The blog of Hope Grows

Check out HopeGrowsFarm.com to learn more about our farm.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Babies Having Babies!

Well after 5 and a half months, they're finally doing it! We got our first brown eggs from the Australorps a couple weeks ago, and the blue and green eggs from the Auracanas have just started showing up in the past couple of days. The eggs are small now, but as the birds age, they will get bigger and by spring we'll have beautiful, large dozens of green, blue, and brown eggs.





Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving!

Sorry about the month long blog hiatus.

For Thanksgiving we went all out and bought a heritage turkey - one of a number of older style breeds that have been made obsolete by the modern super turkey - the Broad Breasted White. Heritage birds take 6 months to reach maturity whereas Broad Breasted Whites take only 4 and half.

WHY BUY A HERITAGE TURKEY??? I thought you would ask. Buying a heritage turkey preserves older breeds that will go extinct if people don't keep raising and eating them. Their longer life and the fact that they live on pasture eating grass, bugs, etc. - makes their meat much tastier and healthier. Modern mass produced turkeys live indoors their whole lives eating grain and breathing poop dust in overcrowded conditions.

Here is my pappy with a Bourbon Red (not the one we bought, this one moved out and has a place of his own now).



The turkey we purchased, Tom, was a Narragansett. Here is a video of us processing poor ol' Tom - *viewer discretion advised! Spurting turkey blood ahead!*

Before Tom went in the oven - we rubbed him inside and out with maple butter and rosemary and cooked him over white wine reduction, Tom's neck, and veggies. I cooked him at 400 degrees for 1 hour, then dropped it down to 350 for 1 hour. The thermometer said he was done so I panicked and pulled him out. In retrospect he could have used another half hour.


















After Tom came out, we used the pan drippings to make gravy. I wish he could have been here to enjoy this.


And here is our Thanksgiving spread!