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Keep The Holiday Fires Burning
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The Turkey
There is no food more associated with the US Thanksgiving Holiday than the turkey. And with good reason, for the turkey is native to North America -- not found in the wild anywhere else in the world. There are two species of wild turkey, the North American Wild Turkey, and the Central American Ocellated Turkey. With their large size and wingspans, they are by far the largest bird in the North American forests. Juvelile turkeys are known as poults, males are called toms, and females are known as hens. Both of the wild species have been domesticated and used for food supplies. There is a great deal of dispute over where the name Turkey came from. Some believe (including many hunters I know) that the name comes from a call that the bird makes, which sounds like Turk, Turk. Others think that it was another of Columbus' mistakes. The native people of North America were dubbed Indians because Columbus thought he had reached India. A similar story suggests that the Turkey was so named because he believed that the bird was a peacock, and the native word for a peacock was "tuka." But the one that sounds most logical is that early Europeans believed it to be a relative of the African Helmeted Guineafowl, which was known to Europeans as the turkey-cock becasue it was imported from Turkey. This story is most likely because the scientific name, meleagris, is Greek for guinea-fowl. Turkey hunting is a popular sport in North America. The wild turkey is a cunning animal, but the domestic turkey has a reputation for stupidity. My grandfather once tried to raise turkeys on his farm. As he tells the story, one day he left a large box in teh middle of the yard. The poults became curious and jumped into the box. And kept jumping into the box until the ones on the bottom were suffocated. He also told the story of how he lost a good deal of his stock when they drowned in a rainstorm. Apparently they would walk around with their heads up and their mouths open. Continued On The Next Page - |