Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I love this holiday—the connection and celebration between the farmers, eaters, and Providence.

Doing a local Thanksgiving in New England should be like fishing in a barrel since Thanksgiving was invented in New England as a way of celebrating the bounty. This year, I was only slightly tempted to send the men-folk out with their muskets for wild fowl and game.

This year’s menu was incredibly similar to last year’s menu because it’s a tradition!

Appetizers

• refrigerator pickled hot carrots and peppers. I made these several weeks ago with ingredients predominantly from Maple Bank Farm,  Riverbank Farm, and Cherry Grove Farm.
  
• sliced roasted beets and fennel bulb slices from the Yale Sustainable Food Project
  
• roasted red peppers, roasted on the grill at the end of the summer from sweet red peppers from Maple Bank Farm.
  
• assorted cheeses from Beaver Brook Farm: Pleasant Cow, Pleasant Son (sheep) and Fresh (soft) cheese and Tumbleweed from 5 Spoke Creamery.
  
• bread (Wave Hill Breads) and hot dipping oil, cayenne pepper from Cherry Grove Farm, dried here.
  

Soup

Chicken soup with bow-tie pasta and/or brown rice

• chicken carcasses and necks, from the freezer, saved over the year, all from Kandew Acres chickens and a capon.
• carrots from George Hall Farm
• celery from Barberry Hill Farm
• garlic from Holbrook Farm
• onions from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT
• parsnips from Waldingfield Farm
• parsley from Northfordy Farm

Main Course

• Roasted Turkey from Kandew Acres via Holbrook Farm
  
• Pan gravy: drippings from the turkey, flour from Wild Hive Farm,
• Cornbread stuffing:
  Using this cornbread recipe with corn meal and flour from Wild Hive Farm, eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, Newtown, CT, maple syrup from Bluestone Farm, milk from Foxfire, Mansfield Center, CT. (Oil and baking powder from the world.)
  Using this cornbread stuffing recipe, with butter and heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, onions from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, sage from the Yale Sustainable Food Project, more eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, and my own chicken stock.
  
• Fresh whole berry cranberry sauce with Ocean Spray cranberries, apple cider from Blue Jay Orchards and maple syrup from Bluestone Farm.
• Macoun applesauce: apples from Blue Jay Orchards, sauced and frozen by me.
• Smashed red potatoes. Potatoes from Maple Bank Farm, heavy cream from Trinity Dairy , Enfield, CT, butter from Ronnybrook Farm via Halas Market.
• Baked sweet potatoes (both orange and white) from George Hall Farm
  
• Roasted medley based on this roasted squash recipe: butternut and Delicata from Maple Bank Farm, and turnips from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT
• broccoli from Waldingfield Farm, garlic from Cherry Grove, oil from somewhere else.
  

Dessert

• Apple Crumb Pie: Northern Spy apples from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, flour from Wild Hive Farm, butter from Ronybrook Farm. Brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar, salt, nutmeg from away.
  
• Pumpkin Pie: pumpkins and eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, maple syrup from Bluestone Farm, heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT, butter from Ronnybrook Farm, and flour from Wild Hive Farm. Salt and pumpkin pie spice from out there.
  
• Fresh whipped cream: heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT. Vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar from the world.
• Ice cream: Vanilla and Black Raspberry from Rich Farm.
  
• Caramel from the Groovy Baker (no HFCS!!)
• Fresh fruit: Macoun and Cortland apples from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, and Bosc pears from Rose’s Berry Farm and figs, likely from CA.
• dried pears, from Rose’s Berry Farm dried by me.
  
  
• chestnuts, from a resident of Woodbury, via New Morning Natural Foods
  
• roasted pumpkin seeds, from the pumpkin pie pumpkin, from Cherry Grove Farm
  
• mixed nuts, from I-don’t-know-where

Beverages

• Foxon Park soda selection
  
  
• apple cider from Silverman’s Farm
• egg nog from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT
• Wine: Walker Road Vineyards and McLaughlin Vineyards
  
• Beer: Cabin Fever from Birkshire Brewing Company

Whew! Took almost as long to make this post as it took to prepare the meal!

P.S. At the end of the day, when all the guests had left, I did not finish cleaning my dishes and kitchen. Instead, I watched Food, Inc. I highly recommend this film though it can be particularly upsetting for those who get their food from the corporate industrial complex.