Our Thanksgiving Day is coming to an end and I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  This year I have so much to be thankful for that I will not take this whole post to talk about my many blessings.  I am going to talk about something that makes my family different. 

As the day comes to a close I listen to the sounds of my kitchen and I get a strange filling that not many of my peers are doing what we are doing right now.  My brother for example I know is watching a football game, I believe some of my family is already asleep or playing a card game.  We however are canning turkey stock and dehydrating apples!   I know many people would call us weird and I guess I am to the point that I almost expect it. 

Turkey Stock-
We buy our wonderful turkey from a local farmer.  I know a lot of hard work goes into raising that bird.  Our turkey was raised in an open field where it got to enjoy grass as well as sun light.  I can tell you the name of the person who raised my turkey and I can tell you the name of the person who processed it.  They valued that turkeys life and so do I!  I wanted to make sure that I did not let an ounce of that turkey go to waste.  After we picked the left over meat off for sandwiches and meals for the week, I put what is left in the crock pot and covered it with water.  I let it cook on HIGH for about 6 hours until I had a beautiful golden stock.  I pulled off 3 quarts of liquid, filtered it to get the large chunks out and separated the fat from the stock.  We sealed the jars and canned them in a pressure canner.  I then refilled the crock pot to repeat the process in the morning.  I will continue to do this until I notice the liquid is losing it`s color.  In the past I have done it four times at least.  This will give me 12 quarts of turkey stock, which I will use just like chicken stock when I cook.

Apples-
I processed some apple ring earlier in the week and I set some apples aside for pie and for apple sauce.  My family has decided that this year they want me to make all the apples into apple rings.  So now that Thanksgiving is over and I know I had enough apples for my pies, I am processing the rest of those apples.  My dehydrator can do about 30 apples a day so I hope that I will be done by the weekend.  To make apple rings is really easy, I core and slice the apples into rings, soak them in a lemon juice bath, (which is about 1 cup juice to 1 quart water).  Lastly, I set them on the trays of the dehydrator and let it works its magic.  It takes about 8 hours a batch.  Store in a gallon bag and repeat the process over again.  My family loves them. 

I hope that you find your bellies full of local food and your hearts are overflowing with the blessings you have been given.  Enjoy the rest of your evening and if you haven`t thrown away those bones, I challenge you to make some turkey stock too!