Thankful for our HomeGrown Feast

Today was a quiet family holiday, but we all concur, maybe the best Thanksgiving meal we have ever eaten. The star of the feast was the bird, one of Cadence's 9 turkeys she raised from day-old chicks. We sold all the turkeys except two, one for our Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. This was a smaller hen, about 20 lbs.

Next year we will start raising the turkeys a bit later-- by harvest time, the toms were huge - two of the toms weighed 50 pounds (about 40 lbs. dressed.) You need a pretty large oven for such a big turkey!

Cadence took charge of roasting the turkey.
She brined the turkey for a day in a saltwater concoction that contained carrots, onion, celery, and herbs, peppers and fennel from our garden.
This morning while Cadence prepared the turkey, I made my family's traditional sausage stuffing, using pork sausage from Sara's pigs and sage, thyme and marjoram from our garden. Rog made his famous sourdough bread.
The roasting turkey smelled scrumptious and emerged perfectly browned. (It also tasted divine.)

Rog carved the turkey. Sara read a poem. We gave many thanks - especially for this feast, our animals, our bountiful little farm, and each other.

Then we toasted ourselves for our hard work and dived into our delectable farm-grown feast:
Turkey raised by Cadence
Stuffing with Sara's pork and herbs from our garden
Potatoes from our garden
Rog's sourdough bread
Wild cranberries from our woods
Salad with dressing containing wild elderberries we gathered
Pie made from our garden pumpkins, eggs from our hens, and maple syrup from our trees

Yum.

I have one more thank you: Thank you to our friends, neighbors, customers and everyone who has supported us in this farming endeavor. It is wonderful to feel so much encouragement and enthusiasm, even from friends we have never even met!