The Day after Thanksgiving

Our garden is still feeding us on Thanksgiving.  Beautiful fresh broccoli.  Haven't checked yet today, but the super frost and cold that began last night has probably finished the broccoli, but how great that it waited until the day after!  Another thing to be thankful for.  I finished picking the meat from the remains of the gigantic Thanksgiving turkey just a bit ago.  The bones, skin and gelatinized juices from the bottom of the roasting pan are already simmering in my 20 qt. stock pot. The meat has been chopped and put in freezer bags for soups, stews, casseroles, etc.  I will let that cook for 3 - 4 hours, then strain the stock into 2 qt plastic tubs to freeze outside the back door.  Then I will put them in the barn freezer until needed. I make a lot of chicken stock through the year, but turkey is the richest and most flavorful.  I think I have written it before, but nothing is so easy and free and has so many uses as homemade stock.  Lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie left in the refrigerator.  I won't be cooking much all weekend.  Back to the reasons to be thankful---we all have our jobs (except for middle daughter who was laid off from Lily's when it changed hands to another pharmaceutical company--she is taking this opportunity to get a second associates degree --this time in nursing using some financial aid made possible by Pres. Obama's stimulus $$--thank you, Mr. President), all of us are healthy (Dad will be 83 next month and just had a great physical report!), all have homes to live in and food on the table..............can't ask for much more than that, especially now! 
      Already have received some seed catalogs to begin planning the farmers' market gardens.  Lots of stuff to do before Christmas.  Have already received orders for knitted items for next year--socks, fingerless gloves, hats, mittens, scarves, etc.!   

deer season, greenhouse is here! past year assessment

This past weekend always marks the beginning of late fall for us at home. Saturday was opening day for firearms deer season. As usual, middle daughter got her first one that day and so did husband, which means that Sunday was butchering day. We started at 8:00 in the barn, skinning, and taking the meat off the bone. Then we bring the meat to be processed in the house (trimmed, washed, ground into burger meat or cut into roasts, steaks and wrapped). We were finished at 7:00—kitchen cleaned up, hide and bones buried, meat in the freezer. And when I say finished—I mean FINISHED! We were so tired—even my hands hurt! But it is worth it to have good meat for very little $$. Right now, I have a large venison roast in the crockpot and all I have to do for supper is cook and mash potatoes, make the gravy and add a vegetable and supper is served.


Today our greenhouse is being delivered on a semi-truck so husband is at home waiting for that delivery. Then the foundation will be set and the assembly/building will begin. Rather exciting. For all the decades that my family has gardened and farmed, this is the first greenhouse we will have. Broccoli almost done in the fall garden. I will probably serve my last bit at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is always the bench mark of a fall garden. The rule of thumb is 'if it can be grown in the early spring, you can grow it in your fall garden.' We are always amazed when stores put away their seed displays in July! We have pumpkins stacked on the flatbed trailer waiting for the brooder house to be cleared out for the season. Then we will line the little building with straw and store the pumpkins in there for as long as they last. Gourds are drying.

Trying to put together family gifts for the holidays as well as finish my handmade orders. It's been a great year for our vegetables, eggs, breads, barbecue sauce and handmades at the farmers’ market and at home. We experimented with a CSA customer (Community Supported Agriculture) who tells us she was very satisfied and will do it again next year (we will take on 4 customers next year, as well as the farmers’ market and vegetables sold at work). I have made and sold socks, scarves, neckwarmers, fingerless gloves, mittens, dishcloths, etc. as far away as Boston and lots of soap this year at both the farmers’ market and from home. Everyone loves socks, especially now since we are all turning thermostats down! I make the ones with fine wool sock yarn for wearing inside shoes and make thicker ones for boots and bed socks (also, just padding around the house). Noodles for the holidays are in high demand and my chickens produce eggs that make the best so I sell a lot of those, too! Next year, I will also add woven rag rugs, etc. to my line of handmades.