Farm Friday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving gathering at our house yesterday - I counted 30 of us!  We cooked a 25-pound pasture-raised turkey bought from Our Father's Farm, a local farm:

Earlier in the week I woke at 4:30 a.m. in a panic, realizing I didn't have a pan or a platter large enough to cook or serve it!  Fortunately, my mother-in-law had one that just barely contained it and was able to purchase a platter for serving, one I can use year after year.  I was nervous about cooking such a large turkey.  Between being a vegetarian, the shear size of the bird, plus the different cooking method recommended for a pasture-raised turkey, I was afraid of botching it.  But it all turned out well.  

We were blessed to have our entire nuclear family, much of my husband's extended family, plus some good friends with us for the holiday.  Those who weren't able to make it were greatly missed.  So many pitched in to help with food - it was an amazing buffet.  Below are a couple of pictures of the food and family (desserts were in another room and I didn't get a picture of them):

It was a good time, with lots of conversation and laughter.  

In keeping with our values, we planned to reduce or eliminate waste.  We used paper plates and cups which will be composted, along with the paper napkins, and we asked everyone to scrape their food waste into another bag so that we could feed it to our animals.  The silver-finished plastic cutlery was also spared from landfill and was washed for reuse at our next event.  Except for the  plastic bags that the cutlery and some of the food came in, we generated almost zero waste.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.  Have a great weekend!