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.
