>THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Pie Pumpkin—either “Winter Luxury Pie”, “New England Pie”, or “Rouge Vif d’Etampes”
• “French Fingerling” Potatoes
• Carrots
• Beets
• Collard Greens
• Mustard Greens
• Leeks
COMING SOON:
Brussels Sprouts
Shallots
Mizuna
Parsley
Pears
Thanksgiving is next week. The turkeys that we’ve raised since the beginning of June are going to the butcher Thursday, and our new kitchen has been chosen to host our extended family for Thanksgiving. The nice thing about hosting is that you get to choose what to eat and how complicated to make it (or keep it from becoming).
NOTE: We are NOT providing a double share this year for the holiday as we have in previous years. We will be harvesting a normal amount for all the weeks in November. Please do not take double this week or next week, just what we have indicated.
I like a simple Thanksgiving, but there are a few things that I feel are necessary to complete the meal:
1. A great turkey
2. Homemade pumpkin pie, with enough to have for breakfast the next day
3. Cranberry sauce made from cranberries, sugar, and water. Not a can. (I like canned, but not for Thanksgiving.)
4. Gravy made from the great turkey. I love gravy on everything.
My sister asked if everyone should contribute money to buy the food. But why? The only things I need to buy are cranberries, bread (for the stuffing), and sweet potatoes. And butter, for the pie crust. (I have home-made butter in the freezer, but it takes so much to make pie crust, I hate to put it in there. It deserves to be on top of something, it’s so good.)
Here’s my Thanksgiving menu:
• One Perfect Turkey, with simple herb stuffing. No sausage, oysters, or nuts.
• Turkey Gravy
• Orange sweet potatoes, caramelized with butter and orange slices
• Mashed “Yukon Gold” potatoes, or maybe “German Butterball”, from the back of the farm
• Roasted roots (carrots, beets, celeriac, and fennel) from the middle of the farm
• Coleslaw, with cabbage from the north of the farm
• Molasses Pumpkin Pies, made with our own pumpkin
• Cranberry Sauce
• Sweet Potato Biscuits
I’m going to get started Monday, and the enormous double-oven, six-burner, gas range that came with our house will be heating up our house all week in preparation for the turkey finale Thursday morning.
You can find recipes for pumpkin pie on the “How To Eat It” list in the sidebar. There are lots of other recipes there too, and if you can’t find what you are looking for, Google it! There are so many good recipes online. Try Martha Stewart or Epicurious, or Saveur.
Whistling Train Farm 