Three Takes on the Holiday Bird

Family traditions run deep, especially when it comes to food, and holiday meal planning is typically more a question of when to pick up the turkey than how to prepare it. Regrettably, for the second year in a row, chances are that at least a modicum of these traditions have been upended by the pandemic and the priority has turned to simply keeping everyone healthy, which may mean staying apart.

Some families will continue to make a traditional turkey feast, freezing the leftovers to enjoy over the winter months. Others will scale back their menu for fewer guests, aiming for the meal to still feel like a special occasion.

For those hosting more intimate, simpler gatherings this year, three local farmers share their ideas for smaller, poultry-centered dishes that are impressive stand-ins for that time-honored turkey dinner.

THE MEATSTRESS

Larissa Popa is The Meatstress, a local chef, butcher and farmer known for her expertise in whole-hog butchery and charcuterie. A native Detroiter with Eastern European roots and a degree in culinary arts from Schoolcraft College, she is a passionate advocate for pasture-raised animals and educating the public about whole-animal cooking. Popa has studied in the south of France with renowned chef Kate Hill and worked as house butcher at Republic Tavern in Detroit. Currently, she is the resident chef-instructor at Sur la Table in Troy, teaching a variety of hands-on cooking classes, including knife skills, date nights and macarons. Separately, she teaches private whole-animal butchering classes for the public.

Her motto? Eat better meat, less often. Eat quality. Know where your food comes from. Her desire for the very best meat led her to begin raising her own chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, pheasant, hogs and a garden full of vegetables.

“I wanted to get back to good food, healthy food, that’s raised the right way,” she says. “I’m constantly learning new things but being able to eat the food that I grow and raise—it’s night and day. When you do it yourself, it’s even better.”

Popa especially loves sharing good food with others and her strategy for holiday gatherings this year is cooking ahead of time and making up meal boxes to bring over to loved ones.

“If you can’t spend time with your relatives, you can at least stop over, bearing a special to-go box. You can share your meal together in that way,” she says.

For in-person dinners, she suggests splurging on something special, such as a pasture-raised turkey, or trying something completely new, like her recipe for Faux Cassoulet. “It’s a simpler yet delicious substitute for traditional cassoulet that I crave at this time of year. It has the flavors of the cassoulet I learned to make in France.”

THE MARKET FARMER

John Harnois is one of the most recognizable faces at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. Customers know him for his famed pastured poultry that he’s raised in Whitmore Lake for more than 27 years.

He describes himself as a city kid from Detroit who later lived in a 200-year-old farmhouse in Farmington Hills, adjacent to a farm that raised turkeys, chicken and geese. “It must have rubbed off,” he laughs.

“At some point in time, I got interested in where my food came from, so I picked up some books to learn how to raise birds, visited farms and looked at their operations,” he says. “Eventually, I decided to try raising my own heritage-breed chickens: Jersey White Giants and Buff Orpingtons. From there, things ended up growing organically. People liked what I raised, so I got more birds, built more buildings and at some point this became my full-time job.”

With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Michigan State University, a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Master of Education from the University of Michigan, Harnois knows he could have had a more lucrative career.

“One of the reasons I do what I do is because people love what I have, they love my products and that’s the biggest reason why I do it still. It’s the love they have for what I’m doing,” he says.

Currently, he raises heritage-breed turkeys, ducks, geese, meat chickens and occasionally guinea fowl and Cornish hens, which he sells at his farm, at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and at Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor. Although he is known for having “some of the best eggs” in the area, he plans to focus solely on meat now, so he can spend more time pursuing his love of image-making art.

“I consider myself a photo-based conceptualist. I think the best art is one that makes people see the world in a different way. I live my life that way and I use photography to express it,” he says.

Harnois regularly shares his recipe for Dutch-oven-braised duck or chicken with customers. “It’s an old French braising recipe. I tell everyone to cook their chickens and ducks this way. It’s very easy. The juice from the bird combines with the onions to give you this amazing gravy. After trying it, my customers come back and tell me that this is how they’re going to cook chicken and duck from here on out!”

Harnois believes that the best way to make any holiday meal special is to share the bounty of the local harvest, no matter what you choose to serve.

“Ultimately, what makes a great holiday meal is the people you share it with,” he says. “The food only adds to that enjoyment. A great meal is about celebrating with those you love and about whom you care. Amazing, locally sourced food is the icing on the cake!”

THE FARM MANAGER

Alex Rosenberg is the Farber Farm Manager at Tamarack Camps in Ortonville, a Jewish summer camp for kids and a year-round adventure and retreat center for schools, and corporate and religious groups. Both farmer and teacher, Rosenberg manages all aspects of the farm and works with an education team to facilitate classes about land stewardship, animal and vegetable production, nutrition and food education.

Rosenberg didn’t grow up on a farm, but she found herself drawn to good food when she was looking for direction in her early 20s.

“I grew up in the suburbs with no connection to my food. I had a strong relationship to nature, but food was mysterious to me,” she says. “I dove into a healthy journey via food and how food affects our mind, our body, and I became fascinated. I started volunteering on farms and I loved it. It clicked and resonated and felt both ancient and familiar.”

She traveled to Washington State to attend a farm management training program and continued to work for small local farms in Michigan and beyond, gaining farming experience before coming back to Oakland County to manage the Farber Farm, where she shares her excitement for agriculture with the campers. “I hear the kids say, ‘Mom, we have to get kohlrabi!’ They become these little teachers,” she says. “They educate their parents about the vegetables we grow and where they can find them.”

Rosenberg and her husband, Rick Rigutto, who is also a farmer, are working to build the Northwood Farmstead and Skill Center in Hersey, which they hope to transition to in the future. “We envision a teaching kitchen and space for educational workshops and farm stays with guest teachers, in addition to our own commercial farmstead,” she says.

Her cooking philosophy is in harmony with the food she raises. “I’m not a fancy chef, but my focus is more farmstead cookery, where you make something delicious and magical from very mundane ingredients. The quality, flavor is so fantastic, you can’t mess it up.”

To show off the flavors of the season, she suggests Apple Cider Buttermilk Spatchcock Chicken served alongside winter squash roasted with caramelized onions, bacon and mushrooms. (See p. 23 for recipe.)

“It’s perfect for a small gathering in lieu of turkey and a great way for beginning home cooks to prepare a whole bird,” she says, “and the squash is the perfect vegetable-centered side to pack a flavorful and elegant punch.”

Read more about Farber Farm on page 21.