
Modern commercial turkey varieties have also lost much of their natural ability to forage for food, fly, walk normally, and to escape predators. Wikipedia has lots of information about domesticated turkeys.
WKRP taught me long ago that turkey's can't fly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WKRP_in_Cincinnati_episodes#.22Turkeys_Away.22
(1978)
My older relatives, who were farmers, claimed that domesticated turkeys are so dumb that during a rain storm of sufficent strength they risk drowning by throwing their heads back, mouths wide open, to see what's going on.
Sound pretty dodgy to me, but, then, who's heard of a smart turkey?
You forgot 'breed'.
Oh. Sorry, I missed the previous posts.
A must read on this subject: Barbara Kingsolver's new book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" which is about her family's move to a farm in rural Appalachia and their quest to only eat food they produced or could source from within a 100 mile radius of their farm. Very interesting. Great turkey-raising stories!
KRD, that's next on my list of books to read. I just have to finish my current book. I can't wait to check it out, it sounds perfect for me.
Thanks for your participation.
Megnut is a site about food written by Meg Hourihan. She lives in NYC. More...
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My mother swears by frozen fish. I was unconvinced, and decided to put her statements to the test: could flash-frozen fish taste as good as fresh local fish from the Greenmarket or even fresh fish from a local supermarket?
I was also writing about:
More sausage makers less bakers
The wait in a long line for cupcakes trend continues
Some thoughts about the Shacklash
Benefits of grass feeding
Heritage meat statistics
If we want to save the animals we must eat them
Seed Savers saves and shares heirloom seeds
Commercial turkey is selected to efficiently produce meat at low cost
Heritage meats are like four-legged versions of the heirloom tomato
Heritage and heirloom day