Friday, November 30, 2012

What's Happening: November 2012


Thanksgiving
East Winders celebrated Thanksgiving with homegrown food, drink, and entertainment.  In 2011, we began a tradition of celebrating this holiday with food from our own land.  Thanksgiving cooks were encouraged to focus on foods that come directly from our farm, and many dishes were from the land entirely (though we also traded nutbutter locally for some ingredients).  This year’s feast included mashed potatoes, stuffing, baked apples, sweet potato bread, turkey, gravy, ham, venison, stir fried greens, and a salad.  We also enjoyed homebrewed wine and beer, and homemade wild grape juice.

There was entertainment to be enjoyed after dinner, and a crowd gathered to appreciate art, music, poetry, and puppetry.  The Thanksgiving coffeehouse started off with a puppet show, which was greatly enjoyed by adults and children alike.  The puppet show was followed by ten more talented acts ranging from poets to singers to musicians.  







Herbs
As we head into the cold season, we must prepare to treat any ailments that may arise during the winter.  Dandelion, burdock, chicory, and yellow dock roots have been dug from the wild, and have been preserved by drying, tincturing, and making glycerites.  Roots of echinacea, marsh mallow, astragalus, and elecampane have been dug from the herb gardens and processed for the winter.  Our stock harvested during the warm season and in previous years is extensive.  We now have a sufficient supply of over 100 different types of dried herbs and tinctures, and will be prepared for whatever may come our way this winter.




East Wind Nutbutters Cook Book
East Winders began working on a new cook book for recipes that feature nutbutter and tahini.  We have begun by cooking up these tasty treats in our own kitchen, and plan to make the cook book available to the public later this year.