Adirondack Beef Company, Croghan, NY
1- Keep your dollars in your community: The average farmer only makes $0.17 for every $1.00 spent on the food they grew. Buying directly from a farmer means they will receive 100% of the profits they earned.
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m taking today and the next few days off for the holiday. In case you are looking for some last-minute recipes or food inspiration, here are a few treasures from the Almanack archive:
Kim and Pam Ladd, who wrote the popular “Happy Hour in the High Peaks: An Adirondack Bar Guide,” are two ladies who know cocktails. They put together some favorite Thanksgiving Cocktail Recipes.
Paul Hetzler has a piece on Native Foods on the Thanksgiving Table. Larry Gooley has one on an old-time ritual, Nutting Season.
If you’re not into eating crickets, maybe apples are your thing. There’s a recipe for a traditional Thanksgiving Apple Pie or Farmhouse Apple Crisp.
Ever wonder How Cranberries Get Their Color? Paul Hetzler’s piece All About Cranberries is a perfect primer on the native berry. Also try Annette Nielsen’s Adirondack Cranberry Compote.
The first Thanksgiving meal shared between the pilgrim colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621 included American eels!
Before you add eels to your menu this year, be sure to check NYS Freshwater Fishing Regulations.
When we asked Fisheries staff to share a recipe for a freshwater fish dish they traditionally prepare on Thanksgiving, we were hard pressed to find one, but we did receive a seafood recipe (below).
If you have a traditional freshwater fish dish you enjoy with your family on Thanksgiving and would like to share it with us, email [email protected].
Farmhouse Apple Crisp
This has to be one of my favorite comfort food recipes of all times. When I was growing up, my mom would make apple crisp in a giant pan. As soon as the crisp came out of the oven, my sisters and I would descend on the hot pan like ravenous vultures, happily devouring every last crumb. Although this version won’t make the giant pan-sized apple crisp that my mom made, it will allow you to enjoy the exact same delicious apple crisp that my sisters and I did, and still do to this day. Enjoy!
Pawtuxet Wampanoag Tisquantum‘s story begins during the summer of 1605, when British sailors, under the command of Captain George Weymouth, commissioned by a colonial entrepreneur Sir Ferdinando Gorges, kidnapped him, along with four other Native American boys, and brought them to England.
In his diary, Capt. Weymouth wrote, “we used little delay, but suddenly laid hands upon them … For they were strong and so naked as our best hold was by their long hair on their heads.” » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Almanack will be taking Thanksgiving off, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a little light, but smart Adirondack Thanksgiving reading.
Check out a couple recipes, try a cocktail, and some stories from the natural world that makes the Adirondacks so unique at this time of year. » Continue Reading.
No matter how inundated my email is with apparently fabulous “not to be missed” offers or how jaded I get by mid-October from trying to avoid an early onslaught of holiday music, there is always one event or activity that shifts me from bitter and overworked to a warmer holiday mood.
After a retail juggernaut, it’s time to relax and embrace the arts with a holiday tradition, a performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. » Continue Reading.
“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” These are the words of H.A. (Henry Allen) Ironside; a Canadian-American Bible teacher, preacher, theologian, pastor, member of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, and one of the most inspired Christian writers of the 20th Century.
For most Americans, Thanksgiving is exactly that; a time of giving thanks. But it’s also a time when we commemorate the success of the Pilgrims; the Separatists who came here from England to establish the Plymouth colony. And, next year, Americans will commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims, to the shores of Massachusetts. » Continue Reading.
The 22nd Annual Indian Lake Country Christmas Tour (CCT) has been set for Friday, November 29th, and Saturday, November 30th.
This year’s theme “Made in the Adirondacks” invites visitors and shoppers to an inside view of the lives and work of many local and regional artisans and crafters. » Continue Reading.
If the Pilgrims had only known what a big deal Thanksgiving was going to become in America they would undoubtedly have taken some pictures. Even the menu has been lost to us, although Wampanoag oral history, plus a few Pilgrim grocery receipts found at archeological sites, suggest there was corn, beans and squash as well as fowl and venison. Beyond that there may have been chestnuts, sun chokes (“Jerusalem” artichokes), cranberries and a variety of seafood.
Many historians believe the Pilgrims would have all perished during the winter of 1620 if not for food provided by the Wampanoags, whose land they appropriated. In the spring of 1621, Wampanoags gave the Pilgrims crop seeds, as well as a tutorial (possibly an App; we can’t be sure) on the production, storage and preservation of food crops such as corn, beans, and squash. » Continue Reading.
Millions of pounds of leftover food is thrown away every year.
In 20916, the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated that Americans throw away 204 million pounds of turkey meat during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Here are some tips to reduce wasted food this holiday season: » Continue Reading.
This weekend kicks off my family’s Thanksgiving tradition and it doesn’t involve standing in a queue or waking up early to nab a coveted online prize. Our Black Friday tradition involves a performance of the North Country Ballet Ensemble’s (NCBE) The Nutcracker.
Therese Wendler, principal dancer with Rebecca Kelly Ballet and Dances Patrelle, will once again dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the NCBE’s 31st Annual Nutcracker performance. Mikhail Ilyin, a sololist and principal dancer with the Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, will perform in the role of Cavalier alongside local and regional dancers.
The Nutcracker Ballet is the perfect blending of gorgeous sets and costumes with a timeless story and score. This family-friendly ballet gestures in the Christmas holidays as we once again are whisked into young Claire’s adventure when her toy Nutcracker comes to life to defeat the evil Mouse King. The magical experience, accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, pulls us into a land of life-size toys, dancing sweets and a Nutcracker prince. » Continue Reading.
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is one of two species of turkeys in the world. The other is a denizen of Central America and as such is of little importance to us here in the Adirondacks. No, we are concerned with our own native bird, the one of such character and pride that Ben Franklin thought it should be the symbol of our country.
When Europeans first descended upon the eastern shores of North America, turkeys ruled the roost, so to speak. Millions of them populated the woodlands, providing food for man and beast alike. But, as is the habit of mankind, forests were cut and turkeys were eaten. As early as 1672 keen observers of nature were already remarking that turkey populations were not what they once had been. In 1844, the last wild turkey in New York was reported in the extreme southwestern part of the state; after that, they were gone. » Continue Reading.
The winter of 1620 nearly wiped out the Pilgrims, who were woefully unprepared for life in the New world. Many historians feel they would all have perished if not for food provided by the Wampanoags, on whose land they settled. The following spring, the Wampanoags provided the Pilgrims with seeds to plant, as well as a tutorial (possibly an App, but we can’t be sure) on the production, storage and preservation of food crops such as corn, beans, and squash.
That fall – we’re not even sure if it was October or November – the Pilgrims gave thanks for Native American agriculture, and feasted upon its bounty for three days straight. The Wampanoags probably gave thanks that there wasn’t another ship full of Pilgrims on the horizon just then. » Continue Reading.
Like the political process, cranberries can leave a sour taste in your mouth. But unlike politics, whose bitter aftertaste cuts through any amount of sweetener, the flavor of cranberries is readily improved with a little sugar.
To say a fresh cranberry is sour is like saying Picasso and Monet are reasonably good painters. In fact it can have a lower pH value than stomach acid. It’s almost a wonder people ever started eating them, right? » Continue Reading.
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