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14. Is the turkey production  increasing, decreasing, or staying the same since 1990? 

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14. Is the turkey production  increasing, decreasing, or staying the same since 1990? 

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Turkey Business Statistics | Eatturkey.com

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During the last three decades, the turkey industry has come from a single-product, holiday-oriented business into a fully integrated industry with a diversified product line that competes with other protein products on a year-round basis. The following information provides an overview of the turkey industry's growth.

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13. Established on November 26, 1789, the first national "Thanksgiving Day" was originally createdby President George Washington. For what did he want to give thanks?

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13. Established on November 26, 1789, the first national "Thanksgiving Day" was originally createdby President George Washington. For what did he want to give thanks?

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12.  Suppose you live in Canada. Is Thanksgiving celebrated on the same day as it is in the USA? 

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12.  Suppose you live in Canada. Is Thanksgiving celebrated on the same day as it is in the USA? 

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Put some Fun on your calendar! Holiday and Sport Team Schedules for your Microsoft Outlook calendar.

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11. What makes the little stick in your turkey pop up when the turkey is done? 

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11. What makes the little stick in your turkey pop up when the turkey is done? 

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If your turkey has a pre-inserted pop-up timer - most turkeys you buy from the grocery store do - you don't have to worry about using a separate meat thermometer. When the turkey's timer pops up, it's signaling to you the bird is done. Here's how it works:

A pop-up timer found in a turkey or chicken normally has four parts (see image above):

The soft metal (D in the image) is solid at room temperature but turns to a liquid (melts) at about 165 degrees Fahrenheit (73 degrees Celsius). When the metal melts, it releases the red stick (A) and the spring (C) pops up the stick so you know the turkey is done.

Turkey is done when it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit (73 degrees Celsius). If your turkey didn't include a pop-up timer, you can use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature for doneness. Simply insert the thermometer into the innermost part of the turkey's thigh and wing, and the thickest part of the breast, being sure not to hit bone. If it registers 165 degrees Fahrenheit, it's done.

One little-known fact is that these timers are reusable. If you dip the tip in hot water it will re-melt the metal and you can push the pop-up piece back into place. Then let it cool, and the pop-up piece will be back in its original position - ready to use again.

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If your turkey has a pre-inserted pop-up timer - most turkeys you buy from the grocery store do - you don't have to worry about using a separate meat thermometer. When the turkey's timer pops up, it's signaling to you the bird is done.

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10. What were the Wampanoag people's houses like? 

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10. What were the Wampanoag people's houses like? 

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The First Thanksgiving: Daily Life: Housing

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This content resource allows students to compare and contrast Pilgrim and Wampanoag housing.

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9. Describe the diet of the Wampanoag people. 

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9. Describe the diet of the Wampanoag people. 

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Things did improve, though. The colonists got better at fishing. They began to grow more Indian corn, which they learned to cultivate from the Wampanoag People. And they learned the best ways to hunt and trap animals such as deer, rabbit, turkey, geese, duck, and other wildfowl.

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8. A.) Is pumpkin pie served at your Thanksgiving meal? B.)  How large was the biggest pumpkin ever grown? 

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8. A.) Is pumpkin pie served at your Thanksgiving meal? B.)  How large was the biggest pumpkin ever grown? 

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Pumpkins are believed to have originated in Central America. Seeds from pumpkin plants have been found in Mexico, dating back over 7000 years to 5500 B.C.

Native American Indians used pumpkin as a staple in their diets, centuries before the pilgrims landed. When European settlers arrived, they saw the pumpkins grown by Native Americans. Pumpkin soon became a staple in their diets, too. The pilgrims also brought seeds back to Europe, where they quickly became popular. Just like today, early settlers used pumpkins in a wide variety of recipes, from desserts to stews and soups. In addition to cooking with pumpkins, they also dried the shells and cut strips to weave into mats.

Early settlers made pumpkin pie by filling a hollowed out pumpkin shell with milk, honey and spices, then baking it. Whether they learned this from Native Americans is not known.

Native Americans and early colonists preserved pumpkins by drying them. The skin was peeled and the insides scooped out. The pulp was sliced and placed on drying racks, or hung up to dry in the sun.

Also see: The History of the Jack O'Lantern
The History of Pumpkin Carving
Halloween evolved, in part, from the Celtic tradition of All Hallow's Eve.

Pumpkin carving evolved from the traditions of this annual event. But, it wasn't pumpkins that were being carved in these ancient times. Pumpkins are native to America, and were not known to the Celtic people of Ireland. So, they carved turnips and rutabagas.
Much more on Pumpkin Carving More on carving Turnips The Thanksgiving Connection
There are conflicting reports and documentation as to whether pumpkins were a part of the first Thanksgiving meal of the Pilgrims and the Indians, or whether it was the second Thanksgiving celebration the following year. We do know that pumpkins were a staple of the Indians long before the arrival of the pilgrims. From that time forward, pumpkins have been, and continue to be a tradition at the Thanksgiving feast.

Not only is it associated with the meal itself, but the pumpkin has adorned and decorated homes and communities in honor of this event for hundreds of years.

Pumpkins should be our national fruit. They were at the early Thanksgiving feasts of the pilgrims and Indians. They were there at the first Independence Day celebration, long before Johnny Appleseed dropped his first apple seed into the ground. Sure, pumpkin fruit was not ripe during the Fourth of July. But, back then American ate more vegetables. This included pumpkin and squash flowers ( get the recipe). Pumpkin leaves were also used in salads.

Did you know?!? The Turkey was almost our National Bird? In a vote in congress, the bald eagle won out over the Turkey as our national bird. Had this happened, we all would be eating crow, err Bald Eagle for Thanksgiving dinner!

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Pumpkin Facts, Trivia And Education. Learn All About Pumpkins. So, You Become The "In The Know Expert" On Pumpkin Facts. Learn Pumpkin Parts

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7. Name three things about the pilgrims Thanksgiving that are different from yours. 

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7. Name three things about the pilgrims Thanksgiving that are different from yours. 

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6. A.) What is a cornucopia? B.) What ancient people first had them? C.) What does it symbolize?

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6. A.) What is a cornucopia? B.) What ancient people first had them? C.) What does it symbolize?

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a curved, hollow goat's horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing especially with fruit and vegetables (such as gourds, ears of corn, apples, and grapes) and that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance -called also ... See the full definition

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5. Mr. Standish was a passenger on the Mayflower. A.)What was his first name?B.)Describe his job or role in the Pilgrim group.

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5. Mr. Standish was a passenger on the Mayflower. A.)What was his first name?B.)Describe his job or role in the Pilgrim group.

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View the original list of passengers (PDF, 2.6Mb) from the handwritten manuscript of Gov. William Bradford, written up about 1651 (file link is to the State Library of Massachusetts). Below is a complete list of all Mayflower passengers, along with a link to each for further information.

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Mayflower Passenger List - MayflowerHistory.com

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View the original list of passengers (PDF, 2.6Mb) from the handwritten manuscript of Gov. William Bradford, written up about 1651 (file link is to the State Library of Massachusetts). Below is a complete list of all Mayflower passengers, along with a link to each for further information.

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4. Our celebrating Thanksgiving each year can be credited to the 30 year perseverance of one woman. A.)Name her. B.)What tool did she use to get the annual holiday declared?

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4. Our celebrating Thanksgiving each year can be credited to the 30 year perseverance of one woman. A.)Name her. B.)What tool did she use to get the annual holiday declared?

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(WOMENSENEWS)-A woman invented Thanksgiving? How can that be? What about the Pilgrims? What about the Wampanoags? Didn't they give us this holiday?

Well, yes and no. But mostly no.

The holiday we celebrate today is largely a product of 19th century Victorian ideals that celebrated the virtues of women, home and hearth.

As for that long-ago meeting of goodwill between the invading English settlers and native people, well, exactly what happened at Plymouth 400 years ago is a pretty speculative matter.

A measly two paragraphs of first-hand accounts describe a grieving band of about 50 Mayflower survivors (about half the original number) gathering for some sort of feast with 90 Native American men. The English did seem to want to give thanks for their first harvest after a horrendous year of death. But the occasion also served the English colonists' diplomatic and strategic purpose of creating a peace treaty that would enable them to take Wampanoag land.

As far as the food went, the Indians brought most of it; five venison. We know the English women prepared cod and corn. They also cooked some kind of fowl; perhaps turkey but just as likely geese, pheasants, or ducks that once blackened the skies, as the English used to say. Certainly there wasn't any pie, as the half-starved English did not have enough butter, flour or sugar. For fun, the Englishmen shot off their rifles.

So how did all these small shreds of documentation turn into a huge annual celebration of turkey, pumpkin pie, family love and gratitude (with the guys watching football on TV)?

A 17-Year Campaign

Enter Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's Book, the biggest and most popular American magazine of the 19th century. As the reigning editor for decades, Hale was a powerhouse woman of letters who authored histories, a novel, best-selling cookbooks and was at the helm of the leading magazine of 19th century America. Her magazine-based in Philadelphia and distributed nationwide-set the trends for national taste in fashion, home decorating, cooking trends and women's literature.

In Hale's time, Thanksgiving was an erratic event declared by local jurisdictions and mainly one of "New England manners," or a tradition mainly recognized in the Northern states. From state to state, it was held according to the whims of reigning governors, sometimes in October or November, but also in December or January.

In 1846, she began advocating for a single national Thanksgiving holiday, an effort that would turn into a 17-year crusade.

Hale wanted all states to join together and celebrate on the same day. It was the culmination of her lifelong faith in the power of food, women and home to elevate the nation to a better place. Her ideal of Thanksgiving put the holiday squarely into the woman's sphere-the kitchen and the parlor of the home, the circle of family life.

She was indeed what scholars now call a "domestic feminist." Far less celebrated than the suffragists, domestic feminists tend to make women's historians uneasy. Like many of the home and hearth goddesses of the day, Hale championed female virtue, Christianity, good housekeeping skills and respectable causes such as early childhood development and above all women's education. However, she did not believe in the women's vote. Nor did she think women should work outside of the home unless they absolutely had to; as was her predicament, a widow with five children to support.

A Holiday to Mend the Nation

In her campaign for a national thanksgiving, Hale wrote with her own hand, hundreds of beseeching letters to governors, admonishing them to proclaim the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. From the editorial pulpit of Godey's, she rallied her cause to thousands of readers with passionate words.

"Our busy, wealth seeking people require to have days of national festivity, when the fashion and the custom will call them to the feast of love and thanksgiving," she wrote in 1857.

A new holiday required more than just legislation, but also cultural traditions and beliefs. In the pages of Godey's, Hale supplied them each fall, barraging her female readers with Thanksgiving recipes for turkeys and pumpkin pies along with heartrending stories of "old-fashioned" Thanksgivings, in which families triumphed over adversity to come together round the table. Turkey and pumpkin pie were beloved New England rural dishes.

From 1850 onward, Hale turned her attention to writing letters to each of the nation's presidents and staff members, and some secretaries of state as well. As the Civil War drew nearer, she focused her arguments on the power of Thanksgiving to unify the North and South and possibly even to prevent war. She did this despite the express policy at Godey's magazine that politics were off limits to "the fairest portion of creation" as publisher Louis Godey put it.

In September of 1863, two years into the war, Hale wrote a letter to President Lincoln, asking him to establish the national holiday. Perhaps she may have personally visited with him, on that the record is unclear.

In any case, shortly after Hale's letter and amid the horrors of the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November. He asked the nation to be grateful for the bounties of nature and to come together, North and South, for a single unifying moment.

And so, the holiday that Hale envisioned finally, after 17 years, became a ritual of U.S. life.

And though reconciliation between the North and South is no longer an issue, Thanksgiving continues to act as a unifying force, drawing our radically diverse population into a common shared ritual, and perhaps even helping to bond us together, as Hale had hoped.
Laura Schenone is the author of "A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances" (W.W. Norton, 2003).
For more information:

American Treasures of the Library of Congress includes one of Hale's editorials and a holograph of her letter to Abraham Lincoln:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm125.html

19th Century American Women Writers Web:
http://www.unl.edu/legacy/19cwww/books/elibe/hale/halebio.htm

Laura Schenone: A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances:
http://www.lauraschenone.com/

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Sarah Hale Wrote Recipe for Today's National Feast

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Today, as we turn to the kitchen to roast our turkeys, bake pumpkin pies and gather loved ones for this national day of thanks, let's take a moment to remember a 19th century woman who deserves most of the credit for inventing this holiday.

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How Cranberries Grow: Fall | Massachusetts Cranberries

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Harvest The cranberry harvest takes place once a year from mid-September through early November. There are two methods of harvesting cranberries.

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Eastern Wild Turkey | Wildlife | New Hampshire Fish and Game Department

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NH Fish and Game Department, guardian of the state's fish, wildlife, and marine resources.

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Turkey Facts

Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, proposed the turkey as the official United States bird.

In 2012, the average American ate 16 pounds of turkey.

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.

In 2011, 736 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States.

Turkey consumption has increased 104% since 1970.

Since 1970, turkey production in the United States has increased nearly 110%.

In 2013, 242 million turkeys are expected to be raised in the United States.

In 2012, 253,500,000 turkeys were produced in the United States.

The turkey industry employs 20,000 to 25,000 persons in the United States.

In 1970, 50% of all turkey consumed was during the holidays, now just 29% of all turkey consumed is during the holidays as more turkey is eaten year-round.

In 2012, turkey was the # 4 protein choice for American consumers behind chicken, beef and pork

The top three turkey products sold in 2011 were whole birds, ground turkey and cooked white meat (deli meat).

Turkey hens are usually sold as whole birds. Toms are processed into turkey sausage, turkey franks, tenderloins, cutlets and deli meats.

In 2011, 47.4% of turkeys were sold to grocery stores and other retail outlets, 30% sold in commodity outlets, 15.5% sold to foodservice outlets and 6.2% were exported.

In 2011, 703.3 million pounds of turkey were exported.

The average weight of a turkey purchased at Thanksgiving is 15 pounds.

The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.

A 15 pound turkey usually has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.

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.

The turkey was domesticated in Mexico and brought to Europe in the 16th century.

Tom turkeys have beards. That is comprised of black, hair-like feathers on their breast.

Canadians consumed 142 million kgs of turkey in the year 2012.

Turkeys can see movement almost 100 yards away.

Turkeys lived almost ten million years ago.

Baby turkeys are called poults and are tan and brown.

Turkey eggs are tan with brown specks and are larger than chicken eggs.

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.

Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, Indiana, California, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio were the leading producers of turkeys in 2011-2012.

Minnesota raised 46 million turkeys in 2012.

Illinois farmers produce close to 3 million turkeys each year.

A 16 week old turkey is called a fryer. A 5 to 7 month old turkey is called a young roaster and a yearling is a year old. Any turkey 15 months or older is called mature.

The ballroom dance the "Turkey Trot"was named for the short, jerky steps that turkeys take.

Turkeys do not really have ears like ours, but they have very good hearing.

Turkeys can see in color.

A large group of turkeys is called a flock.

Turkeys do not see well at night.

A domesticated male turkey can reach a weight of 30 pounds within 18 weeks after hatching.

Turkeys are related to pheasants.

Commercially raised turkeys cannot fly.

Wild turkeys spend the night in trees. They prefer oak trees.

Wild turkeys were almost wiped out in the early 1900's. Today there are wild turkeys in every state except Alaska.

Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 mph and can run 20 mph.

Turkeys are believed to have been brought to Britain in 1526 by Yorkshire man William Strickland. He acquired six turkeys from American Indian traders and sold them for tuppence in Bristol.

Henry VIII was the first English King to enjoy turkey and Edward VII made turkey eating fashionable at Christmas.

200 years ago in England, turkeys were walked to market in herds. They wore booties to protect their feet. Turkeys were also walked to market in the United States.

For 87% of people in the UK, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a traditional roast turkey.

Turkey breeding has caused turkey breasts to grow so large that the turkeys fall over.

June is National Turkey Lover's Month.

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not eat the live turkey. He "pardons"it and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm.

The National Thanksgiving Turkey has been the Grand Marshall in the Thanksgiving Day Parade at both Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World in Florida for the past four years.

The five most popular ways to serve leftover turkey are in a sandwich, stew, chili or soup, casseroles and as a burger.

Eating turkey does not cause you to feel sleepy after your Thanksgiving dinner. Carbohydrates in your Thanksgiving dinner are the likely cause of your sleepiness.

According to the 2007 Census, there were 8,284 turkey farms in the United States.

Turkey is low in fat and high in protein.

Turkey has more protein than chicken or beef.

White meat has fewer calories and less fat than dark meat.

Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity.

Turkeys have been bred to have white feathers. White feathers have no spots under the skin when plucked.

Most turkey feathers are composted.

Turkey feathers were used to stabilize arrows and adorn ceremonial dress, and the spurs on the legs of wild tom turkeys were used as projectiles on arrowheads.

Turkey skins can be tanned and used to make cowboy boots and belts.

The costume that "Big Bird"wears on Sesame Street is rumored to be made of turkey feathers.

The caruncle is a red-pink fleshy growth on the head and upper neck of the turkey.

Turkeys have a long, red, fleshy growth called the snood from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak.

The bright red fleshy growth under a turkey's throat is called a wattle.

The beard is a lock of hair found on the chest of the male turkey.

Giblets are the heart, liver, and gizzard of a poultry carcass. Although often packaged with them, the neck of the bird is not a giblet.

Turkey eggs hatch in 28 days.

The Native Americans hunted wild turkey for its sweet, juicy meat as early as 1000 A.D.

There are a number of towns in the United States named after the holiday's traditional main course. Turkey, Texas, was the most populous in 2005, with 492 residents;followed by Turkey Creek, Louisiana (357);and Turkey, North Carolina (269). There also are 9 townships around the country named "Turkey,"3 in Kansas.

Sources: National Turkey Federation, U.S.D.A., United States Census Bureau, Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, British Turkey Information Service, Canadian Turkey Marketing Association

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Turkey Facts Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, proposed the turkey as the official United States bird. In 2012, the average American ate 16 pounds of turkey. 88% of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey on Thanksgiving.