by Joe Dennis, Nostalgia Farms, Walcott, Iowa
One holiday down three to go! November is the start of a long and strenuous holiday season of friends, family and parties. One of the things we do at Nostalgia Farms is to help our busy customers with making this season a little less hectic and hopefully more special. We pride ourselves in providing pasture raised heritage breed turkeys, ducks, lamb and chickens to be the highlight of holiday meals. We also offer a variety of fresh from our garden jams, bread, holiday cookie platters and a large selection of hand- crafted items suitable for one of kind additions to your party or gifts for that special someone.
Ed and his mom just returned this evening from a long day of driving to Greene, Iowa, to the meat processor with a selection of dressed duck and holiday turkeys. We raise “Bourbon Red” turkeys that are considered a heritage breed; unlike the typical mass- market birds most of us are used. These Bourbon Reds tend to be smaller but far superior in taste. Our birds have spent their lives living on grasses and bugs caught in the pasture under our apple trees (and just about any where else they felt like wandering to on the farm). The sad thing is that many of the commercial varieties we get in the stores cannot even walk by the time they are 3 or 4 months old, through breeding and the use of growth hormones, and they spend their entire existence in an overcrowded confinement house. In my opinion, taste and nutrition have gone by the way for profit.
I finished planting another bed of mixed greens in one of our smaller hoop houses in town. I will supplement it with a small heater to try and provide fresh lettuce for Christmas, and may add lighting just above the bed to prolong growing through our dark January and February.
Our largest hoop house is full of mature spinach, lettuce, arugula and Swiss chard. Four more flats of Winter Density Romaine went in a few weeks ago. I hope they mature before temperatures dip to single digits. A bed of beets and carrots planted in mid August is waiting to be dug for Thanksgiving for our customers at the farmers market as well.
Plans are being finalized with my family on who is bringing what for Thanksgiving dinner. My list will include the turkey (obviously), stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes and pumpkin cheesecake. Besides a layer of herbed butter under the skin, my preparation is fairly straight forward: a 325-degree oven until 165 degrees in the thigh. The bird is nestled over a bed of carrots, celery and leeks. Since no water is injected into the bird and our free range birds are so lean, I baste with a good amount of chicken stock throughout the cooking process. The turkey stock is made with the neck and giblets saved to mix with the pan drippings for the gravy. I love my Mom but she can’t hold a candle to my gravy (family consensus not mine, sorry Mom). My stuffing is filled with apples, sausage, pecans, leftover homemade bread and lots of fresh sage and thyme.
Check out two of my favorite Thanksgiving Day Recipes:
Nostalgia Farms Easy Sweet Potato Casserole
Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie
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Joe Dennis is a farmer at Nostalgia Farms in Walcott, Iowa. Together with his partner, Ed Kraklio, they sell locally-grown, organic produce at the Freight House Farmer’s Market in downtown Davenport, IA near LeClaire Park, every Tuesday (3-6 pm) and Saturday (8 am -1 pm). You can visit the farm’s website at: www.nostalgiafarms.com. Read more of Farmer Joe’s blog posts on MVHNews, or try any of the Nostalgia Farms recipes on this website. |
