To my U.S. friends, family, and readers who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving! This is one of the holidays we honor, and it is especially timely for farmers who are wrapping up the growing season. It’s nice to have one last hurrah before the dark of winter. The final CSA pickup and farmers market are bursting with fall and storage crops: cabbage, kale, potatoes, onions, squash. Time to cook good things and sit together in anticipation of a season of rest. Preferably with post-dinner knitting in hand.

Thanksgiving has some troubling origins that I think it’s important to acknowledge too. Native Americans in New England call this the Day of Mourning, and there is an annual gathering on the site of Plymouth Rock in protest of the way Natives were and continue to be treated. It’s important to us that we pay attention and raise Addie to do the same.

With all of this and recent events in mind, I’ve been cooking for today’s small but merry gathering. There will be just six of us, which is enough for a turkey. We’ll bring good cheer to the table, and shed some of the uncertainties that have been worrying us this month. It’s been harder over the last few weeks to pay attention and also to live a life somewhat out of the ordinary. We are tired at the close of this season. And yet I can’t help but feel all the more thankful for each other, our health, our house and the company we keep.

Cooking is relaxing for me. I can do it even through a migraine, and though the food isn’t fancy, neither are we fancy folks. Simple dishes, lovingly prepared, eaten together with people we love. That’s what we’ll have today, and what I wish for you too. Happy Thanksgiving.