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Home Grown Thanksgiving

Posted on October 29, 2010 at 11:23 PM

The Thanksgiving holiday is just a few short weeks away.   For the past several years I have been challenging myself to grow more of this traditional foods feast myself and in sufficient quantities to feed the large gathering of family.   Obviously, my focus is on using vegetables and fruits from my garden but this year I also have our own fresh eggs to add to the ingredient list that comes from our backyard.   For those things that I am unwilling or unable to grow myself, I try to find a local source – such as for the turkey, dairy, and grain products.   Unfortunately, my cranberry plants did not produce berries this year due to our weird spring and summer weather but I have a local source for fresh cranberries that I can acquire so they are still on the menu.    Here is how the menu looks so far:                            

          

Appetizers

  • Devilled eggs
  • Celery stalks filled with fromage blanc
  • Platter of pickled peppers, sliced pickled beets, dilly green beans, dill pickle spears, and an assortment of cheeses

Main Course

  • Roast turkey
  • Stuffing
  • Mashed potatoes and gravy
  • Steamed broccoli with a little butter/salt
  • Spinach salad with dried cranberries, sliced toasted almonds, and a little crumbled goat cheese dressed with raspberry vinaigrette
  • Fresh baked whole wheat dinner rolls 
  • Homemade cranberry sauce

Dessert

  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Blueberry Pie
  • Homemade vanilla ice cream (to serve with the pie!)

Ingredients that go into this menu that comes from our backyard:

  • Eggs (henhouse)
  • Onions (storage)
  • Dill pickle relish for the deviled eggs (home canned)
  • Celery (fresh harvest)
  • Pickled peppers (home canned)
  • Pickled beets (home canned)
  • Dilly green beans (home canned)
  • Dill pickle spears (home canned)
  • Potatoes (storage from our bumper crop this year)
  • Broccoli (fresh harvest if the fall crop is still healthy and productive then – otherwise frozen from the summer crop)
  • Spinach (fresh harvest)
  • Raspberries (fresh if the fall crop is still going – otherwise from the summer berry picking expedition)
  • Pumpkin (garden grown)

      

 

       

  

   

     

      

 

Things that go into this meal that we harvested ourselves locally or processed after purchasing locally:

Are you the cook for a Thanksgiving dinner menu and how much of it is coming from your own garden and property?   How much of the rest is local sourced?                  

 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Categories: Vegetables, Berries, Harvesting

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9 Comments

Reply Daphne
07:17 AM on October 30, 2010 
I'm still not sure which group of people I'm going to for Thanksgiving. If the family does it they take priority, but our hostess is not sure if she wants to host this year. The family dinner can get big and she is the only one willing to take it on. If we go there I'll bring my refrigerator pickles. I have one large container made just for the hostess since she love them so much. I'll also bring a squash casserole made from my one butternut squash. And cranberry ice which is a family tradition. It usually isn't hard to pick up locally sourced cranberries in MA since we are one of the major growing states. Next year I want to be growing my own cranberries. I will also bring Trader Joe's pumpkin ice cream. It is neither grown at my house or local, but a once a year treat. Since it is a potluck the rest of it is up in the air.

If it is at my friends house it will also be a pot luck. In that case what we bring is divided up into colors. Which is our way of making sure no one brings the same thing, but without telling people what to bring. I usually get red so I can bring my cranberry ice. This was last year's Thanksgiving:
http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/2009/11/red-thanksgiving.ht
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Reply hsheather
07:31 AM on October 30, 2010 
You are my hero! Thanksgiving is at my mother's house, so it's a mixed bag. She has a big garden herself, so a lot will come from it. Broccoli, squash, pumpkin and eggs will come from our gardens. I'll probably also bring down some potatoes from my cache. The cranberries I got at a farmer's market last year and still have some in the freezer. As Daphne said, they're plentiful here in MA. The turkey is from a local turkey farm. Yum, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
12:03 PM on October 30, 2010 
Daphne - I remember that post well and I previously snagged that cranberry ice recipe for future use. I thought you showed a tremendous amount of creativity with the "red" theme!

hsheather - Sounds like your meal will be substantially a "100 foot" diet meal in that your mom is a gardener herself - between the two of you the menu is well covered! Like you we are in a major cranberry growing area - so finding a local source is not a challenge at all. I live fairly close to the "Cranberry Coast" on the pacific ocean which is where major cranberry fields/bogs are that supply ocean spray. Not my first choice since it is factory farming in large part but it is at least local.
Reply Mike
05:13 PM on October 30, 2010 
What a nice meal you have planned and how very rewarding to know that so much comes from your own homestead. Your spinach salad with dried cranberries, sliced toasted almonds, and a little crumbled goat cheese dressed with raspberry vinaigrette sounds amazing.

In all honesty, we have not even thought about Thanksgiving yet...I guess it depends on whether we will be home or not. I would love to spend the day in the kitchen with my wife cooking though. We are canning ginger pear sauce today and having Ribollita soup for dinner...a new recipe we are going to try. http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/ribollita-recipe.html
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
08:45 PM on October 30, 2010 
Mike - The spinach salad is a favorite of ours and it feels fancy (even though it is really not) so it makes a good salad for the feast day meal. That Ribolita soup looks absolutely delicious. I don't have tuscan kale, (just several other varieties, but I think I may try this for dinner tomorrow.
Reply Robin
12:51 PM on October 31, 2010 
Unfortunately, I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner. For 20 years I was always the host for all holidays. Since I have married "The Italian" we now go to his parents house for the holidays. I really miss cooking and having a house full. His family has traditional Italian dishes with their meal, which I am not used to. I am however making all the pies; pumpkin, cherry & apple. I will also be preparing the mashed potatoes & a traditional filling. All of the filling for the pies & potatoes will be locally grown.
Reply foodgardenkitchen
05:48 PM on October 31, 2010 
What an impressive menu! I want to come to your house :) We go to near-by family for T-giving but we cook our own pastured, local turkey on Friday and make all of the fixings to go along with it so that we have all of the wonderful leftovers. We're usually responsible for bringing the mashed potatoes to the Thursday event and some years we also bring the dressing - all made from scratch, of course. One year I brought my turkey gravy (I have a knack for gravies) and it was such a hit at the family gathering that I think the hostess disapproved, so I don't do that anymore.
Reply Sandy
08:00 PM on October 31, 2010 
That's great! As we get closer to Thanksgiving, we should do some recipe swaps on our sites. I'm curious how you do your deviled eggs. I love deviled eggs and have been playing around with recipes for a few years.

I'm not sure who will host Thanksgiving this year. Either me or my sister, but we keep it a much simpler affair because it's a pretty small dinner party.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
08:49 AM on November 01, 2010 
Robin - We have often been required to attend Thanksgiving at one of my relatives houses and I honestly much prefer to host the event myself because the cooking is something I really enjoy. However, it sounds like you get an opportunity to eat some really wonderiful things even if they are not traditional T-Day foods.

foodgardenkitchen - It is too bad that the insecurity of the host is such that your gravy has to be banished to the Friday after Thanksgiving. On the year's were we do not host and we are required to travel to someone elses place for the holiday - we always do the same as you and come home and do a second meal for ourselves at home with all of the traditional items - as usually we end up with no leftovers in that case.

Sandy - My deviled egg recipe is quite unprecise - all visual measurements adjusted by tasting feedback. In general though the recipe includes finely minced onion, a goodly amount of my dill pickle relish plus some of the liquid from it, a small amount of really good dijon mustard, and a generous amount of real mayonnaise. The mixxture is mashed and stirred until the yolk mayo portion of the mixture is smooth and creamy. Once the egg white halves are filled then I sprinkle a high grade red paprika over the top of them. Absolutely delicious!