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!

Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys

Isn't he beautiful?! This is a Chocolate Turkey or a Chocolate Tom Turkey! He is very proud of his size and his feathers and he lets all of us know. Old Blue is also very curious and a little friendly. I call him Old Blue because he spends most of his time with his feathers on display and his head is blue.

The turkeys are roaming around the front pasture under the walnut trees. The sheep and the chickens are always wanting to visit, but the turkeys like to keep moving.

The photos are taken in late afternoon, and we still have not had a hard frost on this 24th day of October. That means we are still picking fresh produce in the garden like lemon cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers to name a few. The turkeys would love to get into the garden, but as long as the plants are living and we are harvesting, we will restrict the turkeys to only compost scraps.

The turkeys are eating plenty from the garden like giant sunflower heads, extra large zucchini, an eggplant now and then, wind fallen apples and pears, and of course lots of greens and a scoop of grain.

Turkeys love sunshine and when there is a harsh contrast between light and shadow, the turkeys will stay away from the shadows. They prefer to live out in the open air. We keep their pen fenced all around and over head so they can sleep outside of the barn.

Their natural curiosity led them to me as I was picking up walnuts. They were so interested in the walnuts they were trying to bob for walnuts in the bucket. The turkeys with the white band on the tail feathers and wings are called Bourbon Red Turkeys. I guess if we cross breed these turkeys we will end up with Chocolate Bourbon!

Turkeys will be harvested in about ten days. We will keep at least on e breeding pair to carry on for next year. They sure are fun to watch.