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I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner for a lot of years, but this year was really, really different. I didn’t open cans, jars (other than foods I’d jarred myself) or boxes. Nothing came from the freezer. Very few things came from the store. Most of the foods I prepared came from farmers and the farmer’s market. It wasn’t any harder than previous holiday meals, but the methods were very different. And the flavor? No comparison.

When did the kids get so TALL?

First, the turkey: I pre-ordered a “medium” pastured turkey from West Wind Farms, my local meat provider, a couple months ago. It was about 14 pounds, more than enough for our family, with enough meat for Thanksgiving and at least 3 meals of leftovers. I was a tad nervous about roasting it, since I know grassfed and pastured meats cook very differently from conventional meats. I’ve wet-brined turkeys before and thought about perhaps a dry brine, but, this being my first pastured bird, wanted to keep it very simple this year. The cooking process was very easy: a quick coconut oil rub before 30 minutes at 450° then 20 minutes per pound, or until internal temp hit 180°, covered for all but the last 35 minutes. During its 20 minute “resting” period, the meat reached 190°, perfect.

The skin was crispy, and the whole bird was very flavorful, but the big difference my family noticed was how moist the meat was. For all it’s injected flavor enhancement, conventional turkey couldn’t compare. Personally, I noticed the flavor was drastically different than a conventional bird. I don’t know what it is that gives conventional turkeys that chemical aftertaste, but to me it tastes the way preserved lab specimens smell. This turkey had not a bit of that, even cold and rewarmed the next day. The moistness was achieved without brine and without basting (I did baste once when I took the cover off to brown the skin, but that was it.) Amazing. Some chicken broth I’d made earlier this month rounded out the pan drippings for lots and lots of gravy.

I made a fermented cranberry relish this year from cranberries I purchased through West Wind Farms as well. On Monday I washed the cranberries and chopped them roughly. I put them in a quart canning jar with a scrubbed, quartered organic lemon, a couple tablespoons of whey, a tablespoon of sea salt and filtered water to cover. By Thursday, the fermented “zing” was most pronounced, so I dumped the contents of the jar into the blender and added a little drizzle of local honey. Delicious!

Delvin Farm‘s potatoes got the traditional mashing with some Hatcher’s Dairy cream and butter I’d made from skimming my raw West Wind Farms milk. I was thankful hubby was available to mash when the time came. He’s such a pro! It was hard to eat these potatoes without crying thankful tears that Hank Delvin is at home with his family for Thanksgiving after his brush with death earlier this year.

I made dressing from Twin Forks Artisan Expedition Bread. I’ve posted a photo recipe for this because I’ve never made anything but open-the-bag-dump-in-the-soup type of dressing. I’m glad I didn’t make more because although a one-day feast is a blessing, having leftovers around that taste that good for too many days might quickly become a curse!

I caught a good bit of flak from one of the kids for my decision to skip the Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider this year. I understand that tradition is important, but I wanted to keep this meal close to home, and as near as I could tell, Martinelli’s comes from California and that’s just not local enough. I started a batch of plain water kefir on Monday. Wednesday night I juiced a couple pounds of local fruits and added the juice to the kefir after the grains had been removed. By Thursday afternoon, the kefir was sparkly and delicious, a light sparkling apple juice with probiotic benefits! I made three bottles with apple, three with grape and one with pomegranate (boy, those seeds really don’t put out much juice, do they?)

Bottle of white, Bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of pomegranate instead...

After all that, we needed a couple hours to breathe before digging into the apple and pumpkin pies. I’ve never been a pie crust maker, but this recipe worked just great! More local apples from Rainbow Hill Farm (or as Rose calls him “The Apple Guy”) and a couple small pie pumpkins from the farmer’s market filled the crusts most beautifully. The dark orange egg yolks from Three Meadows Farm‘s chickens made a delicious custard, indeed! The flour wasn’t local, but I ground it in my own kitchen, so that’s local enough for me. Also not local were the cinnamon and allspice used in the pies. (Haven’t figured out local spices yet.) More West Wind Farms cream became whipped cream, and topped my very welcome cup of dessert coffee as well as the pie. Those beautiful beeswax candles were handcrafted by a bee farmer who frequents our market and they smelled wonderful as their glow lit our table.

I’m thankful for the warm sun, nourishing rain, living soil, sleeping seed and the farmers who know how to work their alchemy on these to coax food from them to bring to market. I’m grateful for my year of Real Food, the newfound knowledge of local providers and the fellowship of friends, neighbors and family. I’m thankful, too, for the electronic media of blogging that permits me to wax philosophical about those things that make me laugh, cry, and fume. Life is good.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade.