Local produce still available for your Thanksgiving meal
Many of our local growers are wrapping up for the winter. However, Oxford’s Farmers Market will continue to have some local growers every Saturday through the winter.
Time to gather some of that still-available local produce for Thanksgiving side dishes. Still available at Oxford’s Farmers Market and MOON Co-op Grocery are local potatoes.
According to a Campbell’s survey, the most popular side dish at Thanksgiving will be mashed potatoes. However, popularity varies among the 50 states; stuffing is the most popular side dish in Ohio, for example.
Mashed potato recipes can be excessively fussy. With our flavorful local ingredients, why bother with the fussiness.
To make mashed potatoes for 4 servings, peel and quarter 1 pound of potatoes, place the pieces in a pot, cover them with water, bring to a rolling boil, then reduce the heat to medium, and cook for around 20 minutes. Make sure that the water doesn’t boil away.
Test the potatoes with a fork. When they are soft, drain the water, keeping the potatoes in the pot. It is OK if a small amount of water remains in the pot. Turn off the stove and return the pot to the stillwarm burner.
Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the hopefully still-warm pot. As the butter melts, add around 1/4 cup whole milk or cream, more if you want very creamy potatoes.
Mash the potatoes using a masher or a ricer, if you have one. If not, just use a regular fork.
Add salt and pepper to taste. I like sprinkling paprika to mashed white potatoes to give the dish a nice contrast between the white of the potato and the bright red of the paprika.
When I said goodbye to local grower Greg Hamm at Oxford’s Farmers Market, I asked him what he would spend the winter. He said he would be doing some repairs while his plants were joining Persephone.
My knowledge of Greek mythology is minimal, but fortunately loyal locavore Ken Grabach joined our conversation and explained about Persephone.
Persephone, Ken explained, was the daughter of Demeter (the goddess of agriculture and harvest) and Zeus. Demeter provides us mortals with plants, food, and vegetables.
Hades (brother of Zeus) fell in love with Persephone and abducted her down to the Underworld to be his wife and Queen of the Underworld. Furious at the loss of her beloved daughter, Demeter declared that Earth would no longer be fertile.
Persephone loved both her mother and her husband. So Zeus effected a compromise. For half of the year (spring and summer) Persephone would live with her mother on Mount Olympus, and in exchange Demeter would keep the Earth fertile. During the other half (autumn and winter) Persephone would return to Hades as Queen of the Underworld, taking Earth’s plants along with her.
Thus, Greg told me his plants were going to join Persephone for her sixmonth stay in the Underworld. But they – like Persephone – will return to Earth next spring.