Thanksgiving 2021

First snow of the season, 28/11/21

The son, age 11, took the above photo of a surprise snow shower at the weekend;  it's the view from our sliding glass door.  At last it has become cold enough to kill the nasturtiums--they are slumped across the path at the right foreground.

We had an alteration of our normal Thanksgiving plans as our American friend had to work late on the day itself;  instead of holding the usual potluck, we had one dinner at theirs on Sunday which they catered, and a feast at ours on the day itself which we catered--and to make up for the missing friend, we invited some neighbors to join us and his family.  So we cooked for 10 people in total, four adults and six children aged between one and 13 (I say we, but the husband actually did nearly all the cooking).

And what was homegrown this year?  Sadly not a lot!  Though I was pleased that all the veg was grown locally, either by ourselves or at a local small farm.  We grew and served:

The best gravy I've ever made with garlic, duck stock and a bit of cider vinegar

Pumpkin pie with our own eggs (which I had saved specially earlier in the month, as our hens have all stopped laying now).

Homebrewed elderberry/blackberry wine and elderflower wine

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It doesn't sound like a homegrown feast!  But it was a locally grown feast:  we had lots of vegetables including potatoes from the farm stand (and also the pumpkin for the pie), a big piece of ham from the local butcher, a strawberry rhubarb pie (berries we'd picked ourselves in the summer and rhubarb from a neighbor).  The only main ingredient we couldn't get from a local producer was the turkey itself.  At Christmas our butcher orders them from a nearby farm but before then, turkeys can only be got frozen from the supermarket.

Inside only

I've been an armchair gardener for the past week, only venturing to the allotment once for a brief chicken visit (the husband does the majority of the chicken chores now that he works from home full time).   They're nearly all in some state of molt:  whether beginning, middle or end, and have pretty much finished laying eggs, probably till January now.

I haven't even gone in my own kitchen garden at home, not even to check on things--though I can see it all pretty much from my patio door and it hasn't changed much.

This time of year I almost always lose the will to garden any more.  Lack of light (it's dark by 4 pm), work schedules, child wrangling, rain, frost, any and all excuses will be offered.  I just need a break from it!

That said, we've had a few light frosts but nothing sharp yet--enough to need to scrape off the car in the morning (north-facing, shaded), but not enough to kill the nasturtiums out back (south-facing, sheltered).  Even the allotment nasturtiums were still alive when I visited them a few days ago, in a much more exposed spot.  

And really, nothing much is happening out there, or really needs to be done.  I'll find time for some sheet mulch, hopefully at home too where the grass and weeds are starting to encroach.  But that's really about it for this year.  Time for reviewing the past year and eating the harvest.

Reimagining the strawberry beds

This year I was concerned our strawberry bed at the allotment had been choked by grass and wouldn't produce.  I did my best to sheet mulch in between plants and the husband transplanted some of the smaller plants/last year's runners to a cleared spot, and we ended up having a good enough harvest, considering.  

However, here in the middle of November, both the old bed and the new bed are all grass once again, with hardly a strawberry leaf to be seen.  I think I will be simply sheet mulching (again) on top of both beds in the hopes of starting afresh with something else.  

Last month I took four or five large containers, originally from my patio at home, and filled them up with newly made compost and strawberry runners.  For at least the next few years I plan on growing strawberries in containers, which are far easier to get grass out of!  It means I'll probably need to net them against birds, and slugs also might be more of an issue;  but hopefully I'll get at least a similar harvest to this year's, and no grass (or easily eradicated grass).

Crispy duck

 

The daughter enjoying crispy duck, Nov 2021

 

The time finally came and two of our three drakes became dinner.  The flock of six had been free ranging for a few weeks beforehand;  we wanted to make sure their last days were calm and happy and I think we succeeded, judging by flavor.

The son helped me catch both drakes and hold them steady on the chopping block, but I completed the kill and processing alone.  I bought a 500 g bag of paraffin wax to dip them in to complete the plucking (after watching duck hunter videos on youtube);  this got them almost completely clean of down though I still had to pluck the outer feathers first before dunking in the hot water/melted wax.  

After plucking and cleaning, both carcasses went into the fridge to rest for four days;  then the younger drake became the tastiest crispy roast duck we have ever eaten.  I butterflied the whole carcass, salted the skin, and roasted it slowly in the oven for about two hours.  It was a one-meal bird for our family, but so amazingly good.

This roast gave us about half a cup of duck fat which was saved to make confit with the older drake (using several cups of beef fat also, which we got from the butcher and rendered ourselves);  I cut the carcass into quarters, salted it well, and let it cure for another two days before cooking it in the slow cooker.  The confit is still in the fridge but will be eaten imminently.  Bones of both are to be saved separately from our usual stock-making ingredients to make a special duck-only stock for our Thanksgiving and Christmas gravies. 

To raise our own meat is a long term goal of mine.  The son told me he didn't want to know his meat--though he agreed our crispy duck was delicious--but I'm the opposite:  I want to know our meat.  I want to know that throughout its life it was able to express its natural behavior and eat a natural diet and see sunshine! which almost all farmed poultry in this country don't get.  I know my ducks had very good lives and good deaths too--over before they knew it.

Will I try to raise more meat ducks in the future?  Yes!  We still have our dominant drake and three females, and if our reliable mother hen Cookie goes broody again in the spring I would willingly give her duck eggs once more.

Food totals, October 2021

Vegetables

22 oz zucchini

68 oz green kuri squash

9 oz radicchio

78 oz chard

12.5 oz green beans

16.5 oz carrots

14.5 oz kohl rabi

1 oz celery

3.5 oz lettuce

4 oz tomatoes

2 oz kale

12.5 golden beets

Total:  243.5 oz, or 15 lb 3.5 oz

 

Note:  I weigh all my veg after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.

Fruit

44 oz flowering quinces (chaenomeles)

2 oz yellow raspberries

 

Total:  46 oz, or 2 lb 14 oz

Eggs

44 eggs from 8 hens and 3 ducks