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Many of us wouldn’t think of
celebrating Thanksgiving without a turkey on the dining table.
But, did you
know that the tradition of eating turkey began centuries ago?
The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern
United States — there are even wild turkeys in Florida!
Wild turkeys were domesticated by the Aztecs in Mexico 500 years
ago. When they first arrived in the Americas, Spanish explorers
found that the Native Americans ate these birds and soon enjoyed
eating them, too.
The domesticated Mexican turkeys became so popular with
explorers that they began shipping them back to Spain where
breeders developed a domesticated bird with a wider breast and
more meat. The turkey soon spread across Europe.
During the 1600s, settlers brought the European domestic turkey
to the American colonies and crossbred them with the wild
turkeys that lived around them. This led to the development of
many modern varieties of turkey. Today, the most popular
commercial turkey is the broad-breasted white, bred for its wide
breast and heavy market weight.
Perhaps a case of mistaken identity resulted in the American
turkey being named after the country. When the Spanish brought
the Mexican turkeys to Europe, the English mistook them for
another bird that had been imported from Turkey and called them
“Turkey birds". The name stuck even when they realized that the
birds weren’t the same.
Turkey Trivia
* A baby turkey is called a poult, a male turkey is a tom, and a
female turkey is a hen.
* The long fleshy growth that hangs down over a turkey’s beak is
a snood (the wattle is under the beak).
* Only Tom turkeys can gobble.
* The first meal eaten on the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin is said to have been roast turkey dinner with
all the trimmings – in foil packets!
Turkey Joke
Q. What happened when the turkey got into a fight?
A. He got the stuffing knocked out of him.
Happy Thanksgiving! |
