WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HELLO from your Garden Daddy here at the garden home! I could not let this day pass without having a few comments about Thanksgiving and being thankful. Here is a list, partial of course & in NO order, of my "thanksgiving blessings":
Waking up to a wonderful world every day!
My good health.
My family...ALL of US!
My Daughter.
My "Max" (...the sweetest boy ever).
Having my own home.
My daily work(s).
My friends.
The ability to express ourselves without reprisal.
Most of all I am thankful daily for just "being"!
So I leave you this Thanksgiving 2009 with the following thoughts & some history in mind:
Venison for stew and roasting,Oysters in the ashes toasting,Geese done to a turn,Berries (dried) and wild grapes (seeded)Mixed with dough and gently kneaded~What a feast to earn! Indian corn in strange disguises,Ash cakes, hoe cakes (many sizes),Kernels roasted brown...After months of frugal living What a welcome first Thanksgiving There in Plymouth town.
Poem by Aileen Fisher
*The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food.
Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.