2010

Turkey 2010

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For Thanksgiving this year, we opted to try out a heritage turkey from our local meat farmer.  I’m not entirely sure which breed of turkey we ended up with, but it was a fantastic and delicious bird. 

before turkey

Although it might be hard to tell from the photograph, the breasts weren’t quite as wide as the turkeys we’ve gotten in the past and, even raw, you could see that the breast meat was a bit darker than the past turkeys.  (The breasts look lumpy here because I've wedged some butter underneath the skin.)

after turkey

You can sort of see that the breast meat is darker here.  The skin cooked up a beautiful colour and Art easily removed all of the meat from the bird with plenty for Thanksgiving dinner, a few plates of leftovers, and Turkey Tetrazzini

The flavor was simply fantastic. It just tasted more.. natural.  More flavorful.  I cooked it with my standard High-Heat Roasted Turkey method but, for future heritage birds, I’ll be reducing the cooking times during flipping from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.  Due to the fat distribution, the heritage bird cooked up a bit faster than previous birds. 

Without a doubt, I will be getting a heritage turkey again for next year.  This one was scrumptious!  If you have the option to get one for your own future Thanksgiving dinners, I can't recommend it enough.

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The First Half Pig

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This is the year for local meat.  Earlier in the year, after a bit of research, we ended up with a half cow in our freezer.  Then, by some great stroke of fortune, a local farmer, Zekiah Farms, came to our market and began selling meat.  While we’re pretty much set on cow, we’ve gotten quite a bit of pig from Zekiah.  It has all been wonderful – sausage, bacon, chops, yum. 

After a bit of discussion with each other and communion with the freezer, we decided that we should purchase a half pig from Zekiah the next time they took pigs to butcher.  

Since Art has been enjoying his experimentation with smoking, we opted to get most of the pig in the large cuts shown below.  Our side of pig yielded 2 boneless pork loins, 1 tenderloin, 3 shoulder roasts, 3 fresh ham roasts, baby back ribs and spare ribs. 

Pig Cuts

The rest of the pig came to us in sweet Italian sausage, bacon, and a few ham hocks as shown below.  Lots and delicious bacon and sausage.  We opted to get the sausage loose because we always end up removing the casings anyway. 

Bacon and Sausage

Since it’s a grand thing to know where your food comes from, we were actually able to meet our pig at the Charles County Fair!  Art named him Bacon…

Piggy!

All of the meat is frozen solid, USDA inspected, and vacuum packed.  The bacon is nitrate free.  We ended up with around 100 pounds of meat, 27 of those pounds in sausage and bacon.  It fills the top shelf of the upright freezer plus some space on the door.  I can’t wait for Art to get smoking some of the larger cuts!

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Local Food 9/18/2010

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CSA

Our box had a great surprise in it – salad greens!  Those were used up in dinner the day of the market!  We also had red onion, white sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, yellow squash, cucumber, and lots of peppers.

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Local Food 9/11/2010

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CSA

Our box was full of peppers again, both hot and sweet.  It also had sweet and white potatoes, yellow squash, cucumber, okra and garlic. 

Yum!

 

Local Food 9/4/2010

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CSA

Our box was full of pepper – poblanos, bell, and thai.  It also had red onions, Chinese long beans, yellow squash, potatoes, okra, and little tomatoes.  Lots of deliciousness.

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