Thanksgiving 2014

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving spent with family in Tumwater, Washington. We packed up a little of our homegrown food and headed North to be with our parents. It was a beautiful visit and a time of togetherness that we treasure.

We had a care package waiting for us in our room, complete with a five pointed star and a delicious cookbook from another Family Farm in Missouri!

It felt so good to be with Mom.

We relaxed into one another and visited and shared and remembered.

The evening before Thanksgiving we shared a wonderful lasagne made by Mom! There is nothing better than Mom's cooking!

Mom and Bob and Kari ready to eat salad, French bread and lasagne.

The following morning began with the prep for stuffing and getting our 21 pound turkey into the oven by 10:00 am.  We had some nibbling prep ready with Nana's now Mom's scrumptious onion dip, a little Irish cheer, and celery, pumpkin bread and walnuts from the farm.

We combined two different stuffing traditions this year and used cornbread stuffing with the addition of sausage. There was plenty of sausage left over from the stuffing to add to mushrooms for stuffed mushrooms.

My beautiful mom!! She is a wonder of hope, love, humor, wisdom, creativity, ingenuity, resourcefulness, artistry, color and more love!  There is never enough time to spend with Mom, a true inspiration and one of the most influential people in my life. xo

Back to stuffing the turkey. Mom was good to keep an eye on the clock and keep the target time of 10. After the turkey was stuffed, we sealed up the oven bag and Old Tom Turkey was ready for the oven.

Our great turkey farmer, Tim had the honors of getting the big bird into the oven.

Then there was time to visit some more, continue preparing for the feast and keep up with the dishes. Mom oversaw it all and she kept us all on task without anyone one of us knowing how she did it!

Bob is very adept in the kitchen. He has even been known to be called El Jefe de la cocina! What an amazing man, besides his culinary talents, he is a remarkable story teller and story writing and has a great sense of humor, loyalty to his family and to his country. He is a true American hero.

Our loving parents working the kitchen!

Sweet granddaughter Kaylee, came by on her way to the rest of the family for a big hug from Gramps and Jojo! Her baby due in just a few short weeks.

The turkey is out of the oven and we are ready to carve up the bird and celebrate a day, a week, a year of gratitude.

Bob in his gentle, low key way and his dry sense of humor always makes us laugh!

Our feast on the table and ready for a blessing of thanks.

~ Mom and Bob ~

My Nephew Dave survived Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia traffic and arrived at the perfect time to share and enjoy the Thanksgiving Feast.

Jojo and David with a sweet moment in the computer room.

The day after Thanksgiving provides more opportunity to share stories and a meal together.

Such sweet memories were gathered this Thanksgiving and in the words of Mom...

...A time for our souls to mingle together.

Slainte'

All of our love and gratitude ~

Harvest Season

This is a very busy time of year on the farm. Everything is ripening at once, needs to be picked, cleaned, chopped, cooked, canned, sliced, frozen, dehydrated, or pickled! We love this time of year. The days are full as the sun starts to get lower in the sky. The past two days have been very hot in Southern Oregon and both days were nearly 100 degrees. Over the last two weeks we have been harvesting daily meals and meals for the rest of the year!

The harvest baskets, bushel baskets, and buckets are ready for a day full of harvesting!

Gala apples and Golden Delicious apples here. Others include Gravenstein, Fuji, Macintosh, and others.

Sweet Italian peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, sweet bell peppers, and hot Thai peppers.

We like both the globe eggplant and the Japanese eggplant and use it for so many things including eggplant Parmesan, Spaghetti/garden sauce, roasted vegie pizzas, ratatouille and more!

The tomatoes this year have been especially sweet! The pineapple tomato is wonderful, so is the Cherokee purple tomato. We also planted Fourth of July, Medford, Early Girl, Amish Roma tomato, and Sungold cherry tomatoes. We make soup, salsa, sauce, and eat them fresh, canned, or frozen!

Roasting peppers, tomatoes and onions for several recipes.

These are delicious with the wood smoke flavor.

The fire keeper! We use madrona for our winter heat source and it also makes wonderful smokey flavor on anything we cook over the madrona.

A surprise clutch of eggs were found just below the corn. These eggs were not good to keep and eat, but it is always fun to come across a secret treasure.

Peeling back the shucks so that the popcorn can finish drying.

The first round of ears that are dry enough to harvest and shuck. We planted both Smoke Signals and Blood Red varieties. The Smoke Signals is a smaller ear of corn, but many of the kernels are well formed. Blood Red is a much larger ear and needs longer to dry.

We were surprised to find a couple of the ears of corn had already popped on the stalk! Like I said, it has been 100 degrees here in the Rogue  Valley.

Galeux d'eysines is a French variety of pumpkin. It has warts on the outside formed from the sugar content. It has also been called a bumpkin among other names. It is known for its rick, creamy,smooth flesh and for the beautiful markings and color.

Turks Turban winter squash has so much flare and festivity!

Sugar pie pumpkins are perfect for breads, muffins, pies,etc.  These little pumpkins are easily cut in half, laid on a baking tray with 1/4 inch of water and baked at 350 for about 45 minutes.  Pack the softened flesh in two cup increments and it makes it very easy to use every bit of this wonderful little sugar pumkin!

Butternut squash grew abundantly this year. We will used them for stir fry, sauce, soup, and casseroles!

The beans have been drying on the vine. These are called Hidatsa beans from the Missouri River Valley of North Dakota, Cannellini Beans are a bigger thicker bean and especially good in soups like Minestrone soup!

Digging potates. Ugh, hard work and we had a poor harvest this year.  The tell tale sign of moles and gophers were abundant down the entire row of potatoes.  We hope for more next year.

Filling baskets full of dried beans.  

The sunflowers are drooping in the garden now, but there are so full of seeds that will be fed to the  chickens and turkeys.

More apples are ripening. We have made apple syrup, apple butter, dehydrated apples, apple sauce, apple crisp and apple pie! 

Winter provisions! I guess the squash needs to be used before we bun through the other wood!

The great squash harvest included Hubbard Squash, Kabocha/buttercup squash, galeax d'eysines, butternut and pumpkin. 

Fruits and vegetables that will help feed us all winter long.

We are thankful for every day and each and every fruit or vegetable that we can harvest.
How does your garden grow?