Haiku Farm

I'm aware that most Americans begin prepping their Thanksgiving turkey by shopping at the local grocery store.

I'd love to say that all the food we eat here on the Farm is sustainably raised by us or by local friends.  But it isn't true.  I'm just as likely to grab lunch at Taco del Mar as the next person.

However, for a few special meals each year we try to provide a table that represents good food raised right by our community and served with love.

Especially Thanksgiving.

Mel raised the turkeys again this year, and she hosted the dispatch party.  If you've never attended something like this, the word "party" may seem like an odd choice, but I think it's perfect:  a yearly gathering of people dressed in special clothes, with music and laughter and food.

Sounds like a party to me!

Holding an outdoor party in November around here is not usually recommended.  It poured buckets of rain all day Saturday, and it has poured more buckets Monday.

But on Sunday…

Finally:  I'm mobile again!



Wait, what? 

Didn't we just buy a truck recently?




We thought we were making good choices when we sold the original Illegible in 2016.  It had 320,000 miles on it, and the electrical systems were becoming untrustworthy.

Buying a newer truck with fewer miles on it seemed sensible.

And it would have been, if we hadn't bought a 2004 Ford with the notorious 6.0liter engine.



We gave it a valiant try, but I am really, really not a Ford girl. I missed the Dodge truck!

When the blue truck broke down yet again after we delivered the piano to Waldron Island, I'd finally had enough.  I spent a day washing and vacuuming the thing, and put it on Craigslist.

And waited.  And waited.

And finally, it sold.

And then ...  I had no truck.

So I stole one.

(Well, I borrowed Duana's truck.  EVERYBODY borrows Duana's truck.  So that was okay.) 

And I went riding.



I wrangled a while with the credit union, and cruised autotrader and carguru and Craigslist and …

It looks like an ordinary pumpkin. But it isn't.





The difference is in the seeds:

 People always talk about roasting pumpkin seeds as a nice snack, and I've tried it more than once.  The salts and spices I put on them were delicious!  But that white husk covering the seed is too fibrous to be pleasant to eat.

I always figured that commercial pumpkin seed producers had some special gizmo that removed the husk in a quick and efficient process.

WRONG!

Instead, commercial pumpkin seed producers don't get pumpkin seeds from jack-o-lanterns or their kin.  They grow a special kind of pumpkin that has the pepita covered only in a little membrane instead of a tough husk.

Who knew, right?



We got a few "naked" pumpkins from a friend, and the seeds are delicious. 

We are definitely gonna get naked in the squash patch next year at Haiku Farm!