Are you done with your Thanksgiving leftovers yet? You might think so, but not quite. We have one more helping of Turkey for you.
This is "Another Helping of Turkey," the second of two installments of Eat This Podcast with Jeremy Cherfas:
The domestication of the turkey probably first took place around 2000 years ago in south central Mexico, possibly for their feathers and ritual value rather than their meat. Their rise to the top of the American festive table came much later, not with the Pilgrims but with Charles Wampler, whose efforts to promote turkey raising started Rockingham County, Virginia, on its path to Turkey Capital of the World. That much we heard in the previous episode of Eat This Podcast. In between domestication and proto-industrialisation, however, the wild turkey almost vanished from America, hunted to the edge of extinction. Nature types – and hunters – really thought the turkey was a goner, and it was the hunters who brought it back, to the point where there are now turkeys in 10 states, including Hawaii, that originally had none....
Read the rest here, and listen to the podcast (in which I, as well as various turkey experts, am interviewed) HERE.
The previous podcast, "A partial history of the turkey," is here.
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There are also turkeys in West Africa, and some near one of our study villages in the Sahel appear to have gone feral.
Really? Interesting. I had no idea.
Turkeys in Hawaii? That's an odd thought.
Looking at the size of these species, my question is that can these types of birds fly
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