American Made initiative; last year we honored the site Artsy, Vermont cheesemakers, and the furniture-maker Sawkille.
12:00 P.M. I record my radio show, and my staff makes me a nice lunch in the kitchen, usually fish—whatever's freshest and line-caught—and a salad. I drink water and herbal tea, a blend of catnip, elderberry, and horehound.
3:00 P.M. I might have pickup shoots for my TV shows. Last week we had two days to record 13 segments for Martha Bakes, so I baked blueberry coffee cakes, chocolate-rum roulade, and mocha custards. I taste everything we make; it's an occupational hazard.
4:30 P.M. I have merchandise meetings daily. I looked at pet clothes for Spring 2014—our dog clothing sells like hotcakes. My dogs test every product.
6:30 P.M. I adore summer entertaining. For a dinner party at the farm, I might prepare homemade fettuccine with porcini mushrooms, soft-shell crabs, spinach from the garden, and lemon tarts with fraises des bois for dessert. I do paellas on a grill at my East Hampton house, and lobster when I'm up in Maine; I have a giant lobster cooker where you can cook hundreds at a time. I like good wine, but a glass is plenty.
10:30 P.M. I write my memos and watch the comedians, switching between Leno, Letterman, Conan, Fallon, and Kimmel. I have cotton or flannel sheets, depending on the weather. They have to be ironed, and I get my bed changed nearly every day. That's another major luxury.
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