I love, love, love Thanksgiving. For 12 years, we’ve hosted Thanksgiving at our house for our phamily. All of us spend Christmas and other holidays with our families-of-birth, but this holiday is spent with friends we made in and after college. Folks come in from out of town, everyone takes a turn cooking, and most of the food is from within 50 miles or so. There are even several things I grow specifically for Thanksgiving dinner: rosemary, sage, potatoes, squash.

Here’s how we handle the bird.

1. Wednesday: Have dear friend (aka Turkeyfiend) drop off immense free-range, no-drugs, never-frozen hen at your house in cooler of ice.
2. Thursday morning: roll lazily out of bed, greet houseful of guests, laze around in PJs while nibbling on breakfast. Glance at the schedule which has become a permanent fixture on the fridge and remember that turkey-wrestling begins at 2pm. Remind yourself not to eat the pie yet.
3. Thursday, 2pm:
   1. Assemble seasonings: a bale of rosemary and sage from the garden, and a small bowl with 2-3Tbl of salt and 3-4 Tbl of ground poultry seasoning.
   2. Rinse out bird, set neck and giblets aside. Place turkey in clean roasting pan.
   3. Slide hand between breast meat and skin, loosening the membranes. Take handfuls of the dry seasonings and rub on meat. Evenly distribute fresh herbs between the meat and skin.
   4. Flip turkey over, cut slit in the skin of the turkey’s “hips,” and repeat the seasoning treatment on each thigh and leg.
   5. Place any remaining seasoning inside the cavity.
   6. Wrestle bird into turkey cooking bag.
4. Thursday, 2:45pm: place bird in 350 degree oven.
5. 4pm: First check of bird. Baste, if there are any juices yet.
6. 5pm: Second check of bird. Use thermometer. You want the thigh to be about 185 degrees; the breast will probably be closer to 165. Don’t baste it any more – the skin should be brown and crispy now.
7. When the bird it done, set the pan on the counter and start harvesting juices.
8. 5:30 or 6pm: Eat dinner. Bask in glow of happy Turkeyfiend.
9. 8:30 or 9pm: Figure you’ve finally got room for that pie.

What to do with the turkey juices:

1. Siphon them out with a bulb baster, and fill two or three tall, clear glasses. The fat will rise to the top.
2. Make gravy.
   1. Use some of the fat (enough to cover the bottom of the gravy pan) and an equal amount of flour to make a roux.
   2. Use the bulb baster to pull the juices from the bottom of the glass. For gravy, use roughly equal parts juice and water.
   3. Bring to a boil and allow to thicken.
   4. Adjust seasoning – it might need some salt, but the juices were well-seasoned in the turkey, so it won’t need much.
3. Make dressing.
   1. Use some of the fat to sautee the onions and celery.
   2. Mix juices with water in a large jar (1 part juice to 3-4 parts water; about a quart all together).
   3. Start adding chunks of stale bread to the onions and celery in the pan.
   4. Drizzle the thinned turkey juice over the bread until it’s soaked through.
   5. Adjust seasonings as needed; some fresh sage, rosemary, and extra salt is nice.
4. Now siphon off the remaining fat into freezer containers, and use it later to sautee meats or vegetables. (Remember, fat from healthy animals is waaaaaay better for you than fake fats like margarine.)
5. Put the last of the juices in the freezer, too; a pint of concentrated turkey juice plus water will make a quart or more of stock for homemade soup.

On Friday, break up the carcass and boil it in about 2 gallons of water for 3+ hours with some more salt and a couple bay leaves. Pack leftover meat and trimmings into lunch-sized portions and freeze.

On Saturday, pick the carcass clean, dice it up along with all the meat that hasn’t made it into lunches. Can the meat in pint jars and the stock in quart jars.

Eat the last of the pie.

Naming our food is a long tradition in my family, starting with Boris the Bull, who I believed would cause my parents’ divorce (do YOU really understand how large a whole steer is? Yeah, us neither…). Last year we bought half a hog and named it Eric. This year’s participant has been dubbed Señor Porcus. No absent referent here!

We picked up our 1/2 hog from Old Pine Farm on Oct. 17th. They have a very nice farm – hogs are pastured with some supplemental feed, not confined to a muddy sty. They are slaughtered on-farm and then sent to the butcher, so there’s no travel stress for the pigs. I feel extremely grateful that we have such a farm near us, and that we can afford to buy our food from them.

Looks like we ended up with about 85 lb of meat (for $300, including cutting and smoking, so somewhere around $3.50/lb). Old Pine Farm is unusual in that they charge a flat price for your hog, no matter what size, and they do not charge extra for cutting and smoking. You get to pick how you’d like your meat cut up. Here’s what we got – showing our strong preference for sausage and pulled pork in this house! My only complaint so far is that the meat is wrapped in Saran Wrap, which I find hard to remove from the meat. Hopefully it will fend off freezer burn – since there’s no air inside the wrapping, it should do that. So long as the wrap is thick enough. We’ll see.

• Loin roast: 10lb in 3 large packages. Wonder if we should have gotten this sliced into chops?
• Shoulder roast: 20+lb in about 10 packages (will become pulled pork)
• Bulk Sausage: 18 one-pound packages
• Smoked kielbasa: 10 – two to four links per pkg
• Ground pork: 6 – 1.5 lb packs
• Bacon: 5 lb in one-pound blocks
• Smoked hocks: 8lb in 2 hocks
• Ribs, pork butt, other misc: 8lb
• Plus about 5 pounds of soup bones and 5 lb of fat for lard
• The tail, the bladder, and possibly the squeal for the Cooking with Laura Project, which I will get to in a few weeks

This filled 2 large coolers and a paper grocery bag; it takes up about 2/3 of our tiny 7cu ft chest freezer and close to half the space above the fridge.

I think this was a steal for $300. I think prices are going up for next year, and they will be worth it.

I’ve just done a write-up of our pickling event for Preserving Traditions. Follow the link for instructions on how to make old-fashioned, lactofermented pickles. It’s really easy and oh-so-tasty!

I’m starting to think that maybe – just perhaps – I have planted too many cucumbers this year. I’ve never grown them before, and I had no idea what kind of yields, I’d get, so I put 3 “tomato” cages in a 3′x6′ bed and planted 2 cucumber plants (var: Little Leaf from Johnny’s) on each side of the square cages. Not all 24 plants came up, but I’d guess 15 or so did.

We are now harvesting, on average, a quart of pickle-sized cucumbers a day. I only harvest every 2-3 days, so I’m usually getting at least 2 quarts every time I pick. We eat very few cukes fresh, so we’ve been making a LOT of pickles. Here are a few we’ve liked:

• Half-sours – probably our favorite, definitely our “go-to” pickle. Just cukes, garlic, bay, peppercorns, and dill, covered with salt brine and fermented.
• Hungarian summer pickles – not bad, once we added some garlic, but they often taste…fizzy. Literally like there’s carbonation inside the pickles.
• Vinegar garlic dills – first batch had a little too much vinegar and haven’t tasted the second batch yet, but these are closest to Scott’s favorite store-bought pickles
• Mustard/horseradish dills – FABULOUS. Maybe my new favorite pickle…my sweetie hasn’t tried them yet and I hope he hates them.

Weirdo pickles

The following were Pickles of Desperation, made when we just couldn’t think of what else to make. We actually haven’t tried most of these yet…I’ll let you know if they’re any good.

• Curry pickles – these were actually quite good. Fermented in salt brine, with a tablespoon of curry powder and a teaspoon each of whole corriander, cumin, and black pepper
• “Kitchen sink” pickles – faced with too much vinegar brine and too many jars with spices already in them and not enough cucumbers, we frantically searched the kitchen for anything we could pickle. The result? A pint of pickled kohlrabi, and two mixed pints of kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, and apples. We plan to serve it with pork.
• “Thanksgiving” pickles – fermented with garlic, sage, rosemary, and chives.
• Thai basil-chili pickles – lots of Thai basil, 2 chili peppers, and garlic

Lessons learned

• Cherry tree leaves work better than grape leaves for keeping pickles crunchy
• We like them sized 2-3″ best. At 4″, they can’t keep their crunch, and larger than that, you really have to cut them into “coins.” (I do flavor experiments with these bigger pickles. If the flavor works out, we’ll do it again with tiny premium cukes.)
• If fermented pickles don’t taste fabulous after 3-4 days, just leave them out of the fridge another couple days. The flavors will continue to develop a *lot*.
• Wear sturdy gloves when picking cucumbers!

I’m doing my first workshop on stocking a pantry to live out of! This workshop aims to appeal to a variety of folks: those who want to save money, those who want quick meal prep, and those who think the economy is going to collapse but aren’t quite ready to join a peak oil group or move to a commune. Here’s the announcement: [EDIT 8-13 4:30pm - revised location]

Oct 10: Stocking your Pantry

Join us at 10 AM on Saturday Oct 10 at St. Paul Church elementary school (495 Earhart Rd., Ann Arbor) when Emily Springfield, a member and organizer of Ann Arbor’s Preserving Traditions club (http://preservingtraditions.wordpress.com), will present a workshop on Pantry Staples. Having easily-stored staples on hand will make meal preps easy, and Emily will even share some simple recipes to which you need only add vegetables or meat. In addition, Emily will share tips on basics to have on hand in case of emergency (think blizzard or tight funds), items you could buy in bulk or on sale to stockpile.

Cost is only $5 and includes the workshop and munchies. We promise to let you go by noon. Please RSVP to Ruth Zielke 994 3718 (azielke914@comcast.net). Bring your friends. Ask that nice woman who sits in front of you every Sunday if she will join you. There will be time for sharing tips and stories, too. It will be great to be together. There is no home game, so you won’t even have to worry about traffic! Treat yourself to great fellowship!

My mom (hi, Mom!) had a great idea that one of the Grange food activities we could do is a make-and-take entree prep night. I’d put together a menu of three more or less complete meals, using complimentary ingredients, and do the shopping. People would sign up for the number of servings they’d like. We’d prep all the food together and assemble finished meals into our own containers, then take them home for use that week or to freeze.

It’s similar to what they do at Main Dish and other “build-an-entree” places, only we’d focus on using local, natural ingredients instead of ingredients like this.

I’ve worked up three sample “suites” of foods. They each work out to about $2/serving. What do you think of the idea? These menus? The price? Would you want more vegetarian options? Would you do this on a Sunday night in February?

Menu 1:

• Roast chicken w/mashed potatoes
• Chicken enchilada bake
• Lentil-veggie “pie” topped with mashed potatoes

Menu 2:

• Pork and veggie stir fry w/rice
• Saag dal over rice
• Coconut curry (with rice, or prep rice noodles at home)

Menu 3:

• Meatballs
• Kale balls
• Kale, bean, and meatball soup
• Lasagna

At lunch, I met with Robin, the president of the Pittsfield Grange. It was a very cool meeting! They are excited to partner with us on the as-yet unnamed community food venture. The kitchen is large, and if the workflow layout isn’t ideal, there is at least a lot of counter space, big sinks, and two stoves. Plus dishes, punch bowls, chafing racks, etc. It will be a fine space for most activities.

The hall rental deal is, if we have more than 6 events a year, we can rent it all day Sunday for $80 a pop (or, I think, the afternoon/evening for $40, but I’d need to check). But, if a few of us join the Grange and it becomes a Grange-sponsored event, there is no rental fee. I think he also alluded to being able to have a treasury for this project, specifically, as opposed to having any money we make go into the general Grange fund.

Next steps: attend a Grange meeting (end of January) and decide if our first event will be in January or February. I don’t want to join until I’ve been to at least one meeting, but I don’t want to wait until Feb to do an event, so I think I’ll schedule 6 events at the $80 rate, starting in January, and if I join in Feb or so, they can just waive the fee for those.

So I’ve been wanting to “do something with local food” for a good long while now. This blog started as part of that desire. I’ve probably spent a couple years thinking about what I might do and trying to join in various existing efforts. None of it felt like “enough,” and none of it felt like what I really wanted to do.

I’ve thought a lot about self-sufficiency in the last year, and the most important thing I’ve learned is that self-sufficiency is not a worthwhile goal. It’s fricken’ hard, for one thing; it’s not an efficient use of human energy; and, if my household is flush and my neighbors are starving, I’m not going to be self-sufficient for long, anyway. What I’d rather strive for is community sufficiency, where we’re less dependent on produce from China but we don’t each have to have our own wheat field.

That idea and some inspiration from a whole lot of folks (for example) have gotten me thinking about starting some kind of community kitchen where we could get together, share equipment and knowledge, and build a community around good food. And I’ve decided it’s time to move forward and try to bring this around.

I’m starting small, and I’m trying to keep my expectations reasonable and flexible. Here’s what I’ve got so far, and a call for your creative brainpower, after the break:

The mission of the group would be to share resources and skills in the preparation and preservation of food (with a heavy emphasis on local, sustainable, and/or organic foods). We would start off having events, like Pasta Making Night, or Press Your Own Cider, or Canning 101. Each event would be led by someone with solid experience in that skill – usually not me! – and we’d pool together as much equipment as we could for that event from people willing to loan it for the day.

That might be enough to do, or we might someday have a space where we could leave the equipment for members to use as they need it (a pressure canner, for example). We might find it natural to do some bulk buying of pantry staples. We might collect dues and use the money to buy some club-owned equipment, fancier than what an individual would buy for home use (like a very nice hand-cranked grain mill). In the beginning though, we’ll keep it flexible and efficient, with as little overhead as possible.

I have started a conversation with the folks at the Pittsfield Grange, and we’ll be meeting this week or next to talk about using the Grange Hall for activities. The Grange is a farmers’ fraternal organization, and activities like community potlucks, cooking, canning, and such used to be very common. My contact, Helen, said that this group would be a “very good fit” for the Grange’s mission, so I’m hopeful we will be able to work something out. I’m hoping some of the current members of the Grange might be interested in sharing their wisdom about skills that might be in danger of dying out – anything from canning to curing pork to plucking chickens. I also bet that folks who are interested in this new group’s activities might want to join the Grange.

Whew. There it is…out of my own head and there for y’all to see. Now it’s public, and knowing you’re all watching will help keep me moving forward!

But first, I need your help. What should I call this group? Here are the guidelines:

• Should evoke community without sounding sappy or flower-child-ish
• Should evoke good, wholesome food (and the preparation thereof) but not sound like a food pantry
• Should appeal to a wide variety of people who want to learn to cook/preserve food: back-to-the-landers, peak oil activists, locavores, and just ol’ fashioned folk who think homemade always tastes better
• Can’t use these words: “Community Kitchen” (that’s too similar to Mary’s Community Farm Kitchen, and I don’t want to poach her name!) or “Cooperative.” (I’m into co-ops, but I’m told that’s viewed with suspicion by folks who think being a tree-hugging hippie freak is a bad thing.)

UPDATE 1-30-09: The group is going to be called “Preserving Traditions,” and you can find info on it at http://preservingtraditions.wordpress.com/

“Stone the crows…”

Originally uploaded by law_keven

I finally finished the turkey stock from our feast bird – froze the stock, stripped the meat off the carcass, washed the huge pots – and then I dumped the bones, gristle, and such (plus some kraut that had gone bad) out back.

When I woke up this morning, dozens of crows were enjoying a feast and calling their brethren in from half the county! My pics didn’t come out because I scared them away when I opened the door.

*sigh* I wrangled long and hard over my decision not to purchase a freezer earlier this year. My main reasons were that I wanted to save energy and to force myself to preserve food in other ways, like root cellaring.

Then the folks I slaughtered chickens with asked if I’d like to split a hog with them – pasture-raised and apple-fed by a neighbor and due to be processed within the week. The price seemed astoundingly cheap: about $2/lb, I calculated, after processing and smoking. For pasture-raised happy pig. Shoot – we pay $5/lb for the cheap happy sausage and $8/lb for bacon. I scrambled to figure out approximately how much meat is in a pig, and how much of what cuts.

And I realized suddenly, you can’t root cellar a pig. Oh, you can smoke and cure some of it – but what we really love is sausage, and I just don’t have the skills or desire to dry-cure and eat half a pig’s worth of pepperoni. So all my calculations before were really just taking veggies into account and not the fact that I could never get half a hog, a lamb, or a deer without a standalone freezer. Suddenly, it seemed perfectly logical to buy. Read on…

I bought the smallest chest freezer available in my area (5.5 cubic feet). It’s not Energy Star, but it uses less electricity than the smallest Energy Star freezer available (which was in the 15cf range). It supposedly uses less than 1 kwh/day. We got it a a local appliance dealer, who cut us a really nice bargain between the freezer and the radio I bought at the same time. It actually ended up being cheaper than buying at a big box store.

Ok, so what does half a hog look like? We had it cut into:

• Ham – 14lb
• Bacon – 6.5lb
• 2 huge ham hocks (2.5 lb each)
• Chops – 16lb
• Spare ribs – 2.5lb
• Sausage – 12lb
• Neck bones – 1.5lb

I’d not taken the difference in “hanging weight” and “processed weight” adequately into account – this is only about 57 lb of meat total, from a hanging weight of about 100lb. So the price is closer to $4/lb…but still a very good deal, I think.

Buying by the side is a little like buying into a CSA – you get what you get, and you have to figure out how to use bits that you might not normally buy. For example, we love pork tenderloin, but there are only 2 of those per pig. And 16lb of pork chops, which we almost never buy. We are, in fact, sharing this half with a neighbor, and he’s taking almost all the ham, because I don’t think I could use 14lb of ham before said pig flew across my back yard.

This all fits handily, with room to spare, in a 5.5 cubic foot freezer. And we’re giving a lot of it to a neighbor…so much that I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake and we could’ve just put our quarter hog into the freezer in the kitchen. Maybe…but nothing else would’ve fit in there for months while we whittled away at the sausage.

So I’m cautiously optimistic about the freezer. I put 3 quarts of chicken stock in there to keep the pork company – man, I’ve gotten hooked on good homemade stock lately – and bought 6lb of the last broccoli of the season at the market to freeze, as well.

I hope it ends up being a good decision in the long run. I get really torn when it feels like I’m “buying to save.”