Richard

TURKEY TRIVIA

(from norbest.com)

- The turkey is a variety of the pheasant. The origin of the name is unclear, but some interesting theories exist. Christopher Columbus thought the New World was connected to India. He called the unusual bird "tuka," which is peacock in the Tamil language of India. Another tale says the merchants who sold turkeys in Spain changed the Tamil "tuka" to the Hebrew "tukki," which then evolved into the English "turkey." Others maintain the American Indian name for the bird was "firkee." Another theory says the present name "turkey" came from the alarm call of the bird, which sounds something like "turc, turc, turc."
- Christopher Columbus and later Hernando Cortez both acquired a taste for turkey in the Western Hemisphere and both took some back to Europe. By 1530, turkeys were being raised domestically in Italy, France and England. When the Pilgrims and other early settlers arrived on American shores, they already were familiar with eating turkey.
- Recent fossil evidence has been dated to show that turkeys have roamed the Americas for about 10 million years. Who first domesticated the turkey? There is archeological evidence that turkeys were at least confined, if not domesticated, by the Southwest Indians as long as 2,000 years ago. Some scientists believe the Aztecs were the first to domesticate the turkey.
- History associates turkey with the first Thanksgiving feast celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621. However, some argue that the settlers of Virginia's Jamestown earlier celebrated America's first Thanksgiving as their extension of England's Harvest Home Festival, a sort of homecoming weekend.
- Ben Franklin suggested the national bird be a turkey and not the bald eagle. Turkey feathers are dyed and used in making Indian costumes. It is estimated that turkeys have approximately 3500 feathers at maturity. At least one company in Texas cures turkey skin and uses it as leather for custom-made cowboy boots. Turkey down is used in pillows. Wing feathers are used in fletching arrows. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863 in response to a campaign by a woman magazine editor, Sara Josepha Hale. Ms. Hale also was the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
- Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour and can run 25 miles an hour.
- A tom turkey can produce as many as 1,500 poults during a hen's six-month production cycle.
Only tom turkeys gobble. The hens make a clicking noise.
- Weight records show that a commercial turkey grower in the United Kingdom, Leacroft Turkeys Limited, raised a turkey weighing 86 pounds, believed to be the world's heaviest turkey.
- In the early West, turkeys were trailed like cattle in "drives" to supply food where needed. One of the earliest turkey drives was over the Sierras from California to Carson City, Nevada. Hungry miners coughed up $5 apiece for the birds.
- Abraham Lincoln's son, Tad, had a pet turkey. When it was suggested that the bird might make a fine holiday dinner, the boy set up such a howl of protest that the president finally issued a "presidential pardon" for Tad's pet.
- Out of this world meal. When U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon in their historic 1969 voyage, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all the trimmings.
- In 1970 the average American ate 8.2 pounds of turkey. By 1980 that verage had jumped to 10.3 pounds. In the 1990's, U.S. per capita turkey consumption has been between 18 and 19 pounds.
- About 300 million turkeys are produced each year. About 45 million (15%, or about 675 million pounds) are consumed at Thanksgiving.
According to a recent survey by the National Turkey Federation, 91% of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving.
- The American Farm Bureau reported that in 2001 the traditional Thanksgiving meal cost $35.04 to serve 10 people. This was about 8% above the $32.37 recorded in 2000. The menu included turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas, rolls with butter, cranberries, a relish dish, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and beverages of coffee or milk.
- Sandwiches are the most popular form of turkey consumption. American households consume turkey more often as a sandwich than any other way, with sandwiches accounting for 51 percent of all turkey consumption.

hopesmom

we went out to eat for Thanksgiving, so no leftovers here.... wish I had a sandwich... lol
denise

Isabella

That's true: I do like turkey sandwiches a lot ... In fact, turkey and chicken are the only types of meat I eat; and even so, I try not to eat too much of meat. Plus, I'll have some smoked ham sometimes on a sandwich as well - but this is the only form of meat other than turkey and chicken that I'll ever eat. I really dislike any cooked cow and pig meat, or any hamburgers or sausages (yuck!), and the like. 1) They don't taste good to me at all. 2) I hate the way these animals are being raised and treated - their lives are pure torture and ****. I know chickens are tortured too, but I have to eat at least some type of meat ... and the taste of a chicken is a lot better to me than that of a pig or a cow. I wish all animals grown for food were treated humanely and raised in clean and comfortable contitions, as well as were not loaded with tons of chemicals and antibiotics

But back to the point ... "tuka" is a funny name for a turkey ... lol