Thanksgiving 2014 Update

 

Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys at Leroy’s Farm in Fredericksburg.
Below are some shot of the turkeys at Leroy’s farm.  Leroy is the grower we profiled last year in the 2014 Fresh Fork Market Almanac.  His birds are some of the nicest around.  Leroy take’s exceptional care of his turkeys to make sure they get plenty of fresh grass, which adds flavor and reduces the feed costs.  In the hot summer months of August and September, these turkeys get to roam under the canopy of his field corn and eat the young oats, rye, and barley that he sowed between the rows of corn.  This keeps the birds cool, protects them from predators, and gets more forage into their diet!

And please excuse my novice video.  I didn’t realize the camera on my phone didn’t rotate with my hand so you’ll have to turn your head sideways!

Parker and Adam’s Sweet Potato Pie
This year we decided to change up the pie in Package 1.  Over the last several years we had a sweet potato pie from Sweet Mosaic/Lucky in Tremont.  While it was a great pie the amount of sugar in the meringue didn’t match what we believed in and it didn’t best showcase Ohio’s bounty.  Further, you couldn’t reaheat it in the oven due to the meringue.

This year we have an amazing pie conceived by Chef’s Parker Bosley and Adam Lambert.  Parker is a fantastic pastry chef and used to make all his pastry crusts at Parker’s New American Bistro.  When I asked him to help with a pie crust, he gladly accepted.  The challenge though – to use locally produced, organic, whole wheat flour.  Parker rocked it.  See below.

And Adam has a fantastic vision for matching flavors and building a complex palate of flavors.  He came up with the perfect sweet potato filling.  One that is lightly spiced and light and fluffy.  He achieved this by folding in stiffly beaten egg whites as seen below.

Now I forgot to take a photo of the finished pie with buttered crumb topping, candied black walnuts, and Guernsey milk dolce (homemade caramel), but I can assure you it is quite amazing.

Here is a photo of the partially finished pie that my staff devoured at the office.

So on Monday and Tuesday Parker and Adam will be working hard with an army of young bakers at Wholesome Valley Farm to bake these fresh, made from scratch pies (with ingredients directly off of the farm) in time for your Thanksgiving feast.