When Abraham Lincoln first declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, everybody ate local. Times have changed, and few of us know where anything on our tables originated, especially at this time of year. But local versions of many of the foods that traditionally fill our plates at Thanksgiving can be found either here in Harvard or in neighboring towns.
Let’s start with turkey. One option for fresh, local turkeys is Balance Rock Farm at 104 Highland St. in Berlin. The owner, Buddy Wheeler, buys the turkeys from a free-range turkey farm in Groton. Orders are taken through the Saturday before Thanksgiving for turkeys weighing from 17 to 24 pounds.
Maintaining quality and safety
On Sunday, Buddy gets the birds from Groton and brings them back to Balance Rock, where they’re stored in the cooler until customers come to pick them up, anytime between Sunday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. The cooler is kept between 34 and 36 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than a home refrigerator, which helps maintain the quality and safety of the turkeys. “Before we had a cooler, my mother used to keep our turkey in the back of the station wagon if it was cold enough outside,” said Wheeler.
A Thanksgiving Day tip from
Chef Paul Correnty
Here’s a tip from Harvard’s esteemed Chef Paul Correnty on how to make your Thanksgiving day more enjoyable—roast the turkey the day before. According to Correnty, there’s no difference in the taste, and it takes a lot of the stress out of Thanksgiving Day.
After roasting the turkey, let it cool, slice the breast meat and remove the legs (you can make stock from the carcass at this point). Put the meat into an aluminum or metal pan with the juices in the bottom, cover the pan with foil, and put the pan in the refrigerator. Then next day, reheat the turkey in its juices by putting the foil-covered pan in the oven while your side dishes are cooking. It takes only about 15 minutes.
Though he doesn’t run a tip hotline, Chef Paul is always generous with good advice. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz).
“This is how restaurants do it,” said Correnty. “They’re not back there roasting turkeys on Thanksgiving Day.” He added, “Forget the Norman Rockwell scene of the happy family around the table looking at Grandma holding the turkey that’s just come out of the oven. Nobody is that calm when you have to get up at four in the morning to start cooking.”
Another popular fresh turkey option is Bob’s Turkey Farm, at 181 Old Common R0ad in Lancaster. Bob’s natural turkeys may be ordered fresh or frozen, but they all come from the same free-range farm in Lancaster. Orders at Bob’s are open until all the available birds in a specific weight range are spoken for. This year, the 12-14 pound range is already sold out. The reason? “Good weather,” said owner Robert Van Hoof’s daughter, Susan Miner, who oversees the retail store. “Bad weather slows down their growth.” Bob’s turkeys are 19 to 24 weeks old, so five or six months of good weather leading up to Thanksgiving means larger turkeys. Orders are taken for a two-pound weight range, starting with 12-14 pounds, and increasing to more than 30 pounds. Turkeys may be picked up starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
Fresh versus frozen
Is there an advantage to fresh turkeys over frozen turkeys? Not in taste, according to both Buddy Wheeler and Susan Miner. The frozen turkeys that Bob’s sells for Thanksgiving were killed in October. “We vacuum pack them and freeze them right away,” Miner said. “I can’t tell the difference.” When asked, Wheeler looked at his mother-in-law and they both shook their heads. “Not that I can tell,” he said. “Some people order a fresh turkey from us at Thanksgiving, and have us freeze it for Christmas.”
Freezing does tend to draw out moisture though, so the longer it is frozen, the more it will dry out. Bromfield Chef Paul Correnty had this to say on the subject: “Generally, I buy a fresh turkey, because when I defrost a turkey, I see all of that liquid, and I think ‘that should still be in the bird.’ But taste-wise, it’s very difficult to taste the difference between a fresh and a frozen turkey.” One advantage of buying a fresh turkey is that frozen turkeys need to be defrosted in the refrigerator for several days, hopefully thawing out before Thanksgiving. Some fresh turkey customers find ice inside their turkeys and think they may have been frozen, but that’s not the case. The ice comes from the ice bath that the turkeys get after plucking to bring their temperature down before they are packed.
A plethora of pies
While turkey may be the main attraction, no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without a pie or two. In Harvard, pies are available at both Westward Orchards and Carlson Orchards. Westward’s pies come from Joyce’s Pies and Bakery in Leominster and Valley View Orchard Pies in Maine. Orders are being taken through Monday, Nov. 18, and popular Thanksgiving varieties include apple, apple cranberry, pumpkin, pecan, mince and chocolate cream. Carlson’s pies are baked by Mann Orchards in Methuen. There are a number of frozen pies in stock at the store, but you can also order a baked or unbaked pie if you want to be sure that they don’t run out of your favorite. Popular varieties include apple, pumpkin, mince, burgundy (blueberry and raspberry), and “Dynamite Don’s Famous Five Fruit,” which contains apple, strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry, and blueberry.
At Balance Rock Farms, the pies are baked in nearby Lancaster by Made From Scratch. Orders are being taken until November 23 for apple, pumpkin and pecan pies, as well as pumpkin and cranberry bread. Bob’s Turkey Farm sells apple and pumpkin pies made in their kitchen using Carlson Orchard’s apples and local pumpkins. The frozen pies are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and sell out quickly in the days before Thanksgiving.
Everything apple
What else can you buy locally for your Thanksgiving feast? Carlson Orchards has apple cider, as well as cranberry-mac cider, sparkling cider and mulled cider tea bags. They’ve got tons of apples, including baker’s favorites Cortland, Baldwin, and Northern Spy. They also have applesauce and a variety of cranberry jellies and salsas. Carlson’s is open the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until 3 p.m., and they’ll be open on Thanksgiving Day with an honor box.
At Westward Orchards, you’ll find lots of apples, including Cortland and Baldwin for baking, as well as their own pears, sugar pumpkins (for pies), winter squash, and local Brussels sprouts, Massachusetts cranberries, and cider from Bolton Orchards. Westward Orchards is normally closed on Tuesdays, but they’ll be open on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, as well as all day on Wednesday. Doe Orchards’ stand will be open until the weather is below freezing, at which point they’ll sell apples out of the barn. They’ve got a good selection of baking apples including Cortland, Honeycrisp, and Empire, and they also sell Carlson’s cider. Westward and Doe Orchards are both closed on Thanksgiving Day.
Cider, relish, squash and more
Balance Rock Farm sells local winter squash, Carlson’s cider and applesauce, and cranberry sauce and relish from Mother’s in Boxborough. Balance Rock is open 9-6 every day Thanksgiving week, closed on Thanksgiving. Bob’s Turkey Farm sells stuffing, gravy, and prepared butternut squash, as well as a Mother’s cranberry sauce and relish. They also sell a variety of turkey parts, incluing giblets, drumsticks, breasts, and wings. They normally sell roasted turkeys, but they won’t be roasting the week of Thanksgiving, because the fresh turkeys have to pass through the kitchen, so the ovens are not allowed to be on. Stuffing and gravy can be ordered with turkeys. Bob’s is open through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, closed on Thanksgiving. They are open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Need a wine to go with your turkey dinner? The General Store will be holding a special Thanksgiving wine tasting on Saturday, Nov. 23 from 4 to 7 p.m. featuring whites, rosés, and sparkling wines, including an organic champagne that wine critic Robert Parker once gave 91 out of 100 points. The store is also stocked with winter ales and lagers, as well as Apple Ice Wine from Still River Winery.
Day-after options abound
The day after Thanksgiving, if you’d like to avoid the Black Friday throngs of shoppers, there are a variety of local options. At Westward Orchards, it’s the first day of their annual Holiday Open House weekend, and Stephanie will have some Thanksgiving-themed sandwiches and soups at the lunch counter. Or stop by the General, where they’ll have a selection of cold weather apparel, Harvard mugs, and other items for a “back-to-college care package.” The General lunch counter will be featuring a “Pilgrim” Panini or wrap, filled with turkey, bacon, cranberry stuffing, and cheese. It’s also the kickoff of cut-your-own Christmas trees at Doe Orchards, where you can choose to cut or have them cut for you, ride the wagon back to the stand, and warm up with a cup of hot cider.
From leftovers to gravy
If you had Thanksgiving at Aunt Doris’s, and she didn’t give you any leftover turkey to take home, you can head down to Bob’s Turkey Farm on Friday and stock up on sliced turkey meat. You can even pick up some extra gravy. “We get lots of gravy customers on Friday,” said Susan Miner.
