by Tim Billbrough
Introduction
With an unusually large burst of Awen this past January, though, I set upon a quest to feast the Wheel of the Year with a special food item for each of the eight festivals. In these dishes, I try to capture the spirit of the specific festival, my own native land, and the ancient Celtic culture we derive from.
I do not hold these dishes as special in and of themselves, but I try to make them special through the consideration, intent, and symbolism that goes into choosing what to make and the ingredients that go into it.
I have four rules that I try my best to follow in pursuit of this goal:
1. The dish must represent the festival in question, its themes and what we revere about it. This is how I honor the festival.
2. I must use only ingredients I grow myself/can source locally, or are native to my home in New Hampshire, USA. When I can do both, that is preferred. This is how I honor the land I live and practice on.
3. The ingredients must be seasonal to my own land, either through ripeness or appropriate preservation. My climate is slightly different than that of the Celtic Isles, so this is how I honor the Wheel of the Year itself.
4. The dish must be an interpretation of what our Celtic ancestors would have eaten around the time of festival. This is how I honor our Druid traditions.
Using these rules, I seek to channel my own self into my cooking and seek deeper connection between myself, my practice, and my land.
Symbolizing Samhuinn
Samhuinn. The Celtic new year and, I don’t think I’m alone in this, my favorite Festival of the year. The time when the veils between the world are thinnest, when our ancestors come to check on us, and, I think sometimes overlooked, the last of the harvest festivals.
Trying to find a dish that would represent all of these is challenging. Doing it with all native ingredients even more so. Samhuinn is a traditional night of feasting. Not only to celebrate the last of the harvest and to see out the warm months with a bang, but to also put our best foot forward for those departed spirits who might use the time to visit us and want a share. It wouldn’t do to serve the honored dead scraps, would it?
With this in mind, I wanted a big hearty meal, akin to what I made during Alban Hefin. I also wanted a way to symbolize a connection to the dead, so I knew I would include meat.
Since I did fish during the summer, and fishing is largely a summer pastime, I decided to include game meat, specifically local venison, for this recipe, to symbolize the hunt, another traditional Samhuinn theme.
But it is also a harvest festival, the last and largest of the year, and I wanted to symbolize that too. So I wanted to use a few different fall harvest staples.
Being from New England, and given the season, including a pumpkin is a no-brainer for keeping the food local and symbolizing harvest. It’s long association with Halloween, another holiday we celebrate at the same time, also helps. I grow a vine of pie pumpkins in my garden to can their flesh for the year, and I always have more than I can use. Pumpkins are a strong symbol of the harvest here not least because of their legendary productivity.
This is also the time that my cranberry bushes ripen and fresh berries can be had. I’ve used the dried and preserved berries before, all the way back to my first entry for Imbolc, but now I can use fresh.
And to round it out, while not native to my area, there is a naturalized crab apple tree on my property. I didn’t plant it, it was there well before the house was, but since it grows on my land and every year I harvest it to make crabapple jelly, which is delicious, it still counts for this challenge. And apples have long been a powerful autumn symbol for the Celts.
What to Make
It didn’t take me as long to put these items together in a dish as you might think. I merely adapted a recipe I’ve made before, pork shoulder with apples roasted in a whole pumpkin. I think the mixture of apples, cranberry, and venison a pumpkin would be a show-stopping feast, full of symbolism of the year and certain to impress the honored dead.
Making The Feast
This dish isn’t hard to make, it just involves a lot of knifework. The first thing I did was remove the top of the pumpkin, keeping the ‘lid’ to bake with, and removed the seeds and strands. My chickens love these treats, though I do keep a few handful of seeds each season to roast for myself. Then I cut up the meat, core and chop the apples, and dice a couple of the smaller walking onion bulbs from my garden that aren’t big enough to store back.
From there assembly is easy. I seasoned the inside of the pumpkin with salt and recently dried thyme from my garden. I then mix the venison, chopped apples, and cranberries together with some more salt and thyme and dump the whole mess into the pumpkin. I placed the entire thing on a lined sheet pan and put it into a moderate oven for about an hour.
Pie, or sugar, pumpkins have a very hard rind that doesn’t really get soft when cooking, so when checking for doneness, you have to remove the lid and test the inside. When it’s well-cooked, the pulp slides easily off the hard rind. Be sure to make sure the venison doesn’t overcook. It is a very lean meat and can easily get very tough.
When it’s done, just use a serrated knife to carve a slice of the pumpkin away and serve it with some of the filling.
Conclusion
I will admit that this version of the dish was rather bland. I should have used more salt and herbs, perhaps added some sage or rosemary as well, so make sure to do so if you copy this recipe.
But other than that, the pumpkin was beautifully soft and the venison perfectly cooked. The apples and cranberries balance well together, giving a sweet/tart pop to the dish. With some easy-to-make adjustments to seasoning, this has been a very fine Samhuinn feast.
Recipe
Ingredients
One small pie pumpkin
About a pound of venison chuck, cut into small cubes.
About a pound, around 5, crab apples, cored and chopped.
A cup of fresh cranberries
Thyme and/or other seasonings. I used a teaspoon, I recommend using a tablespoon all told
Salt to taste. You’ll need more than you might think.
Method
Preheat your oven to 350F/177C.
Remove the top of the pumpkin and set aside. Remove the ‘guts’ and seeds and discard or save as you please. Season the inside of the pumpkin very well.
Mix the venison, chopped apples, crabapples, and cranberries together with salt and herb. Place this mixture into the pumpkin and replace the top.
Bake for about an hour, or until the flesh of the pumpkin is soft and the meat is done to your liking.
Serve by slicing carving out a ‘rib’ of the pumpkin into a slice and scooping some of the filling on top.
