In this informal, family‑focused vlog, Victor (Speaker A) and his partner Rebecca walk viewers through the two‑and‑a‑half‑year effort required to produce an entire Thanksgiving feast on their homestead. The narrative interleaves practical details—raising turkeys from poults, brooding and processing chickens into broth, rendering farm‑raised smalts and butter for gravy, and growing sweet potatoes, green beans, and corn in a high‑tunnel—with personal anecdotes about family recipes (sweet‑potato casserole, cornbread stuffing) and reflections on health‑focused, organic cooking. Throughout, the hosts emphasize the importance of enjoying the labor‑intensive process, the joy of family communion, and the balance between self‑sufficiency and celebration. The video culminates in the assembled meal—two turkeys, multiple side dishes, pies—and a reminder that the true reward lies in the shared experience rather than the speed of consumption.
Chapters
We grew our own Thanksgiving meal over 2 and a half years. You know how people will often go into a Thanksgiving meal and it takes you maybe 15 minutes to eat it and you hear the cook say, "2 days cooking it and it's gone in 20 minutes." It took us 2 and a half years. 4 months raising the turkey, a few days harvesting the milk, making the butter, 100 days green beans. How long do the sweet potatoes take?
Um, I think they're like 90 to 120 days or something.
That and the smalts, 2 and a half years. I'm going to show you that process, but we're going to wrestle with that. It took us 2 and a half years to make this meal we're going to eat in 20 minutes. How does that not drive us crazy? I think I have the answer. Let's get into it. Happy Thanksgiving. This is a heck of a way to start. Whose idea was this? Some leftovers we had from going to the dump yesterday. Ice cream. The cows don't care if it's 27 degrees or Thanksgiving. They still got to get milk. You guys cold? Why am I driving? I'll drive. Where's y'all's toboggans? I don't know. Where's my toboggan? Hey, did you say goodbye to Mom? Yeah, I think so. All right, I was up there. Be dangerous. Yeah, he's going to set up local deer hunting, set up a deer stand, huh? Well, sort of. All right. It is my mission to maintain the peace this Thanksgiving, which means keeping this table and kitchen cleared. There's a fire going for us, 2 turkeys coming to room temp, beginning of cooking them. Let's get this clear. Here we go. I'm gonna tell you this right now. And I'm not saying this just to tend the garden of peace or to be nice. I am the most— I really feel this. I really honestly feel this, I promise. I feel like the most lucky man in America right now because this is the best Thanksgiving meal there is. Organic, gluten-free, maple syrup Sweetened.
Not taste-free.
Yeah, not taste-free. As a health nut, I'm the biggest health nut, here's a message for you. The most dangerous thing you can do on Thanksgiving is not eat— what? Too many carbs. Don't worry about the carbs. That's not the most dangerous thing. The carbs, even if you're using seed oil, we're not, but carbs, sugar, some even don't like turkeys, they go so far. I'm saying the most dangerous thing you can do is not just not relax, not enjoy communion with your family. Just enjoy that fellowship and just let it all go. Because tomorrow you can fast. What a perfect job for you. I want this. Mom has just put our chicken broth in. Frozen it by the 2-cup portion. That started probably In April, we got chicks. 3 weeks in the brooder, every day out in the pasture. Harvested them at 8 weeks old, then went through the process of broth, which can include cooking them overnight, then freezing it. It's a lot. Hey, are you doing the Thanksgiving parade through New Jersey? Awesome. It's not a sit-down kind of thing, but it's kind of fun to have it in the background. This, this It's practically a dessert. Sweet potato casserole before she starts the parade. Rebecca, you got to tell me the sweet potato casserole story.
What about it?
Where does it come from?
Okay, so it comes from Aunt Flossie in Alabama. So I grew up going to Alabama and my Aunt Flossie and Uncle Wilbur's house, and it was— I don't know where the recipe came from.
It's a good southern—
It's what we ate every Every single year.
Was the cornbread stuffing? What else was from Aunt Flossie's?
Um, they used to do a lot. They used to do rolls.
They didn't do biscuits. No, that you've carried.
Oh, that I've carried?
Yeah, just those two things. Oh, green bean casserole.
I think they did green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, but I don't know. They probably got it out of a can. So yeah, we might have had corn pudding, which I would— the reason we don't do— we simplified Thanksgiving because one year we had like 8 dishes and you were like, we've got to do something different, this is too much food. So we simplified. So we used to have like a creamed corn or corn pudding casserole as well, but we axed that. In favor of what we do have.
These just don't come out of nowhere. We planted these in the high tunnel, cultivated them, let them go— how long do beans take to grow?
60 days, I think.
60? That might be hopeful.
60 days, maybe 80, I don't know.
Let's go with 80. That's a better story. And then harvest them, process them, similar to like what I I just did a fresh. We had to supplement, supplement from a local farm. That wasn't enough, and I happened to find one more because I'm pretty sure that means we're gonna need to plant more green beans if we're already out.
Well, our second, our second planting doesn't do well, and I don't know why.
That's true, true. It probably has something to do with burnout.
No, because I know we had some, we just never harvested them on time. We ate fresh off of it, but they never like filled out.
It was weird. Fall plantings are hard.
Seen these just do one vine. They always kind of like—
maybe summer growing is hard. Oh, that needs to keep going. Do you need something out of it?
It's going, it's going. I started it.
Oh, you did?
I was looking for the pot.
What kind of pot? I'll get it for you. I'm her caddy. She is a masterful cook. I'm the caddy. As for the turkey, we got those as poults. You have to raise turkeys in the brooder up to 6 weeks old. They're a little more fragile than chicks in the beginning. Then we put them out on grass, moving them around every few days, and finally harvesting them at about, I don't know, 14, 16 weeks. Well, I was gonna get the butter, but it wouldn't be the Burn It Up Cooking Show without the fire alarm going off. You can still smell our stove breaking in. Hey, chill out on the fire. Just a little bit at a time. Let's show the story of this butter. Our goal for this Thanksgiving turkey isn't so much the turkey as it is the gravy. When you're a homesteader, you can have a turkey every month, which is what we do. We want gravy. One thing we're gonna do is put butter underneath the skin. We're gonna get real crazy. Because I have some homemade smalts from the farm. So technically this started 2 and a half years ago because this is from Fat Old Lady Hen. We got them as chicks, got them in the brooder, moved them out, maybe onto the compost pile. We harvested them. They have copious amounts of fat. We rendered that down. Oh my gosh, are you serious? I gotta go do that to every other one. What's the goal here?
We're just trying to make the holiday table nice.
How long are you going to keep this up?
Just a little bit.
Hey, the kids have been complaining about the amount of light at night. Well, here you go. It's gonna cost more than the electrical bill would. It's not about the cost of the electric bill, it's about getting blue light out of our eyes at night. Good things cost money. A long time later— this took quite a bit longer than I thought. Well, looky there, plenty of gravy. Good to be me right now. Turkey, mucho gravy, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes. Green beans. Guys, we cooked not one but two turkeys. How many people are coming to this, Beck?
It's for leftovers.
Just us. Just us. Green bean casserole, gluten-free biscuits, and we are eating at 3:30. Shall we do like we do at camp and just eat for an hour and a half? Have this meal and then have a honey biscuit and then go on a walk and eat some pie. Thank you, Mom. And everybody looks so nice. Henry, you look so nice. We're eating a little earlier, 3:30. Why is it on Thanksgiving you eat at weird times? What? What? Can you eat all that? Yeah. Hey, little bright eyes. Josiah is laying back, playing with his food. You gonna make it? Yeah, I will. Oh, Gideon's slowing down. Eyes a little bigger than your belly. These boys officially eat more than me. Certainly Jonah. How many rounds is this? This is seconds. Henry's just as content to play with the pepperoni. I don't think he's eating any of it. Hey, Henry, you didn't even eat that sweet potato casserole. Hey, Henry, um, anybody got any room left? Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple. All the candles are looking nice. Cooking before the end of the day, the turkey carcass. I've got a turkey broth going. The secret to this though, I mean, we had that meal, but it energizes us for 4, 6 hours. Well, overnight, 12, 13, 14 hours. But the secret is to enjoy the process. You might come in homesteading for the goods, but you've got to enjoy the process because it takes a long, hard while. Enjoy the process.
