Category Archives: Food-Wine

Celebrating Thanksgiving

Posted on by

This coming Thursday Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving, first recognized as a national holiday in the United States in 1863.  But in fact, before President Lincoln’s proclamation, “Thanksgiving” had been observed in the New World for over two hundred years.  Though the nature of the relations between the first English colonists and the Native American tribes they encountered is still fiercely debated, historical records from Plymouth Plantation do indicate that in 1621, the settlers and their Indian neighbors gathered for a feast in the late autumn, at which time they gave thanks to God for a successful harvest.

While Thanksgiving Day in the twenty-first century may retain some religious overtones, the holiday is now largely civil and secular, with families gathering to enjoy a bountiful meal together.  The featured food is baked or roasted turkey, served with such dishes as mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.  Locavores:  note that these foods are native to our shores!

As a committed vegetarian, I can’t condone the traditional Thanksgiving meal, so this weekend I was inspired to spend more time cooking than I usually do and then enjoy my own solitary celebration.  Besides, November is “Vegan Mo-Fo” (Month of Food, okay).  Everything I made, listed below, turned out very well, which is most unusual.

  • No-Knead Swedish Cardamom Braid, p. 64
  • Roasted Carrots and Parsnips, p. 50
  • Zesty Mashed Potatoes, p. 44
  • Lentils Monastery Style, p. 239
  • Maple Granola, p. 94

The bread and roasted vegetable recipes are from the Nov-Dec 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times magazine and the mashed potatoes recipe from the 1 January 2007 issue.  The soup recipe is from Diet for a Small Planet (my most used cookbook) and the granola recipe from the Nov-Dec 2010 issue of Yankee magazine.  And yes, each is these dishes is vegan.

Today was probably the first time ever in my life that I made a yeasted pastry, so I actually photographed the bread because it looked just like the picture in the magazine. And no, I’m not including the photo in this post, as I’ve pledged that this blog will remain free of food p-rn.

Many Hands Organic Farm

Posted on by

I’m thrilled to announce that our town is the proud recipient of a $7,500 “On the Same Page” grant from the Federal Library Services and Technology Act, administered on the federal level by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and on the state level by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.  You may have heard this program called a “Town-Wide Read” because all residents of a particular town are encouraged to read and discuss the same book.  As my Reading Group blog page indicates, we’ve chosen as our book Barbara Kingsolver’s account of her family’s year-long attempt to eat locally.  Over the next two months, our library has scheduled a variety of activities which will integrate reading with local food, farms, and gardens.

The kick-off event for Read-Eat-Grow was a lecture at the library this evening, featuring the owners of Many Hands Organic Farm in nearby Barre.  An overflow crowd listened to Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson describe their attempts to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.  For nearly thirty years now, the couple has grown vegetables and fruits without using pesticides or herbicides and has raised livestock without feeding them antibiotics.  As both spoke, they showed slides of the farm and the crops they’ve grown.  They encouraged the audience to buy food locally and also to support organizations such as NOFA, the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

I was impressed with the couple’s determination to “walk the talk” and I must say that the home-made soup they brought us was delicious!  With this lecture, I think our project is off to a great start, and I look forward attending the upcoming events.  Please do bookmark the library website and consider helping us celebrate both reading and local food.