For this year, the beef will be bought, but onions, shallots, peas, and even some horseradish will be used, which I grew this past season. I also have fresh thyme outside, but is under almost 3 feet of hard snow as are the wild onions,(chives) for my mashed potatoes. My Music garlic will also be used in the beef roast. Gotta bring my snow shovel outside to get the thyme, and chives, which grow through winter.
For Easter, however, I usually cook up some of my Kielbasa and make a big Polish Bubka bread with white raisins.

Almost everything that will be on the table was grown here, including the ham. I can't eat store-bought pork any more, it tastes funny. (Thank goodness, I'm a country girl now!!) The only exception will be sweet potatoes; for some reason we can't get them to grow no matter what we do. Sigh... I love white sweet potatoes and they are next-to-impossible to find in the grocery store.

Ruthie, prayers for the success of your chemo.

I think it would be faster to name the things that didn't come from our garden!
Our turkey was raised by my friend across town, mashed potatoes from my garden, mashed turnip and carrot from my garden (stored in sand to stay fresh all winter) golden hubbard squash also from my garden, cranberry jelly I made from wild highbush cranberries, stuffing made from homebaked bread (I ground the wheat for flour) with herbs from my garden (sage and parsley) and dried cranberries. Dill pickles and pickled beets that I grew and canned. Cepaille (french meat pie) made with our home raised pork and chicken and beef from another friend. Apple pie from our own apples.

It was a spectacular feast!
Would that the whole world could eat so well.

Happy Holidays to all and best of wishes to Ruthie.

mxbarbie, would it be possible for you to share the recipe for your Cepaille? I love meat pies (especially Welsh and Scottish pasties) and would love to try this, too.

Thanks, and Happy New Year to all!
Edie

Oh, yes, the meat pie sounds nice!

We talked a yar or two ago about the Barbara Kingsolver principle ("Animal, vegetable, miracle") of serving only local food/produce, and sounds like Barbie has the idea. We did buy a ham this year but all our beef comes from the back yard. All the veggies were our own (D-I-L also gardens and cans so we can lay a pretty heavy table), and we had white sweet potatoes (my first encounter) compliments of a neighbor. I'd say our table was 80% "local". We're still working on it.

This year the turkey came from a local Amish farmer, the potatoes came from my garden. So did the green beans and the butternut squash. I baked bread, but I didn't grow the wheat, and I didn't grow the coffee either, LOL.

We had rhubarb pie for dessert, I grew the rhubarb. Mom brought pumpkin pie, I'm only assuming that pumpkin came from a can. The crust was made with lard from the local meat processing plant so it's from some local pig or another!

Other than things that required flour, most of our meal came from my own farm or from a local source.

Annie

Prime Rib: purchased, not local (but, dang! it was 2.98/lb.)
Roasted Potatoes: Local farm
Broccoli Salad: Purchased broc & cranberries, local onions, bacon)
Deviled eggs: My chickens (yeah, I bought the mayo & mustard)
Sweet Pickles: Mine
Dilly Beans: Mine
Pickled Beets: Mine
Olives: Purchased, can't grow them here...
Homemade Bread: Son-in-law made it! Yep! He's a keeper!

"Pumpkin" Pie: Actually, local squash
Apple Pie: Neighbors apple tree
Apple Cider: Same neighbors, I pressed it at a local event.

I, too, bought the flour, coffee and milk (I'm 18 months away from having my own...).

Not bad. More next year!
Deanna

The recipe for Cepaille came from my MIL, it's pretty easy.

Any kind of animal will do, the more variety the merrier.

SMALL CEPAILLE
2 chicken breasts - raw cubed
2 pork chops - raw cubed
2 steaks - raw cubed
1/2 cup diced onion - raw
1 tsp Allspice

1 cup cubed potato - raw
3 cups chicken broth (approximatly)
pie crust (for the top only)

combine meat, onion and allspice in a casserole dish
(you want a fairly deep one, leave some room at the top it tends to boil over)
cover and refrigerate overnight
next day, add potatoes and enough chicken broth to just cover the meat.
cover with pie crust and bake at 350f for 3 hours, checking the level of the broth periodically
(DO NOT let it dry out) add more broth if necessary.

I usually make a big one, and put it in the oven at the same time as the turkey. You want a slow cook, so the meat is falling apart when you eat it.

Family tradition involves eating this with copious amounts of ketchup. I find it is an aquired taste.
The allspice with the meat kind of weirds me out.

ENJOY!

Hmm, is it considered local if I lugged home grown buttercup squash and frozen cherries harvested from a local farm down to Florida? I would have loved to have taken more things but that darned 3 oz rule is a killer and I didn't want to check a bag filled with home canned items. God knows if they'd survive the flight, let along the baggage handlers.

Which raises a question in my mind, can you send home canned items safely or does the pressure/temp change of cargo flights damage the seal?