Ideal Bite

Our Thanksgiving menu is as follows: Homemade stuffing-onions, garlic, celery & carrots from the farmers' market (FM), sage & oregano from my back yard, and artisian bread from my local baker, green beans, frozen from my garden, potatoes from the FM, mashed, squash pie-squash bought at a local pumpkin farm, apple pie, apples from my tree, cranberry relish-local cranberries & apples, oranges & candied ginger & sugar from a long way off. Yum.

After living overseas for 15 years, Thanksgiving will be special this year as we will be with family (& I have two little guys 1 1/2 & 5). I helped my mother start a small business last spring baking bread and other fresh goodies for a local farmer's market. We have saved left-over bread and dried it into cubes for croutons & now turkey stuffing! We buy locally, as well, supporting other farmer's market vendors. Also, I will run the 5K Gobble Jog the morning of Thanksgiving -Marietta, GA. Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, yeah, turkeys and Thanksgiving are great. But Wet, Hot, American Summer? YES! Toshio, you just climbed several rungs of my ladder.

eating locally involves relationships. All items are within 25 miles, except for flour, sugar and spices. wild turkey and venison (my neighbor hunts) cornbread stuffing (cornmeal from Sciples Mill, operating since 1790) sweet potato casserole corn (another neighbor has a large garden) salad, peas (from my garden) rolls (Old Country Bakery) peach pie (homemade from local Farmer's Market peaches) you can eat good in the country, and even better when you've got lots of friends!

The turkey comes from my microfarm ( 2.23 acres) I raise about 8 a year. More delicious than you could ever imagine! (Although I do need to buy their organic feed from a neighbor 20 miles away!) I have chesnut stuffing from chesnuts gathered from mine and my neighbor's backyard vand herbs from my garden. Butternut squash made with honey from my bees Spinach, collards, kale, Brussell sprouts, and lettuce from the garden. Potato leek soup from the garden with raw milk from the neighbor's farm in CT (where it is legal!) Pumpkin pie from the garden. I do buy butter, brown sugar, pepper, salt and gluten free bread crumbs but otherwise all comes from a few feet away from the door of my house!!!

We are now living in Belgium where they do nto celebrate Thanksgiving, so since I do not have the day off, our Thanksgiving will be celebrated a day late. Though I try to live locally there are a few non local items on the menu: dinner is Turkey from farm 't Bolhuis 8.7miles away- the breed used has been raised in Belgium since the 1600s- closest I can get to the Pilgrims from here Pumpkin Pie- pumpkin from nextdoor neighbor, flour from the local flour mill (12.3 miles)butter, milk, cream from local dairy farm "the plow" 6.1 miles (award winning for its bio products and animal care) Mashed Potatoes, sweet potatoes roasted carrots (all from local farm 1.2miles) Green bean casserole - green beans- next door neighbour, mushrooms from the Ardennes (about 120 miles) onions from my back yard stuffing -froma homemade bread, home grown celery and ingredients already listed above wine- from nearby vinyard- 13.4 miles Sugar for desserts, cranberry sauce- from local beet root sugar mill 27 miles away Non-local buys will be cranberries (from Wisconsin about 5000 miles away, pecans (3800 miles) for the pecan pie so those two ingredients destroy our average, however for us eating locally is not a once a year thing, every week I buy dairy, meat, bread, flour, fruits and veggies from local sources- usually by bike, though less so in the winter. I still have my splurges on cranberries, pecans and the like. Buying locall is not only better for the environment, but it is also better for the wallet - local apples currently cost me 60 eurocents per kilo (about 50 cents US per pound) whereas South African, Australian and New Zeeland granny smiths are currently 4 times the price!And in today's ecpnomy every little bit helps ;-)

8

Thank you everybody, this is so inspiring!

The menu is not as easy to control this year as we are having a family reunion with about 30 folks. Luckily we have a big garden and live in northern California. Turkey from within 150 miles. Potatoes, celery, within 50 miles. bread baked here (including bread for stuffing) flour from California within 350 miles. onions, carrots, winter squash, garlic, green salad stuff, pickles, corn relish, pickled beets, etc. all grown and prepared here. Yams from the central valley - within 350 miles pumpkin for pie grown here, walnuts within 100 miles, apples and cider from apples grown here (cider pressed last week). Milk, cream, butter from within 60 miles. Cranberries from Oregon - within 200 miles. Goat cheese from within 60 miles. spices (including salt and pepper), coffee and black tea from far, far away. Ditto sugar, but honey is local. I think that about covers it. I would have posted yesterday, but we were in town all day. A very Thankful Thanksgiving to all.