Organic Thanksgiving

This year my family celebrated Thanksgiving at my brothers house in Woodside.  Him and his wife have been going green for the past couple of years so being a friend to the environment and treating animals humanely is very important to them.  Also my brother and his wife have shares in an organic farm on Long Island called Golden Earth Worm and this is where they get all their fresh produce from.  The turkey that my sister in law prepared was from an organic farm in Vermont, Luis Waite farm, you can find them on http://www.stonewoodfarm.com/   The farm that they have shares in does not grow live stock, so the farm set up share options with other organic farms that allow their shareholders to receive meat and fruit from other organic farms that grow and raise products that they do not have on their farm.  All the vegetables used for this feast were from Gold Earth Worm.  Besides the turkey the rest of the menu consisted of a dairy free butter nut squash soup to start with, and various vegetable dishes.  Their was a harvest medley made up of baby red and baby white potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, shallots, garlic, carrots, and topped with organic olive oil, salt, pepper, and an herb blend of oregano, rosemary, and thyme.  For the stuffing my sister in law collected different organic breads such as sourdough, white, fresh loaf, and multigrain that was dried in the oven and tossed in olive oil and herbs, organic pork sausage, carrots, walnuts, dried cranberries and apples.  She also used mushrooms, that she purchased from whole foods.  For another side dish their was a mixture of greens, mustard greens, kale, and spinach sauteed with yellow onion and garlic.  For the cranberry sauce, she used organic cranberries from Cranberry Hill organic farm in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  The fresh cranberry sauce was made from cranberries and organic cane sugar boiled in two cups of water and it was absolutely delicious.  The mash potatoes were conventional, because my dad made them, and my family does not buy organic.  All the food that was prepared for our meal was absolutely incredible, it was a nice change from the normal thanksgiving side dishes and an absolute treat to experience the way fresh organic vegetables taste, and you can absolutely taste and feel the difference.  For Desert their was an option of pumpkin, pecan, or apple cranberry pie all made from organic materials.  The pumpkin pie was made from pumpkin that was baked and pured.  Also she added some Chi for spice.  The pecan pie was made from conventional pecans, but the sugar an butter used were organic, and lastly the apple cranberry pie consisted of apples, cranberry's, and cane sugar.  For a healthy topping she made an organic whipped cream, that is vanilla bean paste and organic sugar whipped together to form a fluffy cream, and it really was the icing on the cake, or pie in this case.

After thoroughly enjoying the thanksgiving meal consisting of primarily organic materials and fresh produce, I now realize why it is so important to eat organic.  Not only is the taste and texture of the vegetables different, but the color and size are also very different.  The vegetables fresh from the farm are bigger and richer in color, just by comparison the supermarket vegetables fall inferior and are noticeably less healthy looking.  I think from now on I am going to stick to the organic food plan.  To find out more information about this farm you can find them at http://www.goldenearthworm.com/.