Happy Thanksgiving: The Roundup

Andrea Manitsas |

Sep 10, 2024

As the leaves turn those brilliant colors that make you stop your incessant shuffle for a momentary gawk, the winter squashes pile high and you begin to daydream about faraway beaches, Thanksgiving sure does have a way of creeping up! Instead of stressing (as we often do), honor the essence of Thanksgiving by, well, giving thanks. Besides, with this list of articles, you’ll be set on pretty much any and every aspect of the impending holiday. It is with deep thanks for your readership that we offer you a roundup of our favorite Organic Authority Thanksgiving articles.

History of Our Thanksgiving Meal

Everyone knows the general history of Thanksgiving dinner: the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans helped the pilgrims at Plymouth survive their first year in the New World, and they all celebrated together in the Autumn of 1621 with a holiday feast. But do you know the history of the Thanksgiving dishes themselves? Why do we eat sweet potatoes and not French fries? Pumpkin pie instead of strawberry shortcake? Cranberry sauce instead of cherry marmalade?

6 Thanksgiving-Worthy Organic Wines Under $25

Americans drink more wine on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year. Maybe it’s because a couple of glasses take the edge off awkward family interactions, or maybe, as Andre Simon claimed, “wine makes every table more elegant.” But don’t be mistaken: You won’t need expensive bottles to create that elegance. In fact, Slate recently made a case for cheap vino — a mighty convincing one at that.

7 Unconventional Cranberry Ideas + A Sauce to Die For

Cranberries are loaded with antioxidants like vitamin C, flavanoids including quercetin, myricetin, kaempferol, anthocyanins and triterpenoids. In other words, they’re pretty darn good for you year round, not just as a relish on Thanksgiving. Geeked for ideas how to use the cranberry in addition to sauce? Here are six ways to include them, plus a sauce recipe almost as easy as opening a can but way more delicious.

5-Ingredient Cranberry Pear Pie Recipe

Just five ingredients are all it takes to create this beautifully festive holiday dessert: Cranberry Pear Pie. (Technically, the pie crust is a sixth ingredient, but once you’ve mastered our Olive Oil Crust, you’ve got that in the bag). Prepared without a traditional lattice topping, this open-faced—and vegan—fruit pie dazzles a crowd with its stunning winter hues and shimmery glazed look. Enjoy with regular or non-dairy whipped cream, a sifter of brandy, and fine holiday company.

Give Thanks: Have a GMO-Free Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the quintessential food-lover’s holiday. The abundance of flavorful autumnal fruits and vegetables find their way into stuffing, mashes, gravies, relishes and so much more goodness we look forward to being thankful for. And add to the apparent identity crisis our country now faces as dissonance with our economic system continues to spread, a growing intolerance of unlabeled genetically modified organisms now found in 80 percent of processed foods. So, on this Thanksgiving make sure you leave the corporate owned and toxic GMO foods off of your menu. Here’s how.

Heritage Turkey: Thanksgiving Dinner Throwback

These big white birds cannot run, fly or mate naturally, and even if they could mate, they would not be able to reproduce. In fact, these turkeys can barely even walk, weighed down because of enormous breasts that were selectively bred to provide for Americans’ preference for white meat over dark. This modern type of turkey takes only three months to mature (vs. eight months for other breeds) and is pumped with hormones for fast growth and full of antibiotics for surviving their fetid, factory-farm living conditions.

Volunteer This Thanksgiving: Be With Your Human Family

There’s no better day to give of yourself and your time than on Thanksgiving Day. A little history of Thanksgiving reveals, no doubt the early Native Americans had far better things to do with their time than help the Pilgrims learn to cook and survive in the New World. They had probably been planning a nice small dinner with their loved ones and didn’t particularly want to help out these starving, dirty, smelly white people. But they did, and their legacy of compassion will live on, not just for Thanksgiving Day, but also as an example of the innate goodness of human beings.