Be thankful for turkeys this year
November 2005
By MARTHA R. FEHL
It's that time when turkeys can be spotted strolling through woods and prairies, and - in tamer environs - serving as the centerpiece of the traditional Thanksgiving meal.
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Contrary to popular opinion, the bird in the wild is an intelligent and cagey creature - and perhaps its long history is the best testament to this. Scientists believe that turkeys may have shared time and space with vegetarian dinosaurs more than 25 million years ago.
In more recent history, natives in Mexico had long domesticated the bird by the beginning of the 16th century. The fowls were part of the prizes Spaniards shipped back home in 1519, and turkeys spread through trade to the rest of Europe.
A popular dish
The Pilgrims and Indians probably served turkey often - the birds were plentiful back then. Pioneers are said to have used the wild turkey breast as a substitute for bread. Women believed the fat on the back of the bird was better for baking than butter, and they used the eggs for making dumplings.
While turkeys may have been plentiful when the first Colonists arrived on the nation's shores, conservation efforts had to be used in 1930 to try to restore these wild birds to their earlier habitat. By 1960, the turkey population leapfrogged to an estimated 4 million turkeys in 49 states, including Hawaii. (There were none in Alaska.) They are now available for hunting or just for pleasure.