Giving Thanks

We enjoyed a quiet mellow day yesterday with family and friends, which is pretty much perfect for Thanksgiving. There was some mix-up about how long the turkey needed to cook, so we ended up eating 2 hours later than planned, but there was plenty to munch on and no one seemed to mind the delay.

Someday I'd like to have a true harvest meal for Thanksgiving, with all homegrown food, but that day is farther down the road. Fortunately we can get yummy local food from New Seasons, and supplement with as much of our own produce as possible.

Our turkey was, as always, a fantastically delicious heirloom from New Seasons, rubbed with butter and paprika and roasted (I am not of the brining crowd--sounds like soggy salty turkey to me, even though I've heard it has good results--this method produces a consistently moist and tasty bird). Since I baked the stuffing separately, I suppose it should technically be called dressing--the basic Fannie Farmer recipe for Cornbread Stuffing. I baked cornbread and a crusty loaf of white bread last week, then crumbled them and let dry for a few days before mixing with sauteed onions (from the garden) and celery, chicken stock, white wine, and salt & pepper.

We debated about mashed potatoes vs sweet potatoes, and finally decided on the former. We do have some potatoes from the garden, but there aren't many left, and New Seasons always includes a free 5 lb bag of local russets with each turkey order; so we used those. However, we did stray from tradition by having green beans instead of peas, since the freezer is full of frozen green beans from this summer's excess. My mother made her usual divine gravy, and Bill concocted two different cranberry sauces--one plain and one spiced with cloves, nutmeg, and Szechuan peppercorns. Accompanied by Gruet Blanc de Noirs and King's Ridge Pinot Noir, it was a fine meal!

I decided to experiment a little with the pies this year, for no particular reason except that I felt like it, and both were very successful. The pumpkin recipe was no more difficult than my usual one, but the apple was rather fiddly and took more time than expected--it was worth the trouble, however. I used our own apples, pumpkin, and eggs; cream from one neighbor; and honey from another neighbor. The recipes originated from the cookbook 500 Pies and Tarts by Rebecca Baugniet, but because I never follow recipes exactly, the following are slighly modified.


Apple Caramel Crumble Pie

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or shortening, whichever you prefer (I use either one, depending on my mood and what's on hand)
1/4-1/2 cup cold water

Mix flour and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (this is the only way to do it, no matter what anyone else says). Add 1/4 cup water and mix, adding more water as necessary until the pastry holds together when pressed into a ball. Roll out on a well-floured board, then place in pie pan. Crimp the edge as you wish, then refrigerate.

Filling
6-8 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
9 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp water
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt

Toss the apple dice with the 1/4 cup flour in a large bowl. Combine 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Stop stirring and let mixture come to a boil. Boil 10 minutes, occasionally swirling liquid around the pan. When mixture has turned dark amber, remove from heat. Cool for a few minutes, then add 3 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp water and swirl to combine. Return to heat and stir until smooth. Pour the caramel over the apples and toss to coat evenly. Set aside for 10 minutes, while the apples release their juices.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine remaining dry ingredients, then use your fingers to rub 6 tbsp butter into the mixture, until large clumps form.
Remove pie crust from refrigerator. Spoon apples into the crust and sprinkle the crumble over the top. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and bubbling.


Pumpkin Honey Pie

Gingersnap Crust
1 cup gingersnap crumbs (I used Pepparkakor from CostPlus World Market)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients until well blended. Press evenly, using the bottom of a measuring cup, onto the bottom of a springform pan. Bake 10-15 minutes. Let cool completely.

1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using an electric mixer, combine all ingredients and beat until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 and bake 40-45 minutes more, until filling is firm. Let cool, then run a knife around the edge of the pan before removing springform. Serve with whipped cream.

Sam devoured an enormous slice of the apple pie, while Lucy barely let me have a bite of my slice of pumpkin.

Bounty

I've been putting off posting on the garden, because I don't know where to start! So much work has gone into it this year, and so much bounty has come out, that I feel overwhelmed by the idea of summing it all up in one post. So I won't. I'll write a little now, and see how far that takes me.

I'm so very pleased with our progress this summer--every year we take a few steps forward. We haven't reached our ultimate goal yet, but that's okay--as long as we keep moving ahead, I'm happy. This winter my husband and I spent many contented hours working on a month-by-month garden plan, looking through books and catalogues, and making lists for each month. Of course we didn't follow it perfectly, and there were things that fell through the cracks, but it helped immensely and kept us from forgetting all the many things we wanted to get done.

It was not a good year for gardening. We never really had Spring, and then we never really had Summer. It just rained, and rained, and rained. But during the few moments that it wasn't raining, I was out in the garden--and that made all the difference. I stuck to my lists, and planted in the mud, and almost everything throve. We lost some broccoli plants to slugs and a fair number of potatoes and carrots to burrowing rodents, and we won't harvest many ripe tomatoes, but other than that, we produced a lot more vegetables than we could eat. I gave away bags and bags of romaine, onion scapes, and kale, and the crop of green beans almost had me in tears--every time I went out there were more to be picked and processed.

The bounty won't see us through the entire winter--around about January we'll have to buy vegetables from the grocery store again--but that's partly because we don't have the necessary storage for all of it. For now, it's wonderful to cook with fresh fruits and vegetables every day, knowing that they sprang from our earth with the help of our hands.

I wish I'd kept a more accurate tally of our bounty--maybe next year. At least we have a good idea of what will feed us through the summer and well into the winter, and next year we can take a few more steps towards self-sufficiency.

Changes

Our Peaceable Kingdom has undergone some changes this year. First of all, our cantankerous old Blue Heeler, Eppie, went to the Happy Hunting Grounds this spring, and her absence is much felt. Eventually a puppy or two will fill the empty spot in front of the woodstove, but for now we are, sadly, dogless.

We also said goodbye to a number of goats at the beginning of the summer, though in a happier way. The four pregnant does popped out seven babies altogether (Temerity had triplets, Patience had twins, and Felicity and Whimsy each had a single buckling), and we were able to find good homes for them all. Still, the barn was feeling overfull, and after witnessing the three little girls (Patience, Whimsy, and Felicity) hop effortlessly over the pasture fence, I decided it was time for drastic measures. We had never planned to sell any of the adult goats, but Whimsy and Felicity were the least friendly of the herd, and proved to be disappointing milkers after their first kidding. So they were sold, along with their two kids, to a young girl in central Oregon; fortunately Patience didn't seem to notice their absence, the possibility of which had concerned me (what?!? I LOVE my goaties!).

Erin, in her usual insouciant way, produced a couple of lambs in the spring (and as we all know, the best thing about sheep is... TWIN BABY LAMBS!!). They were adorable and shy for a few months; now they are enormously fat and still trying to nurse on their poor mama. Last year's lamb was never dealt with, and has been dubbed "Wannabe", because he thinks he's a goat. All three are scheduled for "harvesting" next month, and will fill our freezer to bursting with delicious grass-fed meat. Yes, it's a bit sad, but I have hardened my heart. It helps that I don't much care for sheep.

We are expecting babies from Prudence any day now--she surprised us by suddenly ballooning last month, when she was supposed to be retired (I guess that's what happens when the buck lives with the rest of the herd!). She is not happy about it, and we are trying to decide how to arrange matters after the birth. I don't want to milk her (we're getting plenty from Patience and Temerity), but bottlefed babies are so much friendlier. Right now I'm considering the possibility of separating them at night and feeding a small bottle in the morning before reuniting them during the day. We'll see how my mother feels about that, since she'll be the one to take care of it.

I have another post on deck, detailing the amazing bounty of our garden and the wonderful meals that have resulted; that'll show up maybe next week.

To Begin Again

The farm continues, though the blog has been sadly neglected. We have many plans for the year, though cute new baby Lucy is providing even more distraction to keep us from all the hard work that needs to be done. Our little family has moved temporarily to a house down the road, since the farmhouse couldn't stretch anymore to fit another kidlet, and we are working on a more permanent living arrangement.

In farm news, we have one pregnant sheep and 4-6 pregnant goats due to overflow the barn with babies sometime at the end of this month or the beginning of next month. We discovered last summer that our little buck Faithful, who was living at our neighbors' farm, was being bullied so badly by his roommate (an older and larger buck), that he was getting almost nothing to eat and had hardly grown at all. He was a pretty sorry sight by the time I found him--so skinny you could count his ribs, with his black coat turned rusty and mangy, and a hollow despairing look in his eyes.

We brought him over to our place immediately, since it was clear that he couldn't survive much longer where he was, and put him in with our herd while we discussed (and discussed, and discussed) what to do with him. My mother is not fond of the pungent odor of bucks, and it didn't seem possible to keep him in constant contact with the does once he returned to full health. Somehow a solution was never reached, but for a while it didn't matter since he was in no condition to have any interest in the girls, who only go into heat in the winter anyway.

So we let him roam free, grazing and browsing his fill, and after a while he began to look less like a skeletal alien creature and more like a goat. His eyes changed first, losing their dull and anguished glaze; we began to notice him taking interest in things and interacting with the other animals. Within a few months of no special treatment other than worming (much needed!!), he put on some weight and his coat returned to its proper black sheen. The bare mangy patches filled in, and he's grown several inches in height as well.

We were especially relieved to see him displaying the usual (unpleasant) buck tendencies as the weather grew colder, and it appears that Temerity, Patience, Whimsy, and Felicity are all pregnant. We had not intended to breed the other three does, but since we didn't get around to separating anyone, had resigned ourselves to a deluge of babies. However, Special and Fawn seem to have done our job for us, since Mercy and Peace have gone into heat several times and the wethers have monopolized their attention, chasing Faithful away every time he tries to get things done. It's possible they may be pregnant now, but won't kid until later in the summer, which is fine--we'll price the babies to sell quickly and advertise more widely than we have before. Even so, we could have a lot of little goaties on our hands pretty soon--up to 18, if they all had triplets!

I'll save the gardening news for another post...