Rare Breed - Saveur.com

By Molly O’Neill
Source: Saveur
Rare Breed Photo: Jim Turner

Beyond the town of Lindsborg, with its church steeples and 2,000 or so houses, the Kansas prairie is a flat forever. There's nothing to absorb wind or sound. The whinny of gears in a pickup; the bullish snort of a combine harvester turning frosty dirt—the noises of a winter afternoon seemed bigger than anything mortal. Standing in a field on Frank Reese Jr.'s farm outside town as the shadows grew longer, I felt truly alone.

I pictured Reese, a poultry breeder who was born near here, shepherding his turkeys across this same, endless horizon as a boy and wondered whether he too had felt alone. From an early age, he had the job of ushering birds on his family's farm from the barn to the open range so that they could peck for insects. He took to the role, and to the birds. When the other children in his first-grade class wrote adoring sonnets to their cats and dogs, Reese crafted a personal essay titled "Me and My Turkeys."

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"For the Love of Turkeys: A Real Thanksgiving" - from Civil Eats

.."I just always loved the beauty of them, the majesticness. I like how they strut…I love their feather patterns. I’ve always loved the personality of them. They’re so curious, so playful, so friendly and full of life….Having been around turkeys for almost sixty years, I know their vocabulary….The mother turkey is amazing to listen to. She has a tremendous vocal range when she’s speaking to her babies. And the little babies understand….Turkey’s know what’s going on and can communicate it—in their world, in their language."

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Turkey Talk - by JSFoer

Talk Turkey, Start the Conversation Here

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"This year as you plan your holiday meal, consider the animal that is so often at the center of the table. What do we know about it? How was it raised? What was it fed? How was it killed? Is it even possible to find these things out?

Are the answers to these questions in line with your values, your family's values and the values we are celebrating during the holiday season?

If our holiday meals are supposed to serve as a reflection of our gratefulness, can a turkey that spends its life crammed by the tens of thousands into giant warehouses, on antibiotics, that has been bred to suffer-as is true for more than 99% of turkeys sold in America-be the choice we feel best about?

This holiday season, consider the turkey. Take this conversation in any direction you'd like. The most important thing is that our choices be deliberate.

There's nothing more powerful than an informed conversation."

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