Winter solstice

The Winter Solstice - the shortest day, the longest night - is celebrated pretty much everywhere by everyone, currently (by us) as Christmas. For those of us to try to be more in touch with the seasons, it seems significant to observe this change in direction of the day length, separately from all the Christmas holiday stuff. But as I've been reading about traditional, pre-Christian observations of the winter solistice, boy it all sounds just like what we are doing anyway for the Christmas; feasting, candles, fires, gifts, singing, evergreens and holly, hospitality and sharing.

An interesting thing I did learn was about "cross quarters" and how the old celts counted the seasons. Besides the summer and winter solistices and spring and fall equinoxes, half way between each of these was another holiday. February 1 was Imbolc (now Ground Hog Day), May 1 was Beltane (now May day), August 1 was Ludgnasa (now just echoed in State and County fairs), November 1 was Samhain (Halloween), and these days were the actual divisions between the seasons. So summer began on May 1, and ended on August 1, leaving the summer solstice in the middle of summer. Which is how it came to be called midsummer night's eve, and makes more sense in many ways since it gets pretty summery so long before the June 21.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful, somewhat locavore Thanksgiving, that we got to share with family and friends. Lindsey, her mother and grandmother came, and our friend Cynthia and her daughter.

The turkey was a 20# Broad Breasted White, one we raised ourselves, and butchered ourselves - the processor who used to do them closed down, so we were stuck. Since it was only 20 pounds, we cooked it half the time upside down, then turned him right side up to finish. We did need to cover with foil to keep from getting too brown (we have a stash of pieces of used foil - I'm not sure where it all comes from, but we didn't have to use any new foil).

The stuffing used organic bread stuffing mix (I've tried to make stuffing with stale bread and it hasn't been very good), onions and lots of red peppers, turkey stock (from a previous turkey), and Bell's seasoning. Usually I put sun dried tomatoes in the stuffing, but it was too hard to find them in the black hole that is our freezer, but - maybe since they were so many sweet, delicious red peppers - the stuffing was outstanding.

The gravy - pan drippings, more stock from previous turkeys, and ground giblets, thickened with cornstarch. Better than usual.

Then mashed potatoes - the late ones we grew, with goat milk, but no butter. They weren't as good as usual, not sure if it was the variety of potato or lack of butter. Carrots fresh from the garden, and green beans from the freezer. And parsnips - or rather, about half of one parsnip. Just about killed me to get it out of the ground; those parnips have long roots and hold tight (last year I bent my spading fork trying to dig parnsips...) It wasn't that sweet, this early in the year, so rather than just cooking, I sliced it thinly and sauted in butter. It was a big hit - it always surpises me how much people like parnsips.

Ruth brought rolls and pumpkin bread, Cynthia and her daughter brought cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, ice cream and whip cream. We all ate heavily and sat around in a stupor...