Feathery Catch

Fresh Birds of Fall

Getting things done for Thanksgiving dinner- living out in the country and sharing in God's bounty and a communal farm, we got to work on the main course.

We began to raise turkeys a few years back when we acquired some wild birds wandering in from the Shawnee Forest. Since then we have successfully continued their line and raised a good flock this year.

We slaughtered 10 birds for our feast.  Here is my friend holding the bird over the pot of boiling water to begin the plucking process. Photos provided by Din Dayemi.

Here is a merry group of turkey butchers getting ready to pluck and take out the innards. Like the primary colors?

Meanwhile out in the herb garden some nice shots were taken of echinachea seed tops, which kind of look turkey-like….

A Year Later Thanksgiving 2014

A Year Later

Thanksgiving 2014. 

The NYTimes posted a food article ond Thanksgiving food recipes by state…….

From following ancestral stories of moves to the Colonies, and migrations west, I gathered the recipes offered for Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, California, and included my own residence in Illinois. 

Here is the menu of reflections; for the recipes you'll have to go to
 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html?_r=0

The Gilman/Hood/Hammond families came over to Maine as I shared in my posts last year.

Maine: Lobster state!  Maine became a state in 1820. Thanksgiving followed heavily on Massachusetts traditions. Recently the state’s bounteous lobster harvest (some 126 million pounds in 2013, the most recent figure- which is remarkable given the state of the ocean) has led local cooks to introduce lobster to the Thanksgiving table. The following recipe for Lobster mac and cheese, a variation on a classic plain recipe that Julia Moskin published in The Times, is a rich and shockingly flavorful addition to the holiday feast, and requires only a single lobster to serve six or eight. Like that! I love lobster. This is sort of the pasta/fish course I guess. I was surprised to see how many of the ancestors arrived and settled in Maine- Bath was a huge landing place in the late 1600's.

Massachusetts: Leave it to 21st century foodies and the Times to tweak the iconic Thanksgiving day feast as depicted in Plimouth for generations!

Re-enactment at Plimouth Plantation is now much more historically researched and embodied.

 The recipe of Clam and Chorico dressing honors the seacoast of Cape Cod and points south,

 MA Seacoast and outer islands is home to one of the largest Portuguese-American communities in the United States and the source of one of the nation’s most flavorful hyphenated cuisines.

 (The blessing of the Fleet in Provincetown MA)

Matthew Jennings, the chef and an owner of the forthcoming Townsman restaurant in Boston, pays homage to that cooking with a New Bedford-style Thanksgiving dressing made with local Massachusetts quahog clams- the shells of wampum belts-

 

Quahog shell   is made into wampum beads

                                                                                              Wampum Belt

the recipe calls also for the Portuguese sausage known as chouriço.

 Packaged chorizo is an acceptable substitution. Fresh clams are a requirement!


Rhode Island: Providence was home to the early immigrant Bowler family (grandmother Jane Taylor (Bowler) Gilman) who were merchants- and in the food-hospitality trade-who knew?!

(wish I could animate this to put a smile on his face)

Another scrap of food lore: Indian pudding

was a compromise. A mass of cornmeal, milk and molasses, baked for hours, it was born of the settlers' nostalgia for British 'hasty' pudding and an adaptation to the ground-corn porridges of their Native American neighbors. Originally served as a first course, it grew sweeter (but not too sweet; the pilgrims'  ascetic practices ran deep) and migrated to the end of supper.

New Hampshire: Home of the Yankee magazine, proponent of  Yankee culture (what is that?! a reaction to Southern culture?) since 1934. You find the older magazines in some thrift stores still...

Old school cooking. Brined(12 hours worth) and roasted for 4 hours= Simple Roast Turkey. Gilmans, Macleods and Hammonds all lived in NH at various times. I find the Yankee magazine a bit…dry? Hopefully not the Turkey! At our Southern Illinois community farm we just slaughtered 10 turkeys for Thanksgiving- a wild flock that we have been domesticating for the past three years. Used the tractor to carry the harvest from the hutches to the dressing area.

 

New York: Currently bracing for huge snow melt/freeze/snow in Upper part of the state. Everyone  definitely will need:  Apple Pie!……Ancestral lore: Pierre Fauconnier was a French Huguenot refugee and one of several Bowler/Vallee line ancestors who were part of the local French settlement in the vicinity of what is now Hyde Park. With a nod to the Big Apple, apple pie is really a French Tarte aux Pommes!

Vermont: Dairy state and provider since 1700's.

The recipe chosen is Cheddar cheese mashed potatoes. Vermont was famous for its cheddar cheese before Wisconsin claimed cheesehead as a state nickname. At some point the American colonies were actually exporting their domestic cheese to the UK, where it was known as Yankee Cheddar.

 is that a Vermont cheese in that 1613 still life? or this one from 1754?

as for the potatoes- I don't know if they are actually grown in Vermont.

In any case Cheddar cheesed mashed potatoes is a definite Yum. 

Ohio: Peas,Cheese and Fried Onion Salad. “Think of this salad as a little slice of nostalgia from the canned-and-frozen households of the mid-20th century,” the cook Mr. Sawyer from Ohio wrote. (Okay! this is my least favorite offering so far. Although I have had it- it's true. and I love the French's fried onions. I have yet to recreate that on the stove.)

Over the years, the Times reports, Mr. Sawyer has seen the dish made with Miracle Whip, cubes of cheese from the deli, powdered Ranch dressing, French’s fried onions. Those who know, know. (The Bonner Bowler Pendleton clan probably did not eat this at their home-Mt Storm, in Cincinnati- they had big 19th century parties.) 

 what remains is:

 and a huge Osage orange tree. 

Kentucky: The Taylor brothers (as in grandmother Jane Taylor Bowler) hiked north up from Virginia with Daniel Boone. Nathaniel Greene and the Pendleton boys- who went on up into Ohio, are all part of my bloodline for better or worse in these days-and  lived in the early days of Kentucky. Kentucky was settled by many Revolutionary soldiers and their families when the US government awarded them land grants as payment.

This recipe is a bit of  local culinary lore. I have to quote the piece in its entirety. Pocket Dressing for the wild game hunters of the Thanksgiving Weekend- a three or four day affair- from the old times.
" In a lot of states, people don’t just eat food on Thanksgiving; they hunt for it. Lora Smith, a writer and farmer with roots in Kentucky, sends along a recipe handed down from her great-grandmother, for her family’s “pocket” dressing: a baked patty of dressing that slides easily into the pockets and knapsacks of rabbit and quail hunters.

The Smiths also have the patties at the table, where they are passed around on a platter.

Texture is key. The outside must be browned and crisp. Inside, softness comes from cornbread and biscuits, and chewiness from foraged mushrooms. A family member (traditionally, the oldest matriarch)

leaves a thumbprint indentation on each patty before baking, so that a little gravy can settle and soak in.

The hunt continued through Thanksgiving weekend. “They’d again take the leftover dressing wrapped in wax paper with them, and sometimes turkey sandwiches or turkey with fresh biscuits pulled out of the oven that morning,” Ms. Smith said. “My father always carried a small backpack where he kept extra leftovers and cold bottles of Coke. His other job was to carry the rabbits and quail they shot in the backpack.” When the weather was especially chilly, the patties solved another problem. According to Ms. Smith, “they also served as nice hand warmers.” 

Virginia: As a child of Virginia, Edna Lewis —

the African-American chef and cookbook author credited with preserving countless recipes from the old South offers Corn Pudding as essential Thanksgiving fare. 

The Taylor family branch in Virginia enjoyed their corn pudding too.

South Carolina: Dessert! Salty Pluff Mud Pie. according to the Times article only in Charleston, S.C., will you find a C.S.A. for pie. Amy Robinette, who grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., is committed to adapting Southern desserts, which have often come to rely on supersweet and artificial ingredients, back to real food.

In her kitchen, the chocolate chess pie her grandmother always made for Thanksgiving — filled with white sugar, evaporated milk, and cocoa powder — has been adapted to local honey, fresh cream, dark cocoa powder and sea salt from the nearby Bull’s Bay Saltworks.

Called salty pluff mud pie, it is her most popular creation.  Robert Bonner and the Tagliaferro brothers, ancestors arrived from England, settled on the coast in the 1600's. Don't know as they would have had chess pie back then, as chocolate was just coming into England. Would have gone well with coffee at Metcalf Bowler's place in Rhode Island.

Georgia: Pie again! Pecan pie is to the Southern Thanksgiving table what pumpkin, mince and apple pies are to the Northern version of the meal. Pecan trees can be found in back and front yards in Georgia, Texas and states in between, and pecan pie is a year-round dessert.

The classic rendition is cloyingly sweet, because of the cup or cup and a half of corn syrup that most recipes call for. But you can dispense with the corn syrup and use a combination of mild honey (like clover or acacia) and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which has a wonderful flavor that is almost like light molasses. My ancestor Major Fairchild on the Bowler/Taylor side, ate his slice of pecan pie in Savannah.

(this is cook Paula Deen's guest house in Savannah)

Mississippi:  Great great great grandparent Zachary Taylor and family had his home over by the Natchez trace. They might have had Ale-Braised Collard Greens with Smoked Ham Hock for dinner, although Thanksgiving dinner didn't yet exist as a holiday-in fact it was created in the post Civil war era as a way to unite North and South citizens.  Ale braised collard greens with smoked ham hock is a mouthful! I don't eat pork, or drink, so, I'll have to find a way around this classic. I can almost hear Mr. Faulkner typing in the other room, and smell the smokehouse. When I went to visit his home in Oxford, I was with a nonagenarian neighbor of his, and a French film crew with a wild black feminist poet from L.A., Wanda Coleman. We made a point of checking out the cook house on the property- which was not open to the public, but lay in the background, shuttered and had vines climbing around it. Telling.

Illinois: Where I live, but in the Southern tip.  Pumpkin soup, from the chef Rick Bayless, an owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, is inspired by Mexico, where pumpkin is as typical an ingredient as the pepitas, ancho chile, canela and crema that are also in the recipe. Gotta get the Mexico thing going, especially as local Cobden Ill has a large Mexican population when they all came up to harvest the apples and peaches here, and stayed. The Yellow Moon Cafe in Cobden might have pumpkin soup, too-they have a great chef.

Missouri: Gooey Butter Cake. Legend has it that the St. Louis gooey butter cake originated by accident in the 1930s, when a baker mixed up the proportion of butter in one of his coffee cakes. Rather than throw it out, he sold it by the square, and the sugary, sticky confection was a hit. This reminds me of the ooey gooey bars we sell here in Carbondale, 2 hours from St Louis Mo, at The LongBranch Cafe and Bakery. 

 My great grandmother Clara Ellen Tweed, daughter of a Professor- was born and raised in St Louis in the 19th century.

New Mexico: Grand-uncle Charlie Macleod ran away(?) from New England to New Mexico and Arizona as what? hired hand, rover, gun slinger or card sharp?- must have had a bit of the family temper or integrity….. He died in a gunfight. Here's to the wild west in the family.

 Slow cooked Red Chile Turkey. unhuh! That's what I'm sayin'.

California: Honoring my sister, a very good cook and artist who grows her own

lemons, persimmons and olives in her back yard in Berkeley,CA and my grandmother Marnie Macleod who was raised up in Pt. Reyes, as well as New Hampshire. Sourdough stuffing with Kale, Dates and Turkey Sausage. Suzanne Goin, a Los Angeles native who has adapted Mediterranean cuisine to the Pacific Coast at spots like Lucques, The Hungry Cat and A.O.C. Her recipe pays tribute to the whole length of the state, with nods to the sourdough that you associate with fog-strewn San Francisco and to the almonds and dates of the Central Valley. As Ms. Goin explained in an email, “ it’s loose, laid-back and doing its own thing, California-style.” 

From Puritan Image to Southern to Wild West to California dreamin'. I'm feeling the breadth of the culinary traditions through family travels and settlement.

Thanksgiving Menu
 Color palette: red-oranges, golden yellow, dark leaf green, medium bright green, yellow-whites, ochres, burnt sienna, burnt umber,white.

First course: Spicy pumpkin Soup
Second course: Lobster Mac 'n Cheese

2 Kinds of Turkey: Brined Roasted and Slow-Cooked Red Chile.
Sourdough Kale, Dates and Turkey Sausage Dressing
Clams and Chorico Dressing
Pocket Dressing
Peas and Fried Onions
Ale Braised Collard Greens w. Smoked Ham Hock
Corn Pudding

Desserts
Salty Pluff Mud Pie
Tarte Aux Pommes
Pecan Pie
Gooey Butter Cake

Wow, I'm full. have a great THANKSgiving all and y'all!

FROSTY TIMES

Last week the arctic wind blew down over Wyoming and the Grand Tetons, across the plains of the Dakotas and Iowa into the Mississippi River valley bringing an early deep winter frost, and a lot of Lake effect snow into Michigan, upper New York state. A lot a lot.

With all of the science and satellite info at our fingertips for the instant download we're techno-info and state of the art imaged to the max.

 The logos of science dominates over the mythos of Jack Frost's archtypal overnight visit -from the realm of dream and the unconcious- and the Gaia mystique of transformed crystalline windows in the early morning sunlight.

Earlier products and place names used to remind us of Jack Frost…...

Recently Jack reappeared on the dream screen of film in The Rise of the Guardians, which if you have a kid you may have seen…..

                                     Called to make a researched reflection on  JACK FROST

Perhaps the earliest representation of Jack Frost arises in Norse folktales. Many stories and legends recounted the adventures of Ostara Blumen and Jokul Frosti, two friends who shared many adventures in a dreamland word. Jokul Frosti — or Icicle Frost — was the son of a wind god, and he used his magical artistic abilities to paint trees and to create crystal engravings outdoors during cold weather. In some variations, he could also control natural forces, like the onset of winter-being the son of Old Man Winter. He was characterized by trickery and mischief, by using the cold to nip or bite at your nose ,fingertips and toes.

 by Arthur Rackham

Later inspirations include Father Frost, a Russian character who could combine water and earth.

 A female version existed in Germany. According to this legend, a woman known as Mother Hulda or Frau Hulle lived in the sky and created snow by dropping white feathers from her bed. 

Since feather beds and comforters were so common way way way back in the day, it was natural to refer to snow drifts as beds of snow in winter.

WHY JACK?

'Jack" is a word for a man who is a worker- with a bit of a wild, rogue flavor and often a wanderer. Jacks also used to mean sailors (of all work, when sailing was the main system of transport, before trains, trucks and flying machines).

A sailor ,jack, or tar of 18th-19th century

 Jacks of all trades:

Lumberjacks 1899:

 Jacks were often rovers, wandering from place of work to place of work.

Roving is a term used in the wool processing trade- the wool is carded into roves of wool

  'Rovers' were the men who operated the roving machines in the wool processing industry, beginning in 1794 in northern and midland England.

 The rovers may have been the wandering itinerant workers of that time.

 Jack Frost works to blow the ice across the landscape.