This Month at Ramsey Farms - November 3 through December 4, 2014
I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve updated this
blog! We’ve been so busy with work, school, the fall festival, visitors from
north Carolina, Thanksgiving, and other activities that have left little time
for interneting. (I just created a new word!)
The garden is doing fine. We’re eating a lot of radishes and
scallions, the lettuces are growing bigger by the day, the carrots and beets
are growing albeit slowly, the green onions are growing bigger and we do enjoy
the green scallion stems, and there are a handful of garlic stems showing up
through the mulch now! I really miss my old herb garden in North Carolina so
that is a project we’ll be preparing for this winter so that we can begin
planting as soon as possible in the spring. We’re building our compost pole and
sourcing manure to enrich the main garden so that it will be more productive
next spring.
We spent a wonderful fun-filled day at our little church’s
fall festival where the kids and community enjoyed two large inflatable slides,
games, music, food, candy, and a hay ride! The following weekend the church
hosted a housewarming party for a family in our little community who lost their
home to a fire back in September. They have rebuilt and needed all the basics a
home needs such as towels, pantry staples, and kitchen implements.
My mom and my sister visited us the weekend prior to
Thanksgiving and we spent the week beforehand preparing for them. I made
homemade pasta sauce so my daughter could make her renowned lasagna dish. We
made homemade hamburger and hotdog buns and slaw for a cookout the first night
they were here. I was so happy to see them and to introduce them to our special
piece of land – our home. We ate, drank wine, played board games, danced to
music, hiked the trails Chris has cut through our woods, sat in the sun,
listened to crickets and coyotes, and talked and talked and talked and simply
enjoyed one another’s company. I was delighted to introduce them to all my
closest neighbors! I loved having them here but it was just too short of a
visit and I look forward to having them come back in the spring and stay a
little longer and see this place in full bloom!
We had an awesome Thanksgiving that began with an evening
church service and pot luck dinner at our church. There were more than 70
people there and the food was incredible! You know that anytime you get a bunch
of southern women bringing food it’s gonna be downright delicious. That was on
Sunday before Thanksgiving (the same day my mom and sister left us) and the same
day I started my Thanksgiving cooking extravaganza!
That Sunday early morning, I started the feast cooking with
making my homemade totally-from-scratch chicken broth with a nice little 4.5
pound whole chicken, fresh scallions from the garden, dried herbs from my
garden, garlic, carrots, onions, and celery. This simmers for several hours and
had the house smelling delicious and well, like home! I deboned the chicken to
use later on, simmered some more, then cooled the broth in another pot that was
surrounded by ice and cold water. While the broth was cooking, I made my
homemade cornbread (no mixes or boxes used here!) then started my mom’s “world
famous” (well probably just to our family) cornbread dressing. I even made my
own homemade cream of chicken and cream of celery soups rather than using the
teeming canned stuff. I did use a bag of
Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix (the only prepared food used in this recipe) so
next year I’d like to figure out how to replace that with a homemade version –
any ideas? I jarred the remaining chicken broth to use in other recipes and
refrigerated the unbaked pans of dressing. Then…I took a nap! J
My sweet and talented daughter helped me in the kitchen all
throughout the week’s preparation for
We didn’t use any ingredients from a can or a jar! The only
shortcuts we used were frozen yams, store bought marshmallows for the candied
yams, and the Pepperidge farm stuffing mix I used in the dressing recipe! Farmhand Chris always gets the dirty work –
he readied the big bird for the oven by removing the neck and giblets, tying
back the wings, stuffing the bird with apple, onion, carrot, celery, and herbs
and spreading herbs under the skin. Our dog, Carolina got Thanksgiving the
evening before by dining on the turkey neck and giblets poured over her crunchy
dog food. Our little boy washed the potatoes for the mashed potatoes and helped
clean up and do the little things that he could do (mostly he stayed out of the
way, which was a big help)!
We served our hors devours about 4pm on T-Day with a pinot
noir and had a selection of chardonnay, pinot noir, and Riesling for the main
courses. My dear daughter baked the pumpkin pies – we did use canned pumpkin
and frozen pie crusts for that (last year my pie crust was terrible and I was
not pleased with the local availability of pumpkins…next year I’m growing my
own!). I whipped up fresh real whipped cream and we served champagne with the
dessert! Of course the kids don’t drink wine so they enjoyed a nice vintage
sweet tea with their meal! It was a beautiful and wonderful meal and we’re so
thankful for each other, our farm, our home, and all the wonderful people and
blessings in our lives.
