Every year Thanksgiving comes and goes, but for my family and I its always a very important time of year. My family celebrates thanksgiving with plenty of delicious and traditional foods and lots of fun games, because to us thanksgiving is about having fun together and sharing a fantastic meal prepared completely at home. This year is extra special however because right here in Lexington we will be holding a Thanksgiving Fall Festival! There will be food, games, cook offs, and demonstrations on how to prepare and serve delicious traditional thanksgiving dishes right in your own kitchen.
Cooking demonstrations
In Kentucky and all of Appalachia home-cooked meals are important and have always been a part of the culture. Whether its momma’s cooking or pa’s barbecue the blood, sweat, and tears that went into cooking that dish always seem to make it taste all the better, stated very well by Jones (1988: 236), “A type of food, the presence of food, or the preparation of food by someone may symbolize care, concern, and contentment.” This quote not only talks about the value placed on food prepared special but the sentimental value behind that preparation, the love and kindness poured into it so that others may enjoy it to the fullest probably best said by Lundy (2016: 296), “But people still unite around food because food taps into much deeper values”. So come on down to the Back To Our Roots Thanksgiving Fall Festival and watch old pros at work as they show how to make some of the most iconic thanksgiving dishes including homemade stuffing, green bean casserole, assorted pies, and of course the crown jewel of the thanksgiving dinner table whole roasted turkey.
Cook Offs
Before our cooking demonstrations make sure to come see our participants competing for our Best Thanksgiving Table award in our cook off competition! Participants will be whipping up three delicious dishes for their thanksgiving dinner table to be presented to judges and the winner will be crowned this year’s Best Home Cook and receive a cash prize. The three dishes in question are green bean casserole (side dish) whole roasted turkey (main course) and an apple pie (dessert) to round things off.
Looking Back On Our Roots
Another staple value surrounding Thanksgiving and Appalachia is using your local food resources to prepare your meals. Local farmers work hard growing crops and raising livestock year-round to put food on the tables of millions of people each year and there’s nothing sweeter than meats and greens raised proudly by your local farmers. Not only this but when the first settlers arrived in Kentucky, they didn’t have the option to stop in at the grocery store, they needed to make use of the land they stood upon and the foods it provided shaped many timeless and traditional dishes you won’t find anywhere else, this is stated very well by Herman (2019:229) “The literal consumption of place nourishes our understandings of who we are”. Enjoying these dishes helps us to understand our roots and the priceless history that fills the lands around us. Make sure to stop by the Back to our Roots historical and local farmers experience event.
In this event we will look at how farmers grow some of the produce used in our dishes and hunting techniques used to lure in wild turkey. Hunters use a combination of lure calls and decoys to trick wild turkeys into approaching them. They do this by using the call to let any wild turkeys in the area think there is another turkey looking for a mate, after some time one or a few show up and inspect the decoy from afar. The hunter meanwhile is hiding just behind their decoy turkey which more modern ones look strikingly similar to the actual birds, when the hunters spot any turkeys coming to investigate the call they move their decoys around to make them seem alive. Once the wild turkey comes in closer to investigate their potential mate the hunter quickly moves the decoy and shoots the turkey. After getting back home and lots of prep the turkey is then ready for cooking.
Fun and Games
Finally before or after chowing down on some thanksgiving grub make sure to stop by our fun and games area where classic Appalachian games will be available for all attendees which include horseshoes, cornhole, Forbus Pig, and more! My family actually puts a pretty big stress on games around the holidays, we are all very competitive and love to bond over games. Every year we play an assortment of games including some of the ones mentioned earlier because we believe there are few things that can bond people together than a friendly competition. Our biggest two competitions during thanksgiving celebrations are cornhole and horseshoes which provide ample opportunity for banter and smack talk all in good fun of course.
References
Michael Owen Jones. 1988. “Afterword: Discovering the Symbolism of Food Customs and Events”. We Gather Together: Food and Festivals in American Life, Theodore and Lin C. Humphrey, eds, 235-245. Ann Arbor, MI: U. of Michigan Press.
Bernard L. Herman. 2019. Selections from A South You Never Ate. Chapel Hill, NC: U. of North Carolina
Lundy, Ronni. 2016. Victuals: An Appalachian Journey with Recipes. New York: Clarkson Potter.
