This year was day after Thanksgiving Thanksgiving for us since Keith was (and currently is) working this whole weekend. Which just meant that most of our friends got 2 big dinners this year-no one was complaining!
I was nog sure if we were going to raise turkeys this year. I needed to raise something that I could feed all the gallons of protein rich whey that is a by product of making cheese all summer and the options are pigs or turkeys. While I really want pigs, we are already set up for turkeys. Also I happened to be at Grain Growers when they only had a few turkeys chicks left and were looking to get rid of them-perfect timing!
So at the end of March I brought home 5 turkey chicks and popped them straight in the greenhouse with the ducklings I raised this year.
And while the turkeys grew bigger everyday, I worked in the garden to get the rest of Thanksgiving going. Potatoes and squash was planted, root vegetables seeded, onion starts planted.
As I said in the previous post, this was an amazing tater year. With my goal being 100 lbs of potatoes and actually producing 150 lbs, we clearly had enough to makes loads of mashed potatoes! One of the varieties I grew this year is called Mountain Rose and it produces bright pink potatoes, so this year we had pink mashed potatoes this year for dinner!
I have no idea how many pounds of winter squash or beets/carrots/turnips we grew this year, but again, more than enough. Squash was roasted up to make puree for the (not) pumpkin pie and also went in to the sweet potato casserole. Beets, carrots, turnips along with loads of onions and garlic were roasted up for the corn bread with roasted fall vegetable stuffing.
Since I got the turkey chicks to early, by September they were ready to be slaughtered. Thankfully I didn't have to do it! I drove the turkeys, along with some chickens and ducks, to Wallowa to be slaughtered and processed there. I brought them alive and barely contained in boxes and picked them up the same afternoon all packaged up and ready to go!
We ended up with 2 toms and 2 hens. The toms weighed 36 lbs each and the hen 22 lb.
It took 9 days to thaw out a 36 pound turkey, then we brined it for a few more days.
Keith helped get the giant bird in the oven before heading out to the hospital yesterday morning. A quick rub down of (homemade) butter and lemon zest under the skin before it was loaded with stuffing and stuffed inside the oven and of course the obligatory photo of the turkey being bigger than our cocker spaniel!
As usual, I have almost no pictures of actual Thanksgiving. We had about 25 friends over and they all also made delicious food! Chatting, drinking, eating- there really isn't any time to take pictures! Amazingly everything turned out great and I was only frustrated with Keith a couple of times! We all made an insane amount of food and I think (hope) everyone got to take a fair bit of their favorites home.
And instead of cleaning up after a giant party today, I get to mostly just hang out since everyone helped do all the dishes and get everything put away last night-amazing!
And I am so thankful!
Thankful to have a husband who supports all the crazy things I want to do, thankful for being able to be physically able to do all the crazy things I want to do, thankful for all our animals-we have most of them their whole lives and no matter how short or long that is they all bring so much joy and silliness to our lives, besides being delicious and producing eggs and milk we enjoy every day, thankful for all the friends in my life and for all the happiness and richness they bring to my life, and thankful to our families who still feel close even though we are so far away.
Love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
