Last November, Sunset magazine sent an editorial team to HomeFarm to document a typical Thanksgiving dinner. This November, the HomeFarm Thanksgiving is the cover story for Sunset magazine. As you might imagine, we’re beyond thrilled.
SHED co-owners Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel invited friends and prepared a typical Thanksgiving to give the Sunset team a literal taste of the way that they’ve been including friends and family around the table for more than two decades.
Cindy’s secret is preparation and collaboration. The Thanksgiving meal that she and Doug serve is planned and prepped ahead of the actual feast day. She dry brines the turkey, makes cornbread for the stuffing, pickles the quince that she serves in lieu of cranberries, and poaches the pears for dessert a day or two before the holiday — but that’s it. Everything else is made and assembled just before being served; she doesn’t even mix her vinaigrette in advance!
But there are other tricks to a sane holiday preparation that do benefit from advance work. Cindy always sets the table the night before, getting the napkins and place settings, candles and dinner glasses just as she’d like them.
This allows her the pleasure of wandering the property on Thanksgiving morning, gathering herbs, leaves, and fruits to use in decorating the table and the sideboard. (Even when she lived in San Francisco, Cindy would take walks in her neighborhood and collect what she could from the urban landscape to decorate with.)
She’s also careful to create her mise, so that it’s ready to go when she is. While she may not mix the vinaigrette until just before she dresses her salad, she will already have chopped and macerated the fresh shallots that flavor it. Small touches like that make pulling the whole thing together in one big shebang a little easier.
But most important to Cindy and Doug’s tradition is the people. Cindy welcomes a crowd to her kitchen and invites everyone to pitch in to help wash and chop, harvest and arrange. Angelo Garro always brings a wild turkey and cooks it on the outdoor fire. Cindy also roasts a heritage bird in the kitchen. Doug’s in charge of cracking the oysters. Friends bring pies. Together, they put the feast on the table.
They heap their plates and settle at the table around 4pm, before it gets dark. Once seated, one of their two sons will read a poem, and then toasts are made all around. Following dessert, they meander HomeFarm to admire the chilly fall twilight, returning to the house, the hearth, and the fire for herb tea, and maybe just one more piece of pie!
Sunset doesn’t yet have the whole cover article available online, but most of the recipes that Cindy shared with them are live now. Perhaps you’d like to try some of them for your own Thanksgiving!
Oysters with Verjus Mignonette: Start with the briny sweetness of the sea!
Cindy’s Dry-Cured Roasted Turkey with Herb Butter: You’ll love the crisp skin and moist meat of this method.
Roasted Turkey Gravy: Hard-cooked eggs are the secret.
Buttermilk Cornbread: An excellent cornbread that makes an excellent basis for an excellent stuffing.
Buttermilk Cornbread Stuffing: The best.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes: Don’t cover those gorgeous things with marshmallows!
Chicory Salad with Persimmons, Pomegranates, and Walnuts: Bitter, sweet, crunchy — a lovely complement to the heaviness of the traditional meal.
Spiced Pickled Quince: Cranberries don’t grow near HomeFarm so Doug and Cindy don’t serve them. Quince, however, are in abundance and make a wonderful sharp/sweet addition to the meat.