Thanksgiving facts
Here are some fun and/or interesting facts regarding turkey day:
The estimated number of turkeys raised in the US in 2005 is 256 million with about 45 million or about 18% eaten at Thanksgiving. I would have guessed a higher percentage.
In 2004, the turkeys produced weighed 7.3 billion pounds.
The top state raising turkeys is Minnesota with 44.5 million.
Cranberries are estimated to be at 649 million pounds produced in 2005 with Wisconsin producing the most.
Sweet potatoes produced in the US in 2004 totaled 1.6 billion pounds.
The typical American consumed 13.7 pounds of turkey in 2003 and another report showed 18.5 pounds last year.
There are 3 places in the US with Turkey in the name. Turkey, Texas was the most populous in 2004 with 496 residents. The other two are Turkey Creek, LA and Turkey, NC.
Age is a determining factor in the taste of turkeys. Old, large males are preferable to young toms. The opposite is true of female hens as older hens are tougher birds. I can vouch for that, I know some tough old hens. : )
Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining. They can also 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.
Do you get tired of eating turkey after Thanksgiving? Cooked turkey is good for about 3 or 4 days, while gravy and stuffing only make it for 1 or 2 days. Frozen turkey will keep for 4 to 6 months.
Giblets are the edible internal parts of a fowl, including the gizzard, heart, liver, and neck. The gizzard is a part of the turkey's stomach that helps it digest harsher items, like seeds. They are normally removed, placed into a plastic bag, and then reinserted into the turkey's vacant body cavity. A Southern tradition is to make gravy stock from it, while most people just give them to their dog or threaten their children with them. By the way, do you pronounce it with a g sound or a j sound?
What is your favorite part of your traditional Thanksgiving meal? Turkey, stuffing/dressing, sweet potatoes (with or without marshmallows?), green bean casserole, Grandma's green jello salad with whipped cream on top, or something else? And what kind of cranberries do you like? I like the kind that comes in a can served just like that.
OK, had enough? Don't forget to thank the Lord above for all His many blessings. True throughout the year, but esp. at Thanksgiving.
posted by whaaaat! at
11:04 AM
5 Comments:
All this interesting information. Wow. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
By
Fred, at 11:08 AM
We were thankful to be invited to our son and daughter-in-law's house for this Thanksgiving. I do not mind cooking small meals but all of the cooking is really a chore. Our daughter-in-law does not like turkey so she had a delicious baked chicken breast and a light brown gravey, with two kinds of dressing and the green bean cassarole. I brought the typical sweetpotatoes, cranberries, and Pumpkin ice cream.
By
Anonymous, at 3:31 PM
I ate all 7.3 billion pounds of turkey this Thanksgiving.
And it is "j."
By
Joe, at 3:55 AM
I agree, it's "j" as in jib.
I love it all. Except for those green olives with the red thing inside. Ucky.
One thing I have to get clear though. That orange stuff with marshmallows on top is not sweet potatoes. Those are yams. Sweet potatoes are quite different.
Yams vs. Sweet Potatoes
Yams and sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are unrelated and cannot always be used interchangably, despite the fact that sweet potatoes have been called yams for centuries in North America, begining when enslaved Africans applied their West African word nyami to the North American sweet potato that resembled their African yam. Nyami (or nyana) became yam in English, igname in French and ñame in Spanish.
There are many varieties of yams, and many varieties of sweet potatoes, and certain types of yams may be quite similar to certain types of sweet potatoes. Some of the yams commonly cultivated in Africa are usually very large, sometimes measuring several feet in length and over a hundred pounds in weight. Whether yams like those in Africa can be obtained outside the tropics is a matter of some debate, since so many stores sell sweet potatoes labeled as "yams". Genuine African-style yams would most likely be found in African, Carribean, Latino, or Asian markets, or large grocery stores that sell imported items like cassava (or yuca) tubers. Yams have a brown peel that looks like the bark of a tree. The edible, inside portion ranges from light tan or pale yellow to red or purple. When large yams are sold in grocery stores they are usually cut into pieces weighting a few pounds each and wrapped in plastic.
Merry Christmas!
By
Anonymous, at 8:16 AM
Sooo what difference does it make. They are sweet potatoes after the brown sugar and syrup are added.:-) dc
By
Anonymous, at 10:53 PM
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