Thanksgiving: A Feast to Celebrate

Thanksgiving. A holiday that is perhaps best known for eating, drinking, and spending time with family. But here at the Monroe County Soil & Water Conservation District, we recognize the work and traditions that go into making that delicious feast that so many Americans give thanks over. From the farm to the table, Thanksgiving day meals are made possible by the farmers and producers across the nation to raise that turkey or grow the pumpkins to make a traditional pie. 

So, to get you in the spirit of the holiday, here are a few fun Thanksgiving facts to read as you digest the day’s feast:

​Turkey Facts:
• 88% of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
• 46 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving, 22 million on Christmas and 19 million turkeys on Easter.
• Since 1970, turkey production in the United States has increased nearly 110%.
• The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.
• The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
• The male turkey is called a tom.
• The female turkey is called a hen.
• It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30 pound tom turkey.
• In 1920, U.S. turkey growers produced one turkey for every 29 persons in the U.S. Today growers produce nearly one turkey for every person in the country.
• Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clicking noise.
• Gobbling turkeys can be heard a mile away on a quiet day.

Thanksgiving by the Numbers:
46 million -- The estimated number of turkeys eaten in the United States on Thanksgiving 2012.
50 million -- The approximate number of people who typically watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television.
4,500 -- The average number of calories you might consume on Thanksgiving, according to the Calorie Control Council. That's 3,000 for the meal, and another 1,500 for snacking and nibbling.
100,000-plus -- Questions typically answered by the Butterball Turkey hotline every November and December.
135.8 million -- Estimated Thanksgiving weekend shoppers in 2015.

The First Thanksgiving Meal:
The 1621 Thanksgiving celebration marked the Pilgrims’ first autumn harvest, so it is likely that the colonists feasted on the bounty they had reaped with the help of their Native American neighbors. Local vegetables that likely appeared on the table include onions, beans, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots and perhaps peas. Corn, which records show was plentiful at the first harvest, might also have been served, but not in the way most people enjoy it now. 

Fruits indigenous to the region included blueberries, plums, grapes, gooseberries, raspberries and, of course cranberries, which Native Americans ate and used as a natural dye. The Pilgrims might have been familiar with cranberries by the first Thanksgiving, but they wouldn’t have made sauces and relishes with the tart orbs. That’s because the sacks of sugar that traveled across the Atlantic on the Mayflower were nearly or fully depleted by November 1621.

Culinary historians believe that much of the Thanksgiving meal consisted of seafood, which is often absent from today’s menus. Mussels in particular were abundant in New England and could be easily harvested because they clung to rocks along the shoreline. 

Whether mashed or roasted, white or sweet, potatoes had no place at the first Thanksgiving. After encountering it in its native South America, the Spanish began introducing the potato to Europeans around 1570. But by the time the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower, the tuber had neither doubled back to North America nor become popular enough with the English to hitch a ride. 

Pumpkin pie was a staple on New England Thanksgiving tables as far back as the turn of the 18th century. Legend has it that the Connecticut town of Colchester postponed its Thanksgiving feast for a week in 1705 due to a molasses shortage. There could simply be no Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.

No matter how you are celebrating this year or what food makes it on your table, from all of us at the Monroe County Soil & Water Conservation District, we wish you all a safe and happy holiday!

Thanksgiving facts from:
http://extension.illinois.edu/turkey/turkey_facts.cfm
https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/21/living/thanksgiving-by-the-numbers/index.html
https://www.delish.com/food/news/a37717/thanksgiving-statistics-2013/
https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal#&gid=ci0236cb14e0002658&pid=thanksgiving-trivia-pumpkin-pie-getty-186557946