A Tribute to the American Turkey

Turkeys of America, I salute you. Year after year you give selflessly of yourselves in order that we may gather together with family and friends for the traditional Thanksgiving feast. You are the star, the center of attention, the object of salivation and of many ooohs and aaahhs. You may be roasted, rotisseried, stuffed or smoked, but you are always savored. Seemingly endless, your talents of transformation are nothing short of astounding - morphing yourself into a myriad of salads, soups and sandwiches to be enjoyed for days beyond the initial feast. This American Tribute is for you Tom.

If you are a lovely broad-breasted white, your brief life of 12-14 weeks has been spent far less ceremoniously at a confined feeding operation where you endured many unpleasantries too sordid to mention here. If you are of the Heritage family of fowl, (1% of the Thanksgiving dinner market), you may have enjoyed an additional 10 weeks on this earth, experiencing more desirable activities such as roosting and roaming the farm. To all of you I give thanks.

And to the noble turkeys who never made it to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner table I offer a special word of gratitude. You know who you are. You are among the 226 million turkeys (fancy shmancy Heritage, farm raised, fresh, organic or otherwise), that were passed over because you were too big or too small or too darn expensive or just one of the surplus turkeys that were harvested this year - after all, there were 271 million. I know it’s embarrassing to be marked down to $.40 a pound from $1.19, so I acknowledge your sacrifice. What becomes of you, I know not. Perhaps if you were frozen (as are the other 99% of turkeys) you’ll make it to Christmas dinner, but somehow I doubt it.

One of our most brilliant, and I might add wittiest founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin criticized the choice of the Bald Eagle as the national bird of the new United States, suggesting that a Turkey would have made a better alternative.

In a letter he wrote to his daughter, Sarah Bache on January 26, 1784 he is quoted as saying:

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him…..

...the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

So when you, dear readers, sit down to give thanks at the Thanksgiving dinner table, you may wish to off your own tribute to turkeys everywhere for their unwitting generosity, their noble spirit and as Ben Franklin would say, their courage.

Here is a site list where you can find local organic, farm raised and Heritage turkeys.

• Local Harvest Turkeys - www.localharvest.org/store/turkey.jsp
• Animal Welfare Approved Turkeys - find turkeys by state/locality - www.animalwelfareapproved.org
• Eat Well Guide - www.eatwellguide.org/localguide
• Eat Wild - www.eatwild.com
• Local Harvest Turkeys - www.localharvest.org/store/turkey.jsp

Wishing you all a happy, safe, stress-free holiday!

Live green and live long.

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