“Heritage'
Turkeys”
At the
Thanksgiving table Thursday November 28th, 2013 some Americans will trace their
family trees back to the Mayflower. Others will discuss the heritage of
the main dish, going way back to the 1890s.
Roots of the Bronze 'Heritage'
Turkeys trace their lineage all the way back to the 19th century says Michel Fletcher a San Diego
marketing executive.
"It's a great conversation piece at the
table when I tell people that the turkey's lineage goes back150 years or so," Ms. Fletcher's bird is a
"heritage" turkey with bloodlines back to a time before gobblerswere bred for modern tastes and mass production. It costs about
three times what I would pay foran organic supermarket breed. It's my fourth year of cooking one of these birds
as nature intended them to be. These birds aren't Spring Chickens, but people are gobbling
them up.
Heritage turkeys roam at BN Ranch farm in
Bolinas, Calif. Proponents say heritage turkeys taste better than supermarket turkeys, and the birds lead better
lives. Commercial white turkeys have such big breasts they can't walk straight.
The
legacy fowl come from places like Frank Reese Jr.'s fourth-generation poultry
farm in
Lindsborg, Kan. Mr. Reese raises 10,000 turkeys drawn from a
flock that includes the Standard Bronze fowl that he has traced back to at least 1890. That's when
records show the Bird Brothers of
Meyersdale, Pa.,began selling their prize-winning Bronzes, known for the
coppery sheen of their feathers.
Among the characteristics of Mr. Reese's heritage turkeys that most
supermarket birds don't share, they can actually fly and run around. A turkey should not waddle—that's a
deformity. The blue bloods enjoyed by our forefathers have long legs for strutting, unlike the
stumpy-legged variety that commercial farms breed.The mobile birds produce much darker and juicier meat.
The latest turkey census shows heritage
turkeys have grown so popular that the number rose for
breeding in the U.S. increased nearly 700% between 1997 and
2010, say the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which held the census. Heritage turkeys, which include eight breeds
certified by the American Poultry Association, take about twice as long to
grow as commercial turkeys and cost about three times as much
to raise. At retail, a 14-pound heritage bird can cost $100 or more. It is the
difference between feeding an athlete and feeding a couch
potato.
Breeders can't
trace their turkeys to Plymouth Rock, and historians don't know if the Pilgrims
ate
turkey at the first Thanksgiving. At some point, early
colonists crossbred smaller European-bred stock with American wild turkeys to produce hearty but tame breeds
such as the Standard Bronze Heritage turkeys were uncommon through the 1950s but are now making a
comeback from near extinction.
To be continued…
DR.KARL
WALLACE D.D.S.
To read more go to:
karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
