However much we have tried to skip Xmas it just never happens and we now concede that it's a good time to have friends round and enjoy a meal together, compleat with all the trimmings.
This year was mainly home produced,however, I dont think prawns are something we can grow ourselves, well I suppose we could try fresh water cray fish but that might be taking self sufficiency a tad too far, so we are happy enough that the geese and the veg were ours, the sausage rolls, mince pies, Christmas pud and cake all home made, the greenery to decorate the dining room was all from the hedge rows, decorations that did not entail the uprooting or cutting down of a tree. Keeping it simple is fun although a lot of work! somewhat a contradiction in terms.
The past week seems to have be very busy, Simon had the last three of our table birds to slaughter, they all weighed about the same 6.5 lbs, and are definately worth doing, we have only cooked one so far, and it tasted like chicken should. Then came the slaughtering of the Xmas geese, this is quite hard work, and they are one thing that neither of us feels quite right about killing, geese have real personalities. Still that's the price we are prepared to pay. So the job was done, and all that was left was the baking, until Thursday. Simon went out to pick the greenery for the decorations and came back in with a new born kid, we instantly named him Noel, photo taken and the kid returned to mum and there was the second one. So we now have two more kids, Noel and his sister Gabrielle.
Christmas day was bright in more ways than one, we had our two newly married friends over with their helper, and after the meal played silly Xmas games,and had deep conversations, putting the world to rights, although it was conceded that is no longer possible to do so. The latest Wikileaks are an eye opener.We are glad that we did 'DO' Christmas this year, for who knows what the future has in store?
3 comments:
Glad you had a nice holiday - sounds lovely. We had the annual family dinner Friday evening, 22 of us, until 3 in the morning. Saturday was very slow.
Do you pluck by hand? Good looking birds.
What are the new kids´ futures?
Sounds as though you had a good time. The geese look good, we had one of our Chickens The Cockerals not the girls, really nice he was too. I love christmas though, wouldn't miss it for the world, and wasn't it a glorious day?
Hi Coco and Dawn, to answer you both, yes we do pluck by hand, always best when the bird is still warm, as it cools we need to use very hot water to get the rest of the feathers out. The male kid is destined for the freezer, the girl hopefully we will try to sell.
Our main objection to Christmas is the commercialization of it, Christmas when we were young, Oh so many years ago, was fun greenery collected from the hedge rows, holly if it had no berries was decorated with sealing wax to make berries I'm sure you are both too young to remember such stuff,and maybe a tree with roots, with clip on real candles, not very safe I'm sure, snow was cotton wool!Home made paper chains, and a capon chicken, which in those days was a real luxury!! Christmas presents would be home made, just a stocking, with an orange, maybe a few sweets and if you were lucky a threepenny piece, plus what ever home made toy your parents had made for you, so simple, but fun and it meant something.
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