Giving thanks for the farmers' harvest

The authentic American Thanksgiving was celebrated, as the Canadian still is, in mid October, which is the end of the New England harvest season. So a genuine Thanksgiving should celebrate the bounty of the New World. Most of it comes from the surprisingly vast array of new foods the original arrivals found on our shores, foods we take for granted today.  But the list of New World foods whose discovery began with Columbus is important and impressive enough to be endlessly repeated. Here's what I remember of it:

Avocados
Beans (black, kidney, cranberry, pinto, lima--essentially everything but the fava, black-eyed pea which came from Africa and chickpea native to southern Turkey)
Chili peppers (all of them)
Chocolate (cacao beans were the sacred food of the Aztecs)
Cod fish, and by extension, salt cod
Corn (all of it)
Cranberries
Jerusalem artichokes (this is what deChamplain mistakenly called the root of the sunflower)
Lobster (the large two clawed kind from Maine)
Maple syrup
Molasses and by extension rum
Pecans
Potatoes (all of them)
Pumpkins and ALL winter squash
Soft shell crabs and clams as in New England clam chowder
Tomatoes (all of them)
Turkey (it was a northern wild bird)
Wild rice (it's actually not a rice grain)
Vanilla (from rare Mexican orchids)

Just that much makes for a mighty powerful dinner party ingredient list showcasing what we have to be thankful for. and be thankful not everything homegrown is a racist, misogynist Nazi or prim southern white woman so pluperfect she can egomanically impose her personal agenda on everybody else.

The first American thankful also celebrated the abundance of somewhat familiar foods: oysters, duck and venison. So feel free to serve those with or instead of turkey. There is a lot of fabulous oyster farming going on in Maine waters right now. and hunting season is everywhere so deer are being harvested.

A few ideas for incorporating the all-American bounty into your celebration meal:
*Corn pudding (the arriving English converted everything into a pudding) recipe posted under Corn in late summer
*Clam Chowder: with potatoes, colorful peppers and corn--how all-American is that!
*Brandade or salt cod fritters (Brandade recipe posted last year)
**Wild Rice with cranberries and pecans
**Black bean chili (recipe in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking)
**Cornmeal pancakes with maple syrup 
*Lobster pie (whatever the early English didn't put into pudding they wrapped in dough as pie)
*Roasted red, white and blue baby potatoes
"Squash stuffed with tomatoes, chili pepper and lima beans
*Chocolate Fudge Cake (flourless to be authentic here)
*Indian Pudding (molasses and cornmeal)
**together make a perfectly all-American celebratory vegetarian meal

and oh yes, one last thought: you can barbecue that turkey, slathered in your favorite BBQ sauce.