We should be more thankful to our farmers instead of penalising them

While we don’t celebrate this holiday here I have been thinking about it this week in particular. With many farmers protesting both here and across the UK about increased taxes it made me consider how much farmers are taken for granted. We should be thankful to them, as they are across the pond, instead of penalising them. Can you imagine our landscape, produce shelves without local farming?

This week’s recipes are in celebration of Thanksgiving Day with good produce from here supplemented by a few of our American’s friend’s influences. Collar of bacon is an old fashioned cut from the shoulder that’s starting to find favour again. It’s usually a bit cheaper and has great flavour. In the recipe here it’s braised like a gammon with cider and aromatic vegetables then glazed with apple jelly and finished with the cooking liquor. The whole thing is topped with a pecan and bacon crumb. Ask your butcher for collar of bacon – I get mine from Kennedy Bacon in Omagh.

When I was in Tennessee earlier this year cornbread was on every menu and the smell of it often permeated through the air. For a stateside stuffing I’ve added a recipe for cornbread and sausage stuffing. You’ll need to make the cornbread but you won’t regret it. Freeze any left over crumbs. All you need for this fusion feast of Northern Ireland and America is a few good spuds. Good potatoes are something we should never take for granted and they’re something we should be truly thankful for. Imagine no perfectly ploughed fields and then the promise of freshly dug spuds……

Cranberries are one of the gifts we can thank our transatlantic friends for. They’re readily available in the freezer section but in the recipe here I’m using dried cranberries soaked in local whiskey, or apple juice. They’re paired with local cooking apples and baked in a turnover. Some fried soda crumbs are added to keep the whole thing together and they’re served with a cinnamon butterscotch sauce. And I’ll leave you with the thought of our world without good local butter and cream. This weekend thank your local farmer by sussing out the spuds, the vegetables, the dairy, the meat and consider how poor we would all be without what they provide for us.