Mr. Tom Turkey has been spotted about town lately, and this reporter had the opportunity to visit with him. He is looking very dapper in his 5-6 thousand feathers, and his wattle and snood (the fleshy flap over his beak), which can turn bright red when he is in an excited state.
Mr. Turkey has much to be proud of. He is native to North America and his popularity and number has never been greater. Evidence of his ancestors date back 10 million years. By the 1930s Tom’s relations numbered a scant few and were nearly extinct from hunting and losing their favored woodland. Thankfully, programs begun in the 1940s helped re-establish their numbers. Today his kin number nearly 7 million and they are in every state except Alaska.
Tom doesn’t miss a thing! His keen hearing enables him to pinpoint a noise a mile away. Thanks to eyes on opposite sides of his head, his nearly 360 degree field of vision makes him a cagey one. His beak and feet are quite sensitive, which helps in obtaining food. He doesn’t have a keen sense of taste or smell, but Tom feels this may be in his favor since his diet includes frogs, salamanders, grasshoppers, slugs, worms, snakes, nuts, berries, buds, roots and bulbs.
He’s quite proud of his nearly 37 lbs., and can fly short spurts at 55 mph or run at 25 mph. Tom is quite disdainful of his domesticated cousin who has grown so breast heavy that he can neither fly nor mate naturally.
Next spring is mating season for Tom, and he is on the lookout for the next Mrs. Tom. He gobbles in a voice that can carry for a mile, and listens for the clucks of the ladies. Of course, Tom plans on being nowhere around when the little poults are born; they are only fed by their mothers for a few days before learning to forage. Independence is their strength.
Tom is staying in an oak tree at night, as his vision isn’t great then and he would rather avoid local paparazzi (aka coyotes, foxes and raccoons). Seems he is so popular now that commercial production has increased over 300% in the last 40 years. Tom used to be favored mostly for the holidays, but he has become so sought after that only 29% of consumption is holiday related.
With more protein then either beef or chicken, he is naturally low in fat. And Tom is quick to dispel myths that he is to blame for Thanksgiving lethargy – he begs you consider your own over-indulgence in carbohydrates for that effect!
In any case, Tom relays that you are welcome to invite his cousin to your home for the upcoming holidays. Tom himself plans on a presidential pardon right about then.
– Ellen Carroll, Roanoke VCE Master Gardener
