GRATITUDE GIVEAWAY & LOCAL FOOD FOR THANKSGIVING
There’s a lot to be grateful and thankful for this year. We’ve all experienced the last two years differently—a common experience of utter overwhelm, and hopefully, other moments of light and beauty that, in retrospect, made the struggle feel not quite as intense.
November is always one of my favorite months because the air is crisp, the frost is real, and the distant smell of turkey, stuffing, and pie is just around the corner. November is an opportunity for our family farm to give thanks to our crew who help us steer this large living organism, Vernon Family Farm, and to show gratitude to our community, who have and continue to support our business and local food in a multitude of ways.
One way we show our gratitude is by running a giveaway on our social media platforms. Between November 17th and November 20th, you can enter to win a $300 Vernon Family Farm CSA. CSA stands for community supported agriculture and while this sort of program works differently from farm to farm, at our farm it’s basically a debit card that you use wherever we are, market and/or farm store. If you don’t win the giveaway, you can still participate in our CSA as it’s a great way to help and support the farm.
OUR CSA PROGRAM
The giveaway is no joke...it’s a good chunk of change that we give away for spending at the farm store right before the Thanksgiving holiday and boy is it appreciated. Our CSA giveaway winners throughout the years of us doing this have become loyal year round shoppers.
Enter the CSA Gratitude Giveaway
1. Like the giveaway feed post.
2. Tag 3 friends in the comments of the feed post.
3. Make sure that you follow us on Instagram & Facebook
Fingers crossed you win! We’ll announce the winner on November 21st. It’s important to note that our CSA cards can be used only for in-person purchases—they are not usable on our online store.
While many farm stores around the state of NH close for the season, Vernon Family Farm remains open daily, 9am-6pm, all year round. We are proud to serve our community as a one-stop-shop for local food. We work hard to make shopping local convenient for our customers. Having access to all the local goods that are still available at this time for the holidays is really special to us and to our customers. Many of our customers will have family visiting this year and are looking forward to sharing the bounty of local food.
Some of our customers will travel and bring the bounty with them to Grandma’s house. Whichever your situation, here are some great turkey tips to get you started and excited for your feast.
Tips to Pick, Prepare & Cook Pastured Turkey
BE FLEXIBLE TO SIZE
Yes, you asked for a 12-15lb turkey and we do everything we can to accommodate that ask but here’s the deal...there are so many variables in the mix. Because these turkeys are raised on pasture, they will vary in weight...they are not uniform like factory farmed turkeys because they are all experiencing slightly different conditions (feed competition, genetics, weather, etc). While they are all on pasture and are all offered grain, some turkeys are better foragers than others, some are more active, etc.
PRICE
It’s worth noting the price differences between a pasture-raised turkey and one raised on a factory farm. If you’ve been shopping for local food, you understand that the price of local food is the real price. The prices at the grocery store for food are incredibly misleading...you pay for industrialized food ahead of time through your taxes, government subsidies, etc, so don’t compare them...it’s like comparing apples and oranges.
BRINE + BASTE
You can brine and baste but here’s the thing, a pastured turkey is by nature very juicy so it’s not as necessary as it would be for a factory farm raised bird. If you do choose to wet or dry brine your bird, our favorite spice mix is by Stock + Spice. Stock + Spice is located in Portsmouth, an adorable locally owned shop that brings global flavors, local ingredients, and creative ideas to home cooks.
COOK THE BIRD
If you got your hands on one (yes, we are sold out, they go quick every year!), get ready for some incredible flavor. It’s important to know that pasture raised turkeys cook faster than factory farmed turkeys you might be used to from the grocery store, a good rule of thumb is ~10 minutes/lb. That said, we always recommend a thermometer when cooking meat so that you can check and make sure the meat is done. Turkey and chicken should be at 165F.
MAKE BONE BROTH
Make the most of your turkey, use ALL of it and let nothing go to waste. That’s code for: make broth. Bone broth is a great way to use bones, the carcass of your turkey. Broth can be made on the stove or in a crockpot for ease. Bone broth is liquid gold, and can be sipped like tea or used as the base for many different soups. Broth is rich in minerals that help you build and strengthen your bones. Homemade broth contains many healthy nutrients, vitamins, amino acids, and essential fatty acids. You’ll be surprised how much broth your turkey bones will yield so make sure you have some glass containers on hand for storage. Here’s a great turkey bone broth recipe to try. Next year, I’ll try to write up our own VFF broth recipe for you to use.
PRO TIP: freeze some of your broth in ice cube trays. I love doing this because I add these broth to soup to cool down for my kids. Adding a broth cube is superior to an ice cube because it doesn’t water down the bowl, it just cools it a bit. It’s also great to deglaze a pan when you’re making sauce.
Is your mouth watering yet?
Here are other products and photographs from the farm store that will hopefully get your local food desires going.
We have a large selection of different squashes this year!
Acorn - Great with maple syrup, roasted, or in stuffing!
Butternut - Mmm, soup!
Delicata - You can eat the skin or use it as a “boat” for stuffing
Spaghetti Squash - A great pasta replacement!
Long Pumpkin Squash - Great for pie!
Honey Nut - These are new to VFF and tasty! They look like miniature butternut squash and are quick to oven roast, we enjoy some brown sugar and butter on them.
Brussel Sprouts - Roasted brussels are the best! Try pan roasting next time with grapes, you will love it!
Eggs & Pie Ingredients - We’ve got local flour, butter, salt, and more to make your crust and fill your pies.
Potatoes - Russet, white, sweet potatoes, we’ve got a few different varieties available for the holidays.
Fresh Herbs - We’ve got a great variety of fresh herbs from Terra Basics this year.
Maple Syrup - Quart or pint? Special ordering a gallon is possible too.
We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, with local food on the table. We cannot wait to see you at the farm store and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
