Worth Sharing: Turkey Talk

 

Let's talk turkey.   

Talking turkey is a slang term, meaning, "Let's speak frankly and honestly.  Let's talk openly and directly."  Well, all I want to speak honestly about is turkey.

We Americans have all heard how Benjamin Franklin lobbied for the wild turkey to become our national bird instead of the Bald Eagle.  I kind of see his point.   We live in an area with a lot of wild turkey and it's not uncommon to see groups as large as twenty turkey at once in the fields this time of year.

They are beautiful birds.  John and I spied wild turkey eating in a grassy field on our way home about a week ago.  They are far less colorful and magnificent in the wild than their domesticated family members who grown quite large.   However, as part of our natural wild life population, I am rather fond of them. In spring, I love listening to the soft gentle 'Gobble Gobble' of a turkey in the woods in the bottom of our place..  

You can listen to various turkey calls here by going to YouTube.  They have a language all their own.  It's fascinating listening to the calls.   John has been watching a man who is raising domesticated turkeys on his homestead.  He'd tried everything he could to get the turkey, called Abe, to gobble for him.  Someone wrote in to say, "Try whistling at him."   So Dutch started whistling to Abe and Abe obliged with happy chortles.  I wonder if it would work in the wild?

Turkeys are classed in the family Phasianidae,  which includes pheasant and grouse.  

Wild turkeys eat grasses, buds and insects in the spring and summer but in the fall and winter they feed on wild grains, nuts and fruits.  We see them most often in winter eating in grain and peanut fields that have been harvested.  While they spend their days foraging, at night they tend to roost in the lower branches of trees.

Wild hens lay eggs in the spring, incubating them for a total of 28 days.  Typically they lay 9-12 eggs.  compare that to the 100 a domesticated bird may lay many times over a laying season.  Wild turkey  nest in shallow depressions on the ground.  A wild hen who is incubating eggs will leave them uncovered when she's not on the nest, but nests covered with leaves are not being incubated.

Once a wild turkey has hatched her eggs, her poults ,or hatchlings, remain with her for a full year which is rather unusual in a bird family.

Wild turkeys are known to be aggressive towards humans and pets.  It is recommended that if a turkey is acting aggressive one should hold your ground and take a step towards it...The recommendation does not suggest what one might do if this does not work...I suspect I'll just keep my distance.

The first domesticated turkeys were raised in ancient Mexico, and date back to at least 800 B.C.  The Mexicans  also developed sophisticated recipes for the use of the turkey, including a highly spiced enchilada, a fact noted by many of the first European explorers of the country.   Turkeys were introduced into England in the 1550s.

The turkey got it's name in a case of mistaken identity.  When it was first introduced to England, it was thought the bird resembled guinea fowl which had come to England from Africa, via Turkey.  That was what they called their birds.   So when explorers returned with the domesticated birds from Mexico, the English promptly began to call them 'Turkey', too and the name has been with them ever since.

Like the peacock both domestic and wild turkey use the spreading of their tail to attract a mate.

While wild turkeys can fly, most domestic turkey cannot fly.  Tame birds tend to weigh at least twice what a wild bird might.  Domesticated turkeys have been bred specifically for the quantity of meat they will produce.

Edward K Warren, a merchant in Three Oaks Michigan, revolutionized American feminine fashion and singlehandedly help break the dependency upon whalebone in corseting and dressmaking.   Whalebone had many drawbacks.  It couldn't dry out or it became brittle and broke easily and any possible profit to the merchant was lost.  Then too supply and demand was dependent upon whale hunts.  One year the whales remained in particularly deep and treacherous waters and the cost of whalebone soared out of the reach of most but the very richest women.

Warren also dealt in feather dusters, made from turkey feathers.  He'd noted that the largest and heaviest quills were often throw away because they had little plumage.  In whittling the waste quills, he found he had a dependable substitute for whalebone.  He fashioned the quills into tapes and called it 'Featherbone'.  With a little effort, he was able to market it to dressmakers and eventually the female figure was dependent no more on the whalebone industry.  

The Featherbone industry took off and lasted longer than you might think.  It kept Gibson girls waists neat and trim and their collars stiff.  When girdles came into fashion, the featherbones were used to slim and firm.   Later they were used to create a 'bust extender'.  Then came the strapless bra.  The boning used in this item became popular in the 1930's.  It was so revolutionary that Time magazine featured it on the cover of their magazine!  The quills were also used during World War II in fashioning jungle helmets and machine gun belts.  They were used in hats and later in dancers' headdresses.

These days feathers are largely waste and are ground into something called feather meal and used in animal feeds or composted.

I guess we Americans think the Turkey is a natural choice for our Thanksgiving meal.  After all wild turkey and venison were at the original Thanksgiving meal in and we've just accepted it as part of our holiday ever since.  

The turkey's first mention in literature is in Shakespeare.  Shakespeare mentioned them four times and referenced the pen hen, also called turkey, only once.  About 1570, when William was still a child, the turkey became popular as meat bird for English Christmas dinner, so he would have been more than familiar with the bird and we Americans can give up any idea that we 'invented' the turkey dinner.

Nevertheless turkey is a big industry in the United States.  It was estimated in 2019 that Americans would spend about 968.8 million on turkey for Thanksgiving.  In 2020 estimates are higher: $1,098,000,000.

The average American eats about 16 pounds of turkey a year.   The turkey has become the first meat of choice at Christmas and Easter meals but the industry got busy and began producing bacon, sausage, turkey ham, and luncheon meats and began to push turkey as a year round bird instead of one just meant for the holiday meals.

All facts and figures below are for the U.S.   I don't know how Canadians and South Americans and Europeans rank.

88% of whole turkeys sold throughout the year are for Thanksgiving.

40% of Campbell's  Cream of Mushroom Soup sales for the year are made during the Thanksgiving season and the bulk of that will go into Green Bean Casserole.  Approximately 20 million will make Green Beans Casserole as a side dish for the holiday.

5 million gallons of Cranberry Jelly will be eaten.

240 million pounds of potatoes will be made into mashed potatoes to go with our feast.

And most of the pies served will be store bought.  Fact!  I guess everyone is worn out cooking all the rest of the meal.

After eating that big turkey dinner, how about a little dance?  

The Turkey Trot gained popularity around 1908.  It was an 'acceptable' excuse for dancing closely, face to face, with the man's arm about the woman's waist.  The dance was popular for just a few years and was most widely embraced by the teens and young people of the time but was considered so controversial that it was banned, laws were written against it in some cities and townships and you could be fired from your job for doing it on your lunch break or fined if in a dance hall.   

You can watch a bit of the vintage dancing and music here on YouTube.

The dance consisted of fast movements, one step for every beat of the ragtime music.  The dance became most popular around 1909 but there are mentions of it in song as early as the 1890's.   It's believed that it was originally some sort of folk dance that evolved into the more popular ragtime dance, The Turkey Trot.  It's popularity passed and the dance was replaced by the Fox Trot which was a more sedate and conservative dance based upon the waltz.