Thanksgiving Share

The 5th Farmstead Share

Carrots

Butternut Squash 

Sage Bunches

Shallots

Parsnips

Watermelon Radish

Baby Kale Mix

parsley

Red Maria Potatoes 

Salad greens 

Farm Eggs

Wholesome Holmstead Yogurt

Hahn’s End Eleanor Buttercup cheese

Milkweed Fire Tonic

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.   I love the sentiment and simplicity of sharing a home cooked meal with people I love, and remembering how grateful I am for all I’ve been given.  I love having a whole day devoted to cooking one meal and the time to savor it.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to use some of the veggies, herbs and Medicinals you received in the share.

In your share last week you received a tin of our freshly Ground cayenne pepper.   All summer long we harvested bright red cayenne peppers  and dried them, collecting pounds that Muriel ground last week for you.  Cayenne is a powerful medicine as well as culinary herb.  It has been used for centuries to help with circulation and warming.  My favorite way to use it is in a hot drink with lemon and honey.  Follow this link to read more about the healing benefits of Cayenne. https://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/benefits-of-cayenne-pepper/

Milkweed Cayenne

You received our Fire Tonic this week,  which is made with our own honey, Thyme, Garlic, Onions, Cayenne, Horseradish and Apple Cider Vinegar from Willow Pond Farm in Sabbatus.  I like to take a teaspoon daily to support my immune system and as a preventive for colds and coughs.

The Red Maria Potatoes are delicious roasted or made into mashed potatoes.  I leave the skins on for both.  All of the veggies you received in this weeks share can be roasted together with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  If you dried any of your Thyme or Rosemary, add it to your roasted veggies or in your stuffing, along with the fresh sage and parsley.

My favorite way to eat parsnips is roasting them and adding them to soup. Here is a recipe that includes butternut squash.  It calls for tarragon, but I’d replace it with sage.  https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/2014/01/megans-roasted-parsnip-and-butternut-squash-soup/

Roasted Parsnip Soup

It is really quite miraculous that we’re still harvesting  fresh greens from the fields and from our un-heated tunnels.  I am grateful for visionaries like Elliot Coleman, fourseasonfarm.com,  who has changed the way we think about farming here in Maine, and all over the world.  20 years ago, you couldn’t find fresh greens after October, or for that matter, much of anything grown in Maine after Labor Day.  Now we have year round Farmers Markets and hundreds of CSA’s grwing the most nutritious food available.  This is something to be hopeful about, and grateful for.  This weeks salad greens are a mix of baby leaf lettuce and hardier greens such as tatsoi.  I love a simple dressing of olive oil, fresh Garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper.  I use an immersion blender to get it creamy and the garlic well blended.  The Watermelon Radish is a beautiful and tasty addition to any salad.

And, finally, this morning as I stepped out of the green house, after a very early start, already feeling tired and the day barely begun, I paused to notice this sweet scene, and my heart swelled with gratitude for the beauty and simplicity of farm life.

I am thankful for your continued support of our small family farm.

Warmly,

Lucretia