Let’s Talk Turkey

Maricopa residents, like most Americans, will celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November by gathering with friends and family for a feast dating back to ancient harvest festivals. Many will digest their meal while watching either the Dallas Cowboys or the Detroit Lions, two NFL teams traditionally hosting football games on Thanksgiving Day.

In 1621 the Pilgrims who founded the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts celebrated the first Thanksgiving. Their invited guests were members of the Wampanoag tribe who brought gifts of food native to North America. Gradually New Englanders began to celebrate after the fall harvest.

New York State was the first to adopt Thanksgiving as an annual custom in 1817. Other states followed. They all celebrated in November but not always on the same day. Congress established Thanksgiving as a national holiday after the Civil War.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to a week earlier in 1939. He did so to appease retailers who wanted an extra week for shoppers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Opposing this break with tradition, Congress referred to it as “Franksgiving”. Roosevelt changed the date back in 1941, and it has stayed the fourth Thursday in November ever since. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October since their harvest occurs earlier.

Preparing and eating a hearty meal is the most important part of traditional Thanksgiving celebrations. This relates to the idea of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest. Thanksgiving menus generally include bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie — and turkey.

· The average weight of Thanksgiving turkeys is 15 pounds.
· About 275 million turkeys are raised annually; 50 million are eaten for Thanksgiving.
· A turkey typically is 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.
· The top five ways to serve leftover turkey are sandwiches, soup, casseroles, stir-fry, and salads.
· Turkeys have 3500 feathers at maturity.
· Only male turkeys (toms) gobble; female turkeys (hens) make a clicking noise.
· Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour and can run 20 miles per hour.
· Nearly half of all people in the U.S. eat turkey at least once every two weeks.
· Countries that consume the most turkey per capita are Israel (28.8 pounds), U.S. (17.7 pounds), France (14.5 pounds), Italy (12.3 pounds), Germany (11 pounds), United Kingdom and Canada (9.3 pounds).

This Thanksgiving Day, enjoy your family, your friends and, of course, your turkey.