11/23/23 Report - HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Some Traditional Thanksgiving Food for Thought.

 

Just a little diversion today.

The first description of the turkey was written by Oviedo in 1525 in his General and Natural History of the Indies.

Native Americans first raised domestic turkeys in Mexico and Central America, who bred them into domestication from a subspecies of the North American wild turkey maybe as early as 25 A.D.

Spanish explorers took some of those domesticated turkeys back to Europe around 1519. They spread rapidly among European farmers and were popular fare among the elites.

In 1541, Archbishop Cranmer ordered that large fowl such as cranes, swans, and turkeys “should be but one in a dish”. The turkey became a common dish at all festivals in England during the 1500s. They were the usual fare at Christmas Dinner.

• Turkeys returned to the Americas with English colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts in the early 1600s. Those colonists were surprised to learn that Native Americans had already been tapped into the native wild turkeys that had remained part of the American landscape all along.
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• John James Audubon once had a pet turkey in Henderson, Kentucky, that he caught at the age of two days old. It became the favorite of the village and followed anyone who called it. At age two years, it flew off and did not return. A while later, Audubon ordered his dog to chase a large gobbler he saw during a walk of 5 miles. The turkey paid no attention to the dog, and Audubon realized it was his favorite pet, being unafraid of the dog.

To Extinction and Back

• Turkeys were numerous in oak and chestnut forests in Massachusetts. From 1711 to 1717, they sold at market for 1 shilling 4 pence, but by 1820, the birds had significantly declined, and the price had increased 10-fold. The last turkey was killed in Massachusetts in 1821.
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• During most of the 20th century, Wild Turkeys almost went extinct due to habitat loss. However, due to an ambitious relocation program, the Wild Turkey can now be found in large numbers in every state in the US except Alaska.

Here is the link for more about the history of the wild turkey.

The Wild Turkey: History of an All-American Bird | Almanac.com

Now let's add a couple sides.

1550: A Sour Staple 

Cranberries were a staple for Native Americans, who harvested wild cranberries and used them in a variety of remedies, foods and drinks. National Geographic’s Sarah Whitman-Salkin writes that the berries were even used in an energy bar-like food called “pemmican,” which served as a vital source of nutrition for fur traders during the winter months.

1816: Commercial Cranberries

Commercial cranberry cultivation started in the United States in 1816. Shawnie M. Kelley writes that when Captain Henry Hall, a Revolutionary war veteran, came across a cranberry vine thriving in some sand on Cape Cod, he became the first person to successfully cultivate cranberries. 

1912: Cranberries in a Can

Cranberry sauce may be a Turkey Day staple, but it wasn’t available in a can until 1912, when a lawyer named Marcus L. Urann revolutionized the industry got the idea to buy a cranberry bog and can cranberries. He eventually formed a cranberry cooperative that renamed itself Ocean Spray. By 1940, cranberry sauce had become the jiggly, canned log beloved (and argued over) by millions of Americans.

Here is the cranberry link.

A Brief History of Cranberries | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

And here is the history of the potatoe.

History of the potato - Wikipedia

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

From the TreasureGuide@comcast.net