Pumpkins, Halloween, turkeys, and Marlborough Pudding

In preparation for Halloween we carved a pumpkin.  Bennett had absolutely no squeamishness about sticking his hand in to remove the pumpkin guts.

And here's the final pumpkin. Despite what you might think, that's not a raised eyebrow.  That's an eye and what's under it is a nose.

On Halloween we went to Nana's.  After dinner Bennett got into his costume and helped pass out a couple of pieced of candy before we went out.

Most people didn't know what he was (numerous cow and dog guesses) but they all thought he was cute- especially when he turned around and they saw his tail.  He also had a bit of trouble with walking up and down steps and was a bit overwhelmed when there were lots of crowds of other kids.  But overall he did great and Mummy and Daddy got lots of good candy.  :)

The big excitement for the weekend was our weekly trip to OSV on Sunday.

A few weeks ago we had asked what the butchering schedule was and Sunday it was going to be a turkey.  I'll go into more detail about this later so you can skip it if you wish.

Other things that happened:

• Dave mentioned that he liked Bennett's costume
• As we were leaving the Farmhouse we overheard one interpreter (Rob?) asked Victoria, "was that the boy who dressed up as Doc?"  Which then led us to wonder, when she shared the picture with people, how did she preface it?  "You know that crazy family who comes here every week?"  What adjective did she use to describe us?
• I mentioned to Victoria that we were planning to do a Thanksgiving meal of just pies.  (For all extended family members reading this, we will be in NJ on the 28th, but doing Piesgiving [the name Chris and I have now come up with for a Thanksgiving of Pies] on the 30th.)  She said we should do pork and apple pie, to which I responded that I would be having my brother make that one.  And then she said I should make Marlborough Pudding.  I asked for the recipe.  She had Dave get the receipt for her and then I had her translate it for me.  At the end, she asked, "you have my contact information, right?"  Um, nope.  So now I have her email address for any culinary questions.
• We learned some interesting Turkey trivia.  For starters, there's no such thing as a "wild" turkey.  They were all hunted to the point of extinction.  So in the 50s or 60s domesticated turkeys were introduced back into the wild.  So any turkey you see is a descendent of those.  Also, historic breeds don't have much breast meat.  To get the large turkeys that you find at the grocery store, they have so much breast meat that they are unable to mate.  So all of those birds are the result of artificial insemination.
• After we finished up at the Farm we stopped at the blacksmith shop where Chris taught the smith about sap wood.  
• One of our final stops of the day was at the tinshop.  Phil invited Bennett back to get a better look at what he was doing, and then he had Bennett help pull the lever to crimp the edge of the tin for the lantern.

And that pretty much wraps up what happened at Sturbridge, except for the details on the turkey which are below.

But Bennett must have had a good time, because that evening he started playing "Sturbridge".  First he got in his "car" and drove there.  Then he shot a musket and baked a pie.

Daddy: What are you making?
Bennett:  Apple pie.  Not apple sauce.
Daddy: What did you put in it?
Bennett: Cookies

And speaking of pies and Marlborough Pudding, I decided to give it a whirl.  It needs some tweaking, but it was very yummy.  I later found the recipe on OSV's site, which includes some changes I was thinking were needed.  Chris even liked it so much that he said I should make it for real Thanksgiving in addition to Piesgiving.  One of the ingredients in Marlborough Pudding is applesauce, which is likely why Bennett mentioned it for the pie that he was making.

Now I'm going to warn Mel and other people who are squeamish that you may want to stop reading.   The pictures really aren't that bad, but there is a video that might freak you out.  We personally found it highly entertaining, but we're a little strange.
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THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!
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The first thing we saw as we approached the barnyard was Victoria walking up the road carrying the turkey.  She had the job of holding the turkey while Dave wielded the axe, so she ended up with some blood on her apron and dress while the turkey had flailed a bit. 

The turkey got to "take a bath".  About a minute in the warm water loosens up the pores which allows the feathers to come out more easily.  The water was too warm at first and would have started to cook the bird, so she removed some and added some cold water.  Eventually it was the right temperature.

Then came the task of removing the feathers.  They were separated into two baskets- wing feathers and all the rest.  The good wing feathers would be saved for quills and the other feathers would be washed and used for mattress stuffing, etc.

After all of the feathers had been removed, the turkey was brought inside to be gutted.  First they removed the feet, and then Victoria removed the organs.  As you can see, Bennett wasn't the least bit disturbed by any of this.

I don't have a picture of it, but when she was done Victoria had laid out all of the organs.  She also cut open the stomach so that we could see inside.  It was full of grass, rocks, and even a bug.

And remember that video I mentioned?  She had a little too much fun (especially considering she's a self proclaimed former PETA kid who cried when the turkey was killed) pulling on the tendon to make it wave/dance.  She also allowed the kids to do this if they wanted.  Bennett declined.

So that sums up our visit.  She kept hinting that we would be doing this to our own turkey.  I think I would be ok with some parts of the process but not others.  Next week they butcher a sheep!