Thanksgiving
November 24, 2008
We will be having Thanksgiving at our house this year. I'm counting the dishes, planning out menus, trying to decide where everyone will sleep.
I love Thanksgiving for its lack of agenda. No presents, and pretty much everything you have to buy comes from the grocery store.
Except, this year, for the cranberries. I have been hearing for ages that there is a place near us where cranberries grow wild. One sunny weekend morning half a dozen women hiked out (I'm not telling you where!) with empty plastic grocery bags.
The berries grow very low on foliage that looks like evergreen groundcover. The bogs that we all picture have to do with flooding the fields in order to make it easier for mechanical harvesting. With wild berries, you can sit right on the ground. And pick. And chat. It makes for a great outing.
I filled up my plastic bag. It seemed like a lot, although if you counted the time that it took to get there and back, it probably wasn't a bargain. But the hike was refreshing, the company was fun, and just the idea....wild cranberries!
So I am very thankful for that day. And you can bet that we will enjoy that cranberry sauce with our Thanksgiving meal.
Mealtimes Matter Video
from Miriam Weinstein
About Miriam
Miriam Weinstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. As a journalist, she has won several awards from the New England Press Association. Her work has appeared in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe magazine, Hope, and ParentSource. A former staff member for North Shore Weeklies and freelancer for Essex County Newspapers, she writes restaurant reviews and food columns as well as features on a wide variety of subjects. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her husband and has two grown children.
The Surprising Power of Family Meals
In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today.