What is more American than Thanksgiving? The answer is only
July 4th. Thanksgiving is a true American holiday. We are the only
country that celebrates it. A day where groups of people, family, and friends
can put their differences aside for a day, come together have a dinner, share
what we are all thankful for, and watch football. Speaking of American, football a sport
that is only played in America , and we stole the name of another sport that is the
most popular in the world and played in virtually every country, and has been
around much longer, changed the name to soccer, and demand the rest of the
world call it that too! God we are the best! Of course this holiday like most American holidays requires going completely
over top in the amount of food we make and eat, and lets face it! What is more
AMERICAN than Committing the deadliest sin of all?……. GLUTTONY. What is more American than celebrating the Pilgrims
and Indians getting together at the same table and enjoying a feast that was grown and hunted with their
own hands. The alliance with the Wampanoag Indian tribe is one of the only
examples of an Indian/ settler alliance lasting, a testament to the power of
sitting down and sharing a meal with someone. Of course American history is
littered with the mistreatment of Native Americans, but at least we can point
that one example of something good that bred a lasting tradition. That first
menu was not what we have come to expect a traditional Thanksgiving menu to
look like with, lobster, dear, corn, and seal, yes SEAL!! The original
Thanksgivings were to celebrate certain things, a successful harvest, the end
of a long drought, etc…..etc. Although several of our early presidents declared
“days of thanks” Thanksgiving was not adopted as an official holiday until
1863. Abraham Lincoln asked the country on the third Sunday of every November,
at the height of the civil war to remember the fallen and to heal the countries
wounds.
In the spirit of a great tradition, and adventure, I wanted
to do something a little different other than the whole store bought turkey…..
Blah blah blah. I thought to myself, what would be more American, on the second
most American holiday then hunting my own wild turkey? The answer to that
question? Fucking nothing! Out in the
woods just me and the beast, survival of the fittest! What would be more fulfilling
then hunting my own dinner, if I fail? Thanksgiving cancelled! If I succeed the
family rejoices drinking wine and ale in my honor! I would be looked at as the
leader of the family; a statue would be built in my honor in my parent’s front
yard. People will pay me to speak at
large events. The Discovery Channel will give me my own show. In the words of
Eminem “Snap back to reality”. I can’t fucking hunt! I’ve never hunted anything in my
entire life…….. I lie, I accidentally shot a squirrel with a BB gun once. If I actually owned a gun I suppose I could accidentally shoot a wild turkey? Apparently turkeys aren’t as stupid as they
look though. There was a study done at Oregon State University, where they
threw an apple into a group of turkeys, and they played with it as a group, kind
of like football, which apparently displays some sort of intelligence.
Personally if I saw a group of anything playing sports with an apple, the first
thing I would think is “what a bunch of idiots”, but I also think I read
somewhere that turkeys are one of the hardest animals to hunt. Well either way
I think it would be a better strategy to find someone who was willing to take
me turkey hunting, instead of venturing out on my own. Someone who has some experience,
you know shooting a gun, and finding a turkey! So I took my search to the
internet. Search “turkey hunting guide”. I turned up a lot of hunting cabins
for rent, a few weekend hunting trips, but nothing that would cater to a first
time hunter, third time shooter of a gun, and nothing specifically targeting
turkeys. I have very little patience to begin with, in these situations, so at
this point I was already frustrated. Yes after one Google search, I was ready
to give up. Knowing that the first page of a Google search usually turns up
just the biggest companies, and companies that pay for search engine
optimization. I ventured to the second page. In this case it led me to check
out local turkey farms. If I can’t hunt and kill my own fresh wild turkey, seems
to me the next best option is an all natural turkey raised on a local farm………
farm fresh to the table, never frozen is, after all the way to go right? From the
beginning I thought it would be hilarious to include my mother in this
adventure. 1. She does love and eat
turkey and other animals, but she could never kill her own food and doesn’t
even want to know that it was ever alive to begin with. 2. If she ever looked
dinner in the eye she would rather just die of starvation than eat it. 3. Even
if she didn’t go with me I know she wouldn’t approve. By the way the picture of me an Mr. Henry Gobblington IIII is hanging on the wall at my parents house in place of one of the grand kids. My mother didn't speak to me for 3 days.
My search lead me to the Howe Turkey Farm.The whole point of this blog was to get out and find
interesting people, doing interesting things, in interesting places. I turns out
this hit all three of those. Starting with an interesting family, a farm with a
70+ year history, and turkey farming is interesting, well because I haven’t the
first clue what goes into it. I
contacted the Howe farm and spoke with Julie Howe. I could sense the urgency in
her voice, after all I did call a week and a half prior to thanksgiving, quite
possibly the busiest time of the year for a turkey farm, and here I am, clueless
as to the fresh turkey buying process, and loaded with stupid questions. I knew
before I called that she had better things to do then talk to me, but she
answered all my questions, and when I asked if I could visit the farm, and have
my picture taken with a turkey, without hesitation, said she would love for me
to visit them. I set a date to visit the farm, and placed my order for our
first all natural fresh turkey, which I immediately named Mr. Henry Gobblington
IIII. I arrived at the farm on the rainy Thursday afternoon before
Thanksgiving. At first glance it looked like a typical farm. As soon as I got out of the a car I was a
greeted by a young man I would guess between 7 and 10. He asked me if I was
there to pick up. I told him I was there to see Julie and Nate, and he led me
right to them. The large garage I parked next too was full of action. Adults
and kids running around working hard, I felt a bit guilty for being there at
such a busy time. I was greeted warmly by Julie and her mother in law Mary Howe, who they bought the farm from after
owning and operating it for 20 years. Mary was a wonderful woman full of life,
and obviously still very much involved, it truly is a family farm that requires
help from many family members mostly in the week leading up to the holiday,
it’s almost as if the farm itself is a member of the family. Thanksgiving
starts in July for this family when the first of the turkeys arrive as one day
old baby turkeys. If you ask the family they will
say it’s seasonal, but you can tell they are downplaying that notion. Nate
joined us shortly after, in between phone calls, he informed me they were
expecting a visit from the USDA the next day. This
makes a stressful time of year even more so for this “part time” turkey farming
family. If you click on the link I shared to the USDA regulations you will see
that just keeping up with them is a full time job in itself. Especially since
one violation could shut them down for the year. An occurrence like that could
be impossible for a small farm like this to recover from, so everything has to
be perfect. This is a full time job with a seasonal income. How can the parents
of 5 kids handle such a responsibility? Nate works full time in commercial
construction, so the day to day operations fall on Julie, all while home
schooling the children. As I’m listening to their story I’m stressing out about
finding the time to come back and pick the turkey up before Thanksgiving. I
know I know pathetic on my part. The whole time I was there the whole family
was beaming with pride, you can tell this was their favorite time of year.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “Sounds like a great family
and great little business, but why am I going to drive an hour to go pick this
turkey up, when I can get one cheaper or even free at the store?” It is more
expensive coming in at $2.89 per pound. The U.S. average is $1.37 per pound.
Lets look at some facts.
1. 1.
Commercial store bought turkeys are pumped full
of antibiotics. Is that bad? Read for yourself. (http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/truth-about-antibiotics-your-meat)
Some things I noticed, 23,000 people die in the U.S. each year because they are
resistant to antibiotics. We are very close to living in a world where an
infection in a small cut could kill us. Antibiotics are used by farmers to keep
the livestock we end up eating healthy, over the years bacteria has evolved and
become resistant to even the strongest antibiotics. The question is do we
really need to pump our food full of antibiotics, or is that just the easiest
way? Buying local all natural insures that your food has not been given an
antibiotic. The key is the all natural label, if it doesn’t have that all
natural seal then chances are it was given antibiotics, steroids, and probably
smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. The Howe’s give their birds a probiotic as
needed, and are fed a vegetarian diet where most of their protein comes from
soy. I realize that buying an all natural one time a year isn’t going to change
a whole lot, but maybe it just inspires you to buy all natural or organic for
other things. Perhaps a local butcher?
2. 2.
Buying a turkey from a major company almost
ensures that it was packed into a barn where it is living on top of other
turkeys constantly, and they never see the light of day. These birds are
genetically engineered to only live for 5 to 8 months. So their life is simply
to get as big as possible as fast as possible, but they should at least live a
humane 5 months. The Howe farm raises about 4500 turkeys a year and has the space
to hold even more. The first thing I saw when I pulled up to the farm was an
open barn where the hens were poking their heads out checking out the scenery. I will never be a vegetarian, but I at least
know the turkey I’m eating didn’t live in complete misery.
3. 3.
It is always important to support local
business! Does the CEO of Butterball really need your 40 dollars? No! does the
CEO of Giant? No! Do families like the Howe’s? Yes! Look without getting into a
political debate, if you buy your turkey from a major company like butterball
the truth is you don’t know where your money is going. If you buy from a local
farm you know for sure that your money is going right back into your local
economy. If you don’t think that is important then you have a very dark soul, and you are going to hell!
4. 4.
When you buy your turkey from a store, chances
are that turkey has been frozen since February. That’s right the turkey you are
eating today has been dead for up to 7 months. Mine has been dead since Monday.
I’ll wait while you throw up your turkey…………………. Still….oh there’s more
ok…………………………………… Yeah when I learned
that I wasn’t happy either. Yes it’s a deep freeze, but the idea of eating
something that’s been dead for months is not appetizing at all!
5. 5.
It tastes better. Oh yes is does don’t you argue
with me, it absolutely does. The real test will come later on. We are having
two turkeys this year one store bought and Mr. Gobblington, both roasted so we
will settle this debate once and for all …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Fast forward till 7:59pm as I’m finishing this, and yes there was a noticeable difference.
The all natural turkey was defiantly moister. Yes I spell/grammar checked the
word moister, and the word grammar. I used that word because I know at least half of the
two people that read this threw up in their mouth a little when the read it. The
flavor was better by far even mixed up with everything on the plate like we all
eat our turkey you’d think it wouldn’t make a difference, it most definitely
did!
Look I realize it might not be
ideal for everyone to drive an hour for a turkey, and I won’t judge you if you
don’t, but I will tell you this. Out of the 4500 birds the Howe’s raised this
year only around 600 people actually buy them directly from the farm. Most of
them go to farmers markets, and businesses who give one to their employees as a
holiday gift. I’m sure you have a local farmers market near you? It is totally
worth the extra money I promise you and again now you are supporting several
local businesses. In my experience with sales, people tend to buy from people
they have a connection with. I do encourage you to do what I did this year, because
after I met the Howe family as cheesy as this sounds I felt a little bit of the
pride they had raising, while I was eating it. If anything came from this, it’s
that they defiantly earned a new yearly customer. I will be one of the 600+ to
drive to the farm and pick up my turkey every year.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I
hope it was as delicious as mine, but I know it wasn’t because again your
Turkey has been dead and frozen for 7 months. Mine was dressed on Monday.
We will be The Brinton lodge on
the 28th and I’ll have a post about the 10 commandments of beards as
well.
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paradise, follow me on Twitter @JeffBergh, and Instagram pookieinparadise. As
always please like, share, and all comments are welcome.
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