Sunday, October 12, 2008

Day 174 of our Green Year: A Green Thanksgiving

Well if you live in Canada, then chances are you are celebrating a Thanksgiving long weekend. Here at the ranch, it is no different and we are all getting right into our own Thanksgiving here, with a big dinner tomorrow.

However, since we wanted to make sure that if we had a thanksgiving, it was a green one, we decided to be very conscious with what we bought. Instead of getting a turkey at a normal supermarket, we went to the local meat shop to get a 25-pound fair-trade and grain-fed turkey. We understand some won't have a turkey for Thanksgiving, but Layla and I have not gone vegan, despite reducing how much meat we eat. In fact, this is the first bit of meat we have had in awhile.
For our side dishes, we are using vegetables like potatoes, corn, carrots and peas that are straight out of our garden. We bought organic yams, and are making our own stuffing out of bread that went stale, organic celery and other natural ingredients.

Even our pumpkin pie is being made from a pumpkin we bought and not by buying pie filling with a pie crust.

You can even make a great centerpiece for your table by putting together something that incorporates leaves, sticks and other natural items. There are many how-to guides on the internet for this. At our thanksgiving dinner, as well, we will not have paper towels, but washable cloths. All our leftovers will be re-used, including turning the turkey bones into a great stew.
We will have a picture of our great Thanksgiving dinner up tomorrow or Tuesday.
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We made a trip to the recycle depot here, and found that it did not compare at all with the recycle depot in our old town. However, we were able to recycle everything by going there and to the local bottle depot, which was just across the street.
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Attached is a photo of Layla and I with all the corn husks and stalks that were pulled from the garden and were thrown into our large compost area.