Thanksgiving Wishes

How the Turkey Got Its Name

There are a number of explanations for the origin of the name of Thanksgiving's favorite dinner guest. Some believe Christopher Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, and believed the bird he discovered (the turkey) was a type of peacock. He therefore called it 'tuka,' which is 'peacock' in Tamil, an Indian language.

Though the turkey is actually a type of pheasant, one can't blame the explorer for trying.

The Native American name for turkey is 'firkee'; some say this is how turkeys got their name. Simple facts, however, sometimes produce the best answers—when a turkey is scared, it makes a "turk, turk, turk" noise.

Turkey Facts
At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who argued passionately on behalf of the turkey. Franklin felt the turkey, although "vain and silly", was a better choice than the bald eagle, whom he felt was "a coward".

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving—that's one sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year.

American per capita consumption of turkeys has soared from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds last year.

Last year, 2.7 billion pounds of turkey was processed in the United States.

Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.

A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.

Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.

Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.

Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.

Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.

Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets

The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.

Here are more Turkey Fun Facts by the numbers...

$1 is the cost per pound in December 2004 of a frozen whole turkey.

3 is the number of places nationwide named after the holiday's tasty gobbler. Turkey, Texas, is the most populous, with 496 residents; followed by Turkey Creek, La. (357); and Turkey, N.C. (267). There also are 16 townships around the country named "Turkey," three of them in Kansas.

8 is the number of places and townships in the U.S. of A. that are named "Cranberry" or some variation of the name (e.g., Cranbury, New Jersey)

20 is the number of places in the United States named Plymouth, as in "Plymouth Rock," legendary location of the first Thanksgiving.

Plymouth, Minnesota is the most populous, with 65,894 residents in 2000.
Plymouth, Massachusetts had 51,701.
13.7 pounds is the amount of turkey consumed by the typical American in 2003 -- no doubt a good bit of it at Thanksgiving time. Per capita turkey consumption was virtually the same as in 1990 (13.8 pounds), but 68 percent higher than in 1980 (8.1 pounds).

256 million is the preliminary estimate of turkeys raised in the United States in 2005. That’s down 3 percent from 2004. The turkeys produced in 2004 weighed 7.3 billion pounds altogether and were valued at $3.1 billion. And that's a lot of turkey.

44.5 million is the estimate of the number of turkeys Minnesota expects to raise in 2005. The Gopher State is tops in turkey production. It is followed by North Carolina (36.0 million), Arkansas (29.0 million), Virginia (21.0 million), Missouri (20.5 million) and California (15.1 million). These six states together will probably account for about 65 percent of U. S. turkeys produced in 2005.

649 million pounds is the forecast for U.S. cranberry production in 2005, up 5 percent from 2004. Wisconsin is expected to lead all states in the production of cranberries, with 367 million pounds, followed by Massachusetts (170 million). Oregon, New Jersey and Washington are also expected to have substantial production, ranging from 18 million to 52 million pounds.

1.6 billion pounds is the total weight of sweet potatoes — another popular Thanksgiving side dish — produced in the United States in 2004. North Carolina (688 million pounds) produced more sweet potatoes than any other state. It was followed by California (339 million pounds). Mississippi and Louisiana also produced large amounts: at least 200 million pounds each.

457 million pounds is the record held by Illinois for total U.S. pumpkin production — followed by California, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York which produced at least 70 million pounds worth.

$5.2 million is the value of U.S. imports of live turkeys during the first half of 2005 -- all from Canada. Our northern neighbors also accounted for all of the cranberries the United States imported ($2.2 million).

Stats are complied thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. import and export trade reports, the U.S. Census and the Statistical Abstract of the United States.