With Thanksgiving just around the corner I’ll be busy in the kitchen making the rest of my side dishes today so all I’ll need to do tomorrow is cook the turkey and make the mashed potatoes.
Thanksgiving dinner is a lot of work… but all those leftovers totally make the whole production worth it in my opinion. Not cooking for a week afterwards, what’s not to love about that?
And in case you’re looking for a conversation starter or two for the dinner table tomorrow, check out these 10 fun facts about turkeys, there’s sure to be one or two you didn’t know about.
Have a great day everyone, and don’t forget to wear something with a little elastic in it. 🙂
~Mavis
10 Fun Facts About Turkeys
1. Wild turkeys are able to fly short distances up to 55 mph. Domestic turkeys are bred for weight for consumption and are unable to fly.
2. Wild turkeys sleep in trees to stay away from predators at night.
3. Turkeys have three-times better vision than humans. They can also see in color and their eyesight covers 270 degrees.
4. Turkeys are native to North America, and wild turkeys can be found in every U.S state except Alaska.
5. The average American family plans on buying 1 1/2 pounds of turkey per person for the dinner table on Thanksgiving day.
6. Turkey meat does contain the amino acid tryptophan, and tryptophan can have a calming effect. However, you’d have to eat a whole lot of turkey—and nothing else—to notice any effect.
7. Turkeys have the ability to learn the precise details of an area over 1,000 acres in size.
8. 46 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving, 22 million on Christmas and 19 million turkeys on Easter.
9. Presidents originally had to declare Thanksgiving a holiday every year, up until Lincoln made it a national holiday during his time in office.
10. Everyone knows the meaning of white meat and dark meat, but they might not know that those terms emerged in the 1870s as euphemisms for a general public concerned with piety and modesty. Members of proper society, after all, could not be heard requesting legs, breasts, and thighs in mixed company.
Leslie Moss says
My daughter and SIL went turkey hunting this last weekend with a bow and arrow, as where they hunt the turkeys are on private property. Alas, they were sad to return home empty handed. The wild turkeys love to fly into high trees.
Also check out @ballerinafarm on her stories right now. They show how the butcher and prepare 2 toms for their Thanksgiving dinner. Watching the kids was amazing.
LindaT says
Happy Thanksgiving Mavis! I enjoyed your turkey facts.
Elise in the SF Bay Area says
Somehow we have wild turkeys in our (barely sub) suburban town! And a lot of them on our hill. They roost on some of the flat rooves around here on the coldest winter nights/mornings, and they are LOUD up there (I have heard)! I wish they could be hunted (bow and arrow would be best), but it’s not allowed. I suppose they are keeping the coyotes fed and happy 😉 Happy Thanksgiving from us to you!!