For me, a pumpkin pie starts with a couple of pie pumpkins roasting in the oven.
I ended up using butternut squash.
Canned pumpkin was an important part of my dogs’ diet, and I like to use it for making pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin cookies since I don’t need much for those things.
Hubs called me from the grocery store to tell me that my turkey options this year were a turkey breast or a chicken. Central Arizona.
The Walmart I went to in Sacramento seemed lower on turkeys than I would have expected, but they did have some.
It does NOT seem to be a problem here in New Hampshire. My local grocery store has a freezer full of whole ones for 89 cents a pound.
And if worse came worse there plenty of wild turkeys here. I seem wild ones two or three times a week when I am out driving,
We put out shelled corn for deer, turkeys, crows, whoever. Most mornings and some evenings the local birds visit our yard. I love seeing big Toms displaying this time of year.
Here’s the NYT’s article about this year’s turkey weirdness (gift link):
Every corner of the turkey market is stretched thin. Restaurants can’t get orders filled. Deli owners are scrambling to find sliced turkey breast. Shoppers are paying as much as 112 percent more for fresh, skinless turkey breasts than they were last year. The fast-food chain Arby’s is warning customers that turkey sandwiches are not available for online ordering, and has posted “temporarily out of stock” on menu boards at some stores, leading to much grumbling on social media.
Most producers, retailers and market analysts don’t think meat cases will be empty. Contracts for most frozen turkeys were signed in the first quarter, some of them before the nation’s first case of avian influenza in a commercial flock was detected at an Indiana turkey farm on Feb. 8. And much of the nation’s supply of frozen birds has been ready to go for months.
(I’m not sure how I feel about that last sentence up there. ^)
But still, shoppers shouldn’t expect the options they’ve enjoyed in the past.
“They’ll find a turkey of some kind. It just might not be that nice 10-pounder,” said Russ Whitman, senior vice president at Urner Barry, the price reporting agency that specializes in perishable proteins. “It’s essentially a ‘you’re going to take what you get and feel good about it’ situation.”
I’ve heard there is a significant shortage of them in general, this year.
I just ordered 2 fresh turkeys from Whole Foods, to pick up next Monday evening (how the hell did Thanksgiving sneak up on us???). Hopefully they’ll actually have them!
Supposedly Wegman’s has frozen turkeys in stock. I’ll likely pick one up this evening when we do our regular big grocery run, since we have the freezer space.
I just went back to the grocery store today - there were about 12 large whole frozen turkeys, 6 of the smaller hen turkeys, and about 10 frozen whole ducks mixed in with the hens. Surprised to see the duck - they usually have a few this time of year, but this was more than typical.
Normally that whole meat case would be full of whole turkeys, turkey breasts, turkey rolls, etc. by now, but they took up only about a third of it. There were 3 frozen breasts over in the regular freezers where a few are normally kept during the rest of the year.
The co-op here is taking orders for fresh turkeys but those are always eye-wateringly expensive. Only one local producer this year too - they’re also getting some from a farm in PA.
There also still seems to be a problem with unshelled nuts again, too. I haven’t seen bags of almonds for at least three years now and hazelnuts are hit and miss. The only bags available right now are the mixed nuts and pecans.
If you want ham, though, come on down! We’ve got piles of those.
My local Wegmans (Wake Forest) seemed to have plenty of whole turkeys on Saturday. The produce section - veggies in particular - seems to stay very sparse lately.
I bet Wegman’s signed a contract very early this year for frozen turkeys. They’re smart that way.
I saw plenty of turkeys in the road on my way to an appointment…
I assume all of the big supermarket chains signed contracts early on for turkeys. It’s not as if it’s a surprise that Thanksgiving will be occurring at the end of November and many customers will want to serve turkeys.
My local didn’t get their share in that case, then.
We shopped tonight, and Wegman’s had pre-basted frozen turkeys for 29 cents a pound. I don’t normally buy that sort - you’re paying for salt water, basically - but they did have a fair selection. I got one to put in the freezer. They also had fresh turkeys for 99 cents (or thereabouts) a pound. I was tempted - but who has room in the fridge for a turkey for a week?
Hopefully Whole Paycheck will come through for me.
Our local turkey farm has a bird with our name on it. We have an appointment for pick up. It’s a bit weird picking up a still warm bird.
We ordered one from a local farm to be picked up next Tuesday.
My local one is supposed to get a fresh batch of turkey breasts next week, which is fine since I’m just cooking that for myself (Mom is vegetarian).
Whirlpool refrigerator parts are in short supply. We bought a new refrigerator for our basement. Two months after purchase it stopped working correctly.
The store agreed it was under warranty and sent a guy out. The problem was a part that controlled defrosting. The part needed replaced, but is difficult to get.
So the technician spent two hours manually defrosting the freezer then reassembling. He put thermometers in the refrigerator and freezer and asked me to monitor temperature. Things were great for a month, then I called him and he came out again. Part is still not in.
Hopefully they dom’t try claiming, once the part DOES arrive, that “It’s been over a year since you bought it, the warranty has expired”!!
I think I mentioned earlier in the thread, but we ordered a new cooktop in January 2021 - it did not arrive until September. It’s possible a more traditional smoothtop cooktop would have arrived sooner; we got an induction top versus the radiant heat sort.
I did some more grocery shopping last night, and they had frozen turkeys. Maybe not as huge a display of them as in some years; as I usually don’t buy frozen, I don’t honestly know how big the stash usually is. Their cheaper ones (“prebasted”, i.e. 9% or so salt water injected) were 38 cents a pound, while the non-prebasted ones were 99 cents a pound. I got one of each to toss in the freezer. I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a prebasted turkey before, as we usually brine the bird.
So now, we have 3 turkeys in the freezer - 2 of the pre-brined ones that were so cheap, one unadulterated. So if Whole Paycheck lets us down on the fresh ones, we’ll be covered - and if we DO get the fresh ones, we’ve got cheaply-bought turkeys for upcoming months. If we have room in a freezer, I might get one more.