“Nanny was the bearer of tradition and the dispenser of wisdom…but her most affecting legacy was her greatest gift: absolute and unconditional love.”

– Jessica and Patricia Burstein

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving always meant a day at the farm with my grandparents and lots of relatives. To this day, the memories warm my insides like a bowl of hot soup. The mixed smells of mincemeat pie and a turkey roasting in a wood-fired cook stove linger even today.

In the morning, my grandfather and my uncles hunted deer out back of the farm in Rockport. Meanwhile, the womenfolk, guided in the kitchen by my grandmother, prepared the Thanksgiving dinner. By mid-afternoon the men returned from the woods and, after sharing a slug of hard cider in the cellar with my grandfather, we all sat down at a long table and dug into the best meal of the year.

Most boys who grow up in hunting homes long for the day when they can join the men. And those early Thanksgivings, I, too, yearned for that day. Yet my memory of Grammy Ryer conducting Thanksgiving dinner preparation in her flowered dress and starched apron remains the most vivid. With her snow-white hair done up in a bun, I can still see her hovering over that hot Clarion cookstove in the kitchen of that old farmhouse.

Grammy Ryer, like most grandmothers, was a nurturer through and through. She raised 11 kids. Her kitchen was her place and it was where she wanted to be. Words of this were never spoken, but as children we sensed her need to show her love by cooking up a storm. And we loved her for it. Her mincemeat pie made from venison was memorable table fare. The recipe dates back to the 1600s, and, I suspect, came across with one of my Pilgrim relatives trying to escape British tyranny. Unlike some other pies, say lemon chiffon or chocolate cream, this pie is a real rib-sticker. A hungry pilgrim could survive all winter on a few of these pies. Here’s the old recipe for you or your grandmother’s consideration:

Grammy Ryer’s Mincemeat

5 cups deer meat (neck meat if possible)

7 cups apples

1 cup suet

1 orange (skin and all)

2 1/2 cup molasses

3 cups sugar (part brown sugar)

3 cups cider

2 cups vinegar

4 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons cinnamon

4 teaspoons Gloves

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 pounds raisins

Cook deer meat first and remove from bone. Grind meat, apples, orange, and suet. In large pot simmer deer meat, apples, suet, and orange and remaining ingredients and cook until glazed over (about three hours). Place hot mincemeat into hot sterilized jars. Makes about 11 pints.

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So here’s to grandmothers, grandmothers of yesterday and today. May your Thanksgiving this year be bountiful, and blessed by a grandmother’s love and caring — in or out of the kitchen.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal and has written his first book, A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].