Mystery Around Turkey

[beretta304]

Peace, turkey pardoned by President Obama last Thanksgiving, euthanized

Peace, one of two turkeys pardoned by President Obama last year, was euthanized Monday, according to an official who insisted the timing of the death - days before the Thanksgiving holiday - was not suspicious.

Rebecca Aloisi, vice president for marketing at the Mount Vernon Estate, confirmed that Peace had been dead after a weekend "illness." But Aloise knew neither the nature of the illness, the manner of death, nor what had been done with the remains of the large, edible bird.



Aloisi said turkeys have short lifespans, especially those bred for eating. The timing of the death was "curious," Aloisi allowed, but not suspicious.

"I know that it was done in a humane manner but I don't know the mechanics," she said.



Read more: Peace, turkey pardoned by President Obama last Thanksgiving, euthanized

 

[Old Rocks]

And that passes for news for you?

 

[beretta304]

And that passes for news for you?

Lighten up.

 

[lukelk]

Awe just like Sarah palin, also as the guy just said, this is news?

 

[beretta304]

Awe just like Sarah palin, also as the guy just said, this is news?

Serious little lib loons can't lighten up the morning after Thanksgiving. Your problem, not mine.

 

[blastoff]

I'll take "Other turkey's name" for $400, Alex.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Well, at least dat's one immigrant ya can eat...

Thanksgiving Turkey Hails from Mexico
November 21, 2012 - Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday and roast turkey is the definitive centerpiece of the holiday feast.

But the domesticated turkey is not an American invention. It's Mexican. The bird was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, what is now Mexico, at around 800 B.C., says Julie Long, a turkey researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The Mesoamericans had turkey meat all the time," she says.

Enter the Spanish

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1500s, "They discovered these domesticated turkeys, which were a lot better than the birds they were eating in Europe," Long says. The Spanish were used to eating birds like peacocks, pretty to look at, but not much meat on them. "Those are just sort of scrawny little birds," she says. "And, of course, chickens at that time were scrawny little birds." Compared to a nice, meaty turkey, it was no contest.

Turkey conquers Europe

Along with corn, peppers and tomatoes, the Spanish took turkeys back to Europe with them. Over the next 100 years, turkeys spread from Spain to Holland and all the way up to England, where goose was the traditional English Christmas feast until turkey came to town. "To the English at the time, they thought they tasted better than a goose," Long says. "So at Christmas you would actually be doing very well if you got a turkey as opposed to a goose."

Back to the Americas

From 17th-century England, turkeys made their way back to the Americas. English settlers brought the birds and other livestock with them to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. A decade or so earlier, when the Pilgrims landed in nearby Plymouth, they found the woods were already full of wild turkeys, distant cousins of the birds domesticated in Mesoamerica. Pilgrim writings "refer to turkeys as being ‘fat and sweet,’" says Kathleen Wall, a colonial food expert at the Plimoth Plantation museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She says the birds also made for easy hunting. "You can go out at twilight and the turkeys roost in trees and you can shoot them off their roost. They sit still while you shoot at them," Wall says.

Wild turkeys decline