Celebrate Green Blog

Our Thanksgiving was celebrated with 24 family and friends. To feed the hungry bunch, we needed a turkey. A big one.

But by the time we called the co-op to order our heritage, organic, pasture raised turkey, all of the big ones had sold out. We had to order two smaller birds.

Which would have been fine.

But a few days before Thanksgiving, our friend, Nicole, mentioned that she had a 28 pound heritage, organic, pasture raised turkey in her freezer. Her sister (who lives locally) raised it. And we could have it.

So of course we accepted (thanks, Nicole!) and then placed a call to the co-op to see if we could cancel our order.

“Of course!” they said. “This year there is a big wait list. Last year no one wanted them, but for some reason this year they’re just aren’t enough. I would suggest that you buy the ones you’ve ordered and then scalp them for more. You’ll be able to make some nice dough.”

Oh sure. We can just see it now… Us standing on the street corner scalping turkeys? Is that even legal?

“No thanks,” we said. “You keep the profits, we’ll take our homegrown bird.”

So the day before Thanksgiving, Nicole called to say she had some news for us. She weighed the bird (and she was kind enough to prepare it for us). And it didn’t weigh 28 pounds. It weighed 34. That’s almost as much as Corey’s 5 year old. Trouble is, Nicole didn’t have a bucket big enough to soak it in the brine and the only recipes Nicole could find for cooking it only went up to 28 pounds.

We’d have to improvise.

So the turkey was soaked overnight in a plastic storage bin from Target and delivered to Corey’s house on Thanksgiving morn, with instructions to bake it for about 5 hours.

No problem, er… Did we mention Corey and her hubby are vegetarian?

Well, there’s a first time for everything!

Corey’s husband got the bird in the oven and Corey pressed “BAKE” and Nicole left. Then Corey freaked out. What to do now? The bird was so big that it filled up the entire oven, nearly touching the heating coils. It smoked as it cooked. Corey was afraid it would catch fire.

But 5 hours later, Lynn arrived like a doctor on a home visit, took our turkey’s temperature and declared the bird “done.”

It was removed from the oven with a unified gasp from the 24 guests.

It was huge. But it was beautiful.

And the taste? Well, Lynn and the rest of the guests said it was absolutely delicious. Corey didn’t try it. Her Tofurky, however, was the best she’d ever had.

Photos from our family Thanksgiving (courtesy of our friend, Jenny Juang):

Our family patriarch, Steve (Corey’s dad/ Lynn’s husband), carving the turkey

Kids breaking the wish bone

Team Zoe (8) & Michael (6) won. Zoe wished for a horse. Then she convinced Michael to wish for a horse for her. What a pal!

Music after the meal; a Colwell family tradition

Dancing the night away…

How was your Thanksgiving? Any funny or memorable moments? We’d love to hear your stories! Add comments below.