Coldest night yet

Last night the temperature in the hoophouse dipped to 21.4°F.  That is the coldest night we’ve had at Henbogle this fall; November 19 it dipped to 22°F. We’ve got snow predicted for the weekend.  It looks like our mild fall is drawing to a close.

Methinks it is time to harvest the last of the lettuce and the final brussels sprout before they freeze, and add some additional mulch to the leeks and the garlic.  We’ve had so much rain, I hope the garlic is surviving.  Fortunately Dan will be home before it is dark and will be able to harvest the lettuce while he can see.  These days, I’m gardening by headlamp when I get home.  Here’s hoping for an early spring!

Best. Sprouts. Ever.

Thanks Mom, J & H for joining us at Henbogle for a fantastic day of food and friendship, and the best Brussels sprouts I have ever eaten, let alone cooked.

Our locally raised turkey, rubbed with sage butter.

Maine Wild Blueberry Pie and Maple Pumpkin Pecan Pie, with artful decoration by Dan.

I hope everyone enjoyed a delicious holiday full of fantastic food, friends and family, and is today enjoying a chance to relax and maybe have a turkey sandwich for lunch.

Thanksgiving preparations

Today was a busy day!  The dishwasher earned its keep,  it is currently on its 5th load today.  Actually, last night was, too.   I made turkey broth and pie dough, each now resting in the fridge awaiting use tomorrow.  I made a batch of corn bread for stuffing, but it failed to rise.  I attributed that to using powdered buttermilk.  I made cranberry sauce with apricot and candied ginger.  I can just taste the turkey sandwiches!

This morning, I arose early and after breakfast, made another batch of corn bread.  Again, it failed to rise, this time I attributed it to the baking powder since I used real buttermilk.  Hmmm.  I decided I can live without corn bread in my stuffing.  Lucky chickens!  I know they will enjoy it. While I did this, Dan and Mom worked on the dining room, moving some things around to make more room.  As usual, Dan worked his magic and created country decor from old wooden boxes and pickle crocks.

Moving on, I decided since the oven was hot, I’d roast the squash for tommorow, and reheat it as I would mashed potatoes, with milk/cream and butter.  Mmmmm, butter. While I did this, Dan decided we needed ice cream to go with the pie, so he whipped up a batch of creamy vanilla and a batch of blackberry lime –wow.  We are going to have some good eatin’ tomorrow!

While the ice cream churned, we all made a foray to the back 40′ to visit the hens then gather some curly willow, moss and bittersweet for decorations.  Dan, who gets the artistic gene from his Mom, put the table decor together.  Mom created a nice pot of moss for the drinks table.

Then, time to harvest the veggies, hooray!  Despite early snow and a wet cool summer, we are eating fresh veggies for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Dan modeled the Brussels Sprout light saber, mace, and walking stick.  The thing was HUGE, and loaded with sprouts.  No, I will not have to use both plants.  I hope they are tasty, I’ll be cooking them with an assortment of carrots, seen above, in several shades.

Meanwhile, the turkey has been sitting in cider brine for 18+/- hours.  This afternoon, we removed the turkey and began the draining process — it now sits uncovered in the fridge to drain and for the skin to dry out a bit for roasting tomorrow, making a nice crispy skinned bird.

While Mom cleaned the Swiss Chard, I made the stuffing, and then dinner, a souffle using the eggs whites left from Dan’s ice cream.  Now we are all plopped in chairs recuperating from a busy day.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Roasted goodness

When roasting my two pumpkins a few days ago, I also roasted the seeds.  I’ve done this before, once, but frankly, washing all the pumpkin goop off the seeds was not worth the effort.  So I had never done it again until I read recently in the blogosphere that this particular blogger did not wash off the goop, just squished out the seeds as best they could and roasted.  (I wish I could recall who, but alas, my memory fails again.)  That caught my attention, and so when I roasted the pumpkins, I also roasted the seeds.  Yum.  I’ll do that again.

 

Maine’s veggie season keeps going, and going….

Check out the article in the Portland Press Herald about Maine farmer’s adopting season extending practices to meet the demand for local veggies deep into the dark days. Whoo hoo!

There’s a terrific indoor winter farmer’s market in Brunswick.  Dan and I were there on Saturday, and the vegetables were gorgeous.  There are tables so you can purchase food and coffee and sit and enjoy the musical entertainment or the positive, vibrant atmosphere.  I love it!

the butter holidays

Just in time to distract me from the ever present darkness of this time of year come the butter holidays.  Up first on Thursday is Thanksgiving, aka the Festival of the Brown Food.  This year, as in past, I will be showcasing local foods for the meal; as much as possible from my garden, other supplemental vegetables, notably potatoes, purchased at the farmer’s market,  a locally produced turkey from one of Dan’s teacher pals, and local dairy wherever possible.

Dan’s mom will be joining us again this year, and two friends from work, H, a human rights worker from Israel here for the fall, and J, an AmeriCorps member working with me.  We are really looking forward to it.  To make things easier on the big day, I’ll be prepping in advance wherever possible.  Today, I roasted 2 pumpkins in preparation for Maple Pumpkin Pecan Pie.  The larger pumpkin in back is a Winter Luxury; in front, a Small Sugar.  Both were from my garden, unfortunately, the only 2 to fully ripen before the frost killed them off.

I halved them, removed the seeds for roasting, then halved them again, and roasted the pieces at 425°F on an oiled pan until they were soft and browned, about an hour.  I let them cool a bit, then scooped the flesh out of the skin with a spoon.  I’ll divide the pumpkin into 2 cup portions and freeze the extra for future pies, or for Chile Cheddar Pumpkin Souffles.  Yum.

Turkey Day Menu

• Nibbles (olives, nuts, goat cheese with savory tomato jam on crackers, pickled beets, dilly beans)
• Cider Brined Roast Turkey with Sage Cornbread Stuffing & Gravy (local)
• Mashed potatoes (local)
• Roasted squash wedges
• Pan roasted Brussels Sprouts with Onions
• Swiss Chard with Raisins and Almonds
• Blueberry Pie
• Apple Pie
• Maple Pumpkin Pecan Pie

There is really no need for three pies, except I love apple pie for breakfast the next day, and I want to share Maine Blueberry Pie with our guests, and Dan loves the Maple Pumpkin Pecan.  So, three pie it is.

Other do aheads for Turkey Day:

• Make Pie Dough
• Make chicken stock for gravy
• Make corn bread and stuffing bread
• Brine turkey
• Make cranberry sauce*

A long list, but so worth it.

*edited to add cranberrry sauce thanks to Lynn reminding me!

Ice

Winter is coming.  This week, we enjoyed a brief reprieve, but the signs are here.  Last weekend, we traveled north to a friend’s lakeside camp just north of Brownville.  It was cold, and the lake had begun to skim over with ice, but a small breeze stirred the water and broke up the ice, which made the most amazing sound, like musical crickets.  The gray skies were from the fringes of Hurricane Ida which dumped 5 inches of rain at Henbogle.  See and hear the ice below.

Harvest Monday

The garden is still providing, despite temps sinking in the mid 20s last week, brrr!  This week we harvested some gorgeous lettuce.  Fall lettuce is divine, so tender yet toothsome, and nice and sweet.  Yum.

I also harvested some yummy Red Russian kale for a delicious batch Kale and Sausage Soup on Saturday, which I served with an apple pie made from apples procured from a local orchard.  YUM!

I know the pie is not technically countable for Daphne’s Harvest Monday, but hey, if you made a pie that looked that pretty, chance are you’d want to show off a little, too, right?

Snow, what snow?

Friday

Sunday

Sunday dawned warm and sunny, no sign of snow left on the ground.  The high was 64°F!  We spent the majority of the day outside continuing to put the veggie garden to bed, renovating one flower bed with the rototiller, getting the bird feeders out, and gathering pruned branches to take to the town transfer station.

We also painted my new garden ornament.  It looks so good!  Amazing what a little spray paint can do, isn’t it?  I created the finial out of a wooden finial I purchased at some yard sale.  I always buy them when I see them as they are perfect for such projects as this one.  We have a lovely new garden tuteur for the cost of 2 cans of spray paint and a 50¢ tag sale treasure, AND we kept some metal out of the scrap pile.  I love a win-win scenario. The first coat

The finial

A nice shade of purple, eh?  This photo best shows the color as really appears.

In a good viewing spot for the winter.  Note the salvaged trellis in the background –maybe that should be purpleized, too?

Another hen gone

Dan and I think we must have another raccoon stalking our poor hens.  On Saturday, we lost another chicken, Eartha, one of the Black Stars.  We were busy preparing for dinner guests in the house after lunch.  I went out to the garden at 3 o’clock to cut some kale, and all was well, I gave the girls some kale and apple cores and went back to the house.  At 4:45, Dan went out to close them into the coop for the night, and saw signs of the struggle.  He checked the coop, and Eartha was gone. It was too dark to see much, but he looked to no avail.

In the morning, we both went out and saw tracks we think are coon tracks.  We’ll be trying to catch this one with our old standby, cheap canned cat food.

I feel so badly for poor Eartha and Lola.  We have a fence around the yard and still cannot seem to protect our girls.  I love having hens, and want to give them a happy and safe life, but I don’t seem to be meeting that goal lately.  Sigh.  Should we give up?  The only strategy I can think of is to get a llama or another dog.  I don’t think a llama will meet the zoning in our neighborhood, and I can’t see getting another dog when the dog is home alone for at least 8 hours a day –dogs need company to be happy.  What to do….