Brunswick Stew

It all started with a farmhouse dinner with the girls at home. We prepared a meal from the farm that had been raised on the farm and picked and prepared with our own hands. The centerpiece for dinner that night was a 14 pound roasted turkey.

We celebrated being together with our Alaskans and time spent together over the meal of turkey, oven roasted potatoes, green beans and corn casserole, spiced sweet pickles and later apple pie.

Karyn's visit from Alaska with her two darling girls was coming to an end and we wanted to roast one of our pasture raised turkeys during her stay. If you haven't tried a farm raised turkey, it is well worth the investment. The meat is so tender, flavorful and delicious. Sharing it with family is precious. At the end of the meal, it looked like we hadn't begun to eat the turkey! So, we enjoyed leftovers in the following days.  Including a soup broth made with giblets, root vegetables, and homemade noodles.

After turkey sandwiches and various other leftovers had been enjoyed, the turkey carcass and plenty of good meat was stewed in a large pot for about one and half hours.  Added to the stock was garlic, a sprig of rosemary, salt and pepper. Once the meat was falling from the bones, it was removed from the pot.

You can see there is still a large amount of meat remaining and it was perfect for the recipe my mom had sent along with a charming article on the history or the mystery of Brunswick Stew. Just in time for the stewed leftover turkey. Traditional Brunswick Stew uses chicken, but the turkey is a great stand in! The meat was very moist and tender and shredded easily off of the bones.

A quart of garden potatoes was added and mashed, a quart of crushed tomatoes with basil was added, a pint of sweet corn added and even some green peas. True Brunswick Stew also has butter beans or baby lima beans, but we were out of them at dinner time, so we just made it all work without the beans.  There was also a whole onion sauteed in butter with more garlic added to the stew.  Then the seasoning of salt, pepper, and your favorite spices which may include some cayenne pepper or a dash of chili powder topped off the rich, thick soup.

Brunswick soup is a full meal in a bowl. Part of this large pot of soup will be frozen and the rest will be eaten through the week. It is wonderful all by itself and fun to eat with cheese toast or french bread and butter. Remember, the kind of meat you add is up to you because in the distant and beginning history of Brunswick Stew, squirrel meat was rumored to have started it in Brunswick County, Georgia or was it Brunswick County, Virginia?! The tradition continues with Brunswick Stew in the farmhouse! ~ Enjoy ~

PS Thanks, Mom xo!

April Fools Day!

The hens are happily laying their golden-yolked eggs...

The sheep are pleased with their dry feet on higher ground...

The Nigerian Dwarf beauties are thrilled with the green pasture on the other side of the fence...

...and playful with the idea that the days are getting longer and lighter now that April has arrived! ~Happy Spring~

Sing For Your Supper

Henry and Tessa came to dinner tonight. Henry has a great talent with his singing and guitar and Tessa is equally talented as is Lisa, who we missed on this night. The songs are usually folk songs and some are verses written by Henry. Tonight one of them was called, When I First Came to this Land. The lyrics are a kick. Henry has such a good time singing and so do we. The link is not to Henry, but we will have to work on that!

We had pasture raised pork chops that were cooked in the smoker, garlic mashed potatoes with a yam cooked in for the orange party color, cole slaw and raisins, applesauce, bread and butter pickles, pickled beets, and chocolate cake. We first met Tessa at 6 days old and now she is nearly 11. What a joy to watch her grow up and what a treat to share some songs and a meal with dear friends.

Nesting Boxes

The hens are busy laying eggs and we are busy hunting for eggs! While there are beautifully built, easily accessible, fresh filled boxes, the hens insist on laying their eggs in obscure and random places. One or two eggs are actually laid in this box right now. It used to be the favorite. Now, an empty water trough, under the tractor, on a back shelf of the barn, and in an old manger have replaced the nesting boxes. We still find this box handy though!

Ladies in Waiting

The four reigning sheep on the farm have been displaced from the large pasture. Since the arrival of the little pigs, the lambs were moved to the front pasture for fresh grazing, shade, and a little renovation! As the days warm up, the sheep will enjoy the shade of the walnut trees, the cool green grass, and the breeze that blows in from the river that is not far away.
No matter how appealing we make this front pasture to our lambs, they are still hopeful every time they see us that they will once again be allowed back into the large pasture. In the meantime, we get to watch our woolly friends close to the house.