Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Local Thanksgiving Menu

I met with my brother today, Mr. Chef Extraordinaire and writer of the blog, Seattle Foodies, to go over the menu for Thanksgiving. As usual, we'll be having something spectacular this year, with a focus on local ingredients. In other words, if it can be found locally, it will be consumed.

Here's what's on the menu:
  • Turkey leg confit in duck fat*
  • Roasted turkey breast with gravy*
  • Peas and pearl onions
  • French mashed Yukon gold potatoes**
  • Root vegetables (local) with sage from the garden
  • Cranberry, blood orange and thyme relish***
  • Porcini Mushroom Stuffing
  • Assorted Dinner Rolls (from the Dahlia Lounge Bakery)
  • Pumpkin pie****
  • Pecan pie

*Our turkey, once again, this year is a pasture-raised heritage turkey from Thundering Hooves
**I wish the potatoes were from my yard, but I didn't have much potato success this year due to my own negligence. But, the potatoes are, at least, local
***The cranberries are grown locally in our area and the thyme is from the garden
****The pumpkin pie is made from locally sourced leaf lard in the crust with local butter, and local pumpkin puree that I made earlier in the season

Not to beat a dead horse, but I wanted to list some of the reasons why eating local is important. Not only does it help support local farmers and the economy, it also will help reduce your carbon footprint given the fact that most of your food has travelled, on average, 1500 miles to reach your plate. Or, as they say, from farm to fork.

Eliminating those food miles by buying locally grown foods will not only reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere during transportation, but it will ensure that your food is fresher and, more importantly, tastier. You see, if your food doesn't need to travel thousands of miles and spend time in storage, it can be picked closer to its peak of ripeness. And, therefore, peak of tastiness.

How's your Eat Local for Thanksgiving planning coming along?

By the way, congrats to the 5 winners of the locally sourced heritage turkeys!

8 comments:

Aimee said...

mine's doing good. I think I've achieved at least 75% local (to within the county). I detailed it on my blog: www.newtofarmlife.blogspot.com

EnviRambo said...

I just put a post up at the Green Phone Booth about my 100 mile Thanksgiving. This was the first year I tried it and was surprised to discover it was not as hard as I thought it would be. Not everything made the local list, but pretty darn close! I really need to get my garden in order and learn how to put food up. That will have to be my goal for next year.

Farmer's Daughter said...

What is leaf lard?

I don't think our Thanksgiving will be more local than any of our other meals. Ed's family will be slaughtering their turkeys tomorrow, but we're spending Thanksgiving with my side, so won't be having local turkey on that specific day (but will be making one at my house for Christmas). My side, however, is the local fruit and veggie side, since we grow everything, so pretty much everything else (apples, squash, pumpkins, etc.) will be local.

Now if we could just get everyone together like the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, we could have an all-local meal!!! Of course that would be a HUGE party :)

Also, did you see the National Geographic's documentary last night "Before Columbus"? It was AWESOME from a local food/sustainable living standpoint. So many science concepts, too, like invasive species (pigs) and transfer of disease (small pox and syphallis). It was so good!

dc said...

Another great post! we still have carrots, beets and potatoes from our garden which will go on the thanksgiving table in some form. At this past weekends indoor winter market I bought baby turnips, brussel sprouts, cheese, cider and eggs which will also be on the Thanksgiving table. Perennial herbs such as parsley, sage (my rosemary plant is inside for the winter =)) and thyme still growing under the snow will spice up our meal. For pies, we have local apples, pumpkins and butternut squash stored in our chilly bedroom.

We’ll supplement this bounty with store bought goodies such as sweet potatoes which I will either just bake and serve with butter and S&P or make into a galette layered with local apples. And of course, I’ll be making cranberry orange relish. I’m getting hungry!!

dc said...

I don't know if you've seen this link by one of my favorite local farmers but it's worth reading. The title is, Farming Romantic: An Invitation to Come Home and Eat. Here's the link: http://www.matterdaily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45:farming-romantic-an-invitation-to-come-home-and-eat&catid=1:food-a-farm&Itemid=8

Tree Huggin Momma said...

Alas my MIL is hosting this year (first time in a decade) so I don't have much of a say. We are bringing:
Cauliflower Casserole, with local cauliflower and butter, but the velveeta and soup are not local
Apple Salad - all local ingredients
Homemade rolls, no local source for flour so I have to go with what's available of give up all things baked goods.

Anonymous said...

In my location (SE Michigan) Thanksgiving has got to be the easiest meal to make locally. Even sugar is local.

I was grousing that there wouldn't be green beans because my greenhouse plants are stuck at the bloom stage...and then I remembered the two GALLONS of green beans I froze over the summer!

dee dee bowman said...

we'll be having Thanksgiving with in-laws who aren't particularly green (wonderful people but not on the sam wave length). We will bring celery root gratin (veg. from the CSA, cheese from far away) and sweet potatoes - some of which are from the CSA but there aren't enough so we'll have to augment from the grocery store - no farm markets open between now and turkey day. not too proud of our efforts. maybe we'll do better next year.