The second Monday of October has been designated (since 1957) as the day Canada officially celebrates and gives thanks for the annual harvest. Although it has been recognized as an annual holiday since 1879, there wasn’t an official date to celebrate before then and sometimes it was celebrated in November instead of October. I don’t know if we ever shared the same date as American Thanksgiving however we did adopt their customs of making the meal centre around turkey, pumpkin pie, and squash!
This year’s Thanksgiving was even more special to me because it included some food that I had grown or harvested myself (which I am truly thankful for!) AND because it included a special cranberry relish made by my challenge co-host, Donna. Donna and Richard were able to join us at my daughter’s house for this special meal (another in the long list of things I am thankful for!)
Kabocha squash (aka buttercup; aka Japanese pumpkin) is hands-down my favourite squash. This was my first year attempting to grow it and for some reason I had it in my mind that it was difficult to grow, or maybe that it couldn’t be grown in my climate. I’d only even seen imported kabochas in the grocery store and never seen it at farmers’ markets either so I had incorrectly surmised this. Thankfully I found some seed and took a chance, anyways! The plants ended up almost taking over my garden, like some kind of alien life force 🤣.
Another item featured in our harvest celebration was the blackberry! We had as a family gone blackberry picking on several occasions in August, and some of this hard-earned bounty ended up being featured in a trifle.
And here are some shots of the harvest feast:
Bonus content: Last month there was some fun discussion in the Comments about my drawer of shame. I thought I would include a photo, so you have a visual…
That’s it for me for this month. As always, please join in the fun in the Comments section and/or join the Link Party.
And please check out Donna’s blog, where she “goes bananas”!
Feeling thankful for all my readers and contributors to this challenge…💕🙏💕
Rock on,
The WB
Fabulous spread
It was! Thanks, Sheree 💕
What a wonderful feast! And tidy drawer!!
😂 Tidy, yep! The feast was indeed wonderful. Thank you 💕
Wow deb, those pumpkins look hard to grow 🙂 What an awesome looking feast you all shared. Thanks for the linkup.
Yes, hard to grow…like weeds are hard to grow, it turns out 🤣. Thank you, Debbie 💕
Wow! That’s a lot of wonderful food! I have never heard of that squash before…I think I should look for it around here.
I hope you find them and that you won’t be disappointed. Every once in a while I pick up one at the grocery store that is dry and flavourless but usually they are sweet and delicious. And so far the ones from my garden have been great! Thanks, Dawn 💕
Looks like a wonderful feast but that squash! I’d grow it just for the beautiful octopus leaves. Fantastic.
👍
It’s definitely earned its place in my 2024 garden (and every year going forward!). Thanks, Rivergirl 💕
You must have been working for days. Everything looks delicious.
Well, if you count me planting the squash in early May…yes, it has taken months for this meal to come together 🤣. But actually I started the meal prep the day before (for my contributions) – baking the cake for the trifle, letting the fruit thaw and soak in some brandy, making the dough for a loaf of bread…my daughter and son-in-law took care of the rest! Thanks, Bernie 💕
Oh what a spectacular feast! My mouth is watering! 😋😋😋
It was really yummy! And we’ll be doing it all again for Christmas. There is something very comforting about traditional foods at certain times of year, isn’t there? Thanks, Natalie 💕
What a feast! I love blackberries but they are hard to find here.
Blackberry bushes are weedy invaders on this island. People rent goats from farmers to eat them when they overtake their land. Seriously! Thanks, Kate 💕
Awww…I love goats!
Like you I take great joy in growing a lot of the food we serve at the Thanksgiving table. Big bonus is that our daughter and son in law now provide a fresh turkey. Blackberry trifle– that’s a unique dessert and worth the pain!
That’s wonderful, Bernie! Yes, it was worth the pain – I can say that now. It doesn’t matter how thick your clothing or gloves are when you go picking, you are gonna get attacked by the brambles 🤣. Thanks 💕
I remember that from our time ok the island.
Delightful holiday meal. Many hands make light work. I take great joy from cooking food I’ve grown and even more from sharing it with others. I was responsible for providing baked goods for the brunch the day after a family wedding – carrot pineapple muffins (pineapple zucchini that I processed in Aug), rhubarb-raspberry muffins (harvested from the garden), lemon poppyseed loaf. I hosted the first in the Home Routes music concert series & stole a presentation idea from the wedding reception – roasted veg (beets, carrots, spaghetti squash, onions) served in rows. So pretty. “…it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s food & to say it was good.” by Brian Andreas from the Story People
I LOVE that quote! Yes, many hands do indeed make the work light and so much fun too. Roasted veg laid out in rows would look amazing – hmmm, I may have to steal from you, Mona! Thank you 💕
I love the idea of thanksgiving, but as you know, we don’t celebrate it. Yours looks amazing. As an aside, my drawer of shame looks similar to yours – as does my drawer above the drawer of shame. On another note, that relish! I must hassle Donna for the recipe!
Hi, Jo – No hassling required! 😀
https://www.spoonfulofflavor.com/apple-cranberry-sauce-recipe/
Yes, hassle Donna! 🤣 Thanks, Jo 💕
What a feast, Deb! It all looks wonderful and extra satisfying to know that you have grown the produce yourself. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia although I think we should – it puts the focus on gratitude for at least one day of the year. Thanks for hosting #WOYP and sharing your Thanksgiving dinner with us. x
My pleasure, Sue! Thank you 💕
Well, that got my mouth watering for our Thanksgiving, which is on Nov. 23. If you could please make another blackberry trifle and send it to us for our feast, I would be most grateful. Maybe you could get Donna to include a jar of her relish in the same package. TIA.
Hi, Janis – If Deb finds a way to send you here trifle, I will gladly give her a jar of my cranberry-apple relish to go send with it. Otherwise, my recipe is here: https://www.spoonfulofflavor.com/apple-cranberry-sauce-recipe/. 😀
🤣 Only if you send up that orange cheesecake. Maybe our packages could cross in the mail? 😉 Thanks, Janis 💕
Hi, Deb – I absolutely loved this meal from start to finish. I plan to work hard to stay in Jemma and Kevin’s good book so I get invited back again. 😀
Thank you for the kabocha squash. I am trying to decide what to make with it. Roasted Kabocha with Maple Syrup and Ginger? Honeycrisp-Kabocha Salad? Curried Kabocha Squash Soup? Or Roasted Kabocha Squash with Vanilla Butter? There are so many great choices out there, I keep changing my mind! 😀
I can’t wait to see what you do with it! I usually just roast it or microwave it, then mash and serve. Sometimes I cut it into wedges to roast and just serve it that way, along with whatever veggies I roasted beside it on the oven tray. Clearly I could be doing much much more! Thanks, Donna 💕
You know me. I will photograph and document the whole darn process. So you are in luck (or you may prefer to run away screaming). 😀
Looks most delicious Deb. What a lovely family gathering. Fancy growing pumpkins in your garden. I only ever buy them already cut from the supermarket. Amazing
They’re actually pretty easy to grow but they do tend to take over the garden! Thank you, Alison 💕
I also have a few drawers of shame!
https://travelswithali.com/2023/11/02/whats-on-your-plate-october-2023/
That is so heartening to read! 😉 Maybe we should reframe them as drawers of pride! Thanks, Alison 💕
It’s my first place to look when I’ve lost something
Deb, the Kabocha squash look ornamental and I think they would look great in a centerpiece. The arch covered in vines and the way they reach out look beautiful in your garden. I am not a big fan of cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal, especially since my family rates turkey low on the preferred protein scale, but you made it all look good. I think everyone has a ‘drawer of shame.’ I know I have at least two. I really should ‘think’ about getting around to organizing them.
Kabocha squash are long lasting so indeed they could do double-duty as decor before ending up in the oven! They are just too delicious not to be eaten, though 😋. I’m so glad that I am not the only one with a shame drawer 😂, or two. Yeah, the “thinking” phase is so important, isn’t it? Mustn’t be rushed 😉. Thanks, Suzanne 💕
What joy filled post! Love that you got to cook with things you grew yourself and shared your bounty with good friends and family. It all looks SO good! You have much to be thankful for this year and it’s been fun watching you transition to your new world.
Thank you very much, Jean 💕 It was so good and growing/harvesting some of the foods that ended up as part of the feast made it even better!
Happy Thanksgiving! What a beautiful table of wonderful foods for guests.
Thank you, Antoinette 💕 We thought so too!
Love the name of the blackberry jam–very apt! Had to read your aside about legs and arms healing from harvesting blackberries to my husband. He had an encounter with a blackberry patch on the trail by the ferry outside of Nanaimo. My dad bought a small vacation place (really a dump) on the coast of Washington that was completely taken over by blackberries because nobody ever used it. Love blackberries, but the vines are awful.
They are awful indeed – and deadly! Thanks for sharing – I have been on that trail and know just how many blackberry bushes there are on that trail. Thanks, Sheila 💕
Your drawer of shame is similar to ours. I feel sometimes you gotta let things be where they get tossed. This said from a recovering perfectionist. Your meal looks delicious.
I like the way you think, Ally 😁. Thank you very much 💕, it was indeed delicious.
This year I had my first Canadian Thanksgiving actually in Canada. My SIL, who hosted, had us over when they lived in the US and I was amazed at the similarity of dishes. I assumed she had been influenced. By looking at your delicious meal, could it be the other way around? Except for the trifle, wow that looks good and I want some next year (or maybe this year here!)
According to Wikipedia, a lot of “our” Thanksgiving food traditions come from the US. My daughter was the one who suggested I make a trifle, years and years ago now. She reminded me of the photos of her enjoying trifle on her very 1st birthday and how her Oma was amazed at how her little self was packing it in 🤣. So it has become a family tradition now! Thanks, Tracey 💕
Food looks great! Also, that squash was quite a bountiful harvest. Nice.
I was very pleased with how the squash grew and how many I got to harvest. Hopefully I get that many or more next year! Thank you 💕
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Catching up on the good eating that happened last month (before our November posts come racing!) – I love how you feast … seasonal produce plus sunshine captured in frozen fruit … such a lovely combination. And the best part, sharing it all with loved ones!
I have to say that your kabocha image had me soft in the knees … I love viewing squash & pumpkins photos … and all of these came from your garden?!!! Envy much!
Thank you, Ju-Lyn 💕 I had much success with my squash this year and am looking forward to growing even more next year!!!
I am so envious of you who are able to grow things well with the space to do so!