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| This is a huge tom. I do miss seeing these big birds wander through the back yard, year round, of our previous home in upstate New York. This picture could have been one of mine. And did you know they could fly? Yep! As we were driving down our dirt road, we'd come upon a flock of them and watch them scatter and fly up to the overhanging trees. Lots of noise and fluttering, and a strange sight to see. |
The
menu varies from time to time, and from place to place, but the basic
Thanksgiving meal that comes to mind traditionally consists of turkey,
stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls,
and apple pie. Purists say that the only things on that Thanksgiving plate
native to this country, meaning the lower forty-eight, are the turkey, wild as
it was, and the cranberry. If we consider just that lower forty-eight, yes, that’s
correct, and only because those two were here before humans came across the
land bridge from the other side of the world. Most of the rest of the meal made
its way from Central and South America with population movements throughout the
hemisphere.
We
can assume that those original travelers brought food stuffs with them, but
they would have found plenty to eat here. There were wild rice, which isn’t a
rice but a grass, and nuts: walnuts and pecans, to name two. That’s a fair meal if
that’s all you have, but they could forage and include wild grapes, black
cherries and other berries, and greens like amaranth, wild asparagus, and
others. You have to know what you can and can’t eat, and you have to know how
to cook them. Trial and error. Of course, there were always fish and game, and
honey and fruit for sweets.
If
we consider all of the Americas and what was here before the Pilgrims
celebrated that first Thanksgiving, if we really want an American meal, then we
have to leave out what the Europeans brought to these shores: anything made of
wheat, which originated in the Near East, and apples, which come from Central
Asia. There go the rolls, the stuffing, and the apple pie. Corn bread anyone?
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| Cranberries before the deluge. Many people thing they grow under water. Check out the Ocean Spray website and learn more. |
People
around the world have always celebrated and given thanks for a bountiful
harvest. We Americans have raised the tradition onto a pedestal. And yes,
especially as far as our feast menu is concerned, we do have a lot to be
thankful for - for the turkey and the cranberries, and for the corn, the potatoes
and sweet potatoes, the beans, the tomatoes, the peppers, the wild onions, the
pumpkins and other squashes, and the bouquet of sunflowers for the table.
The
Europeans brought the wheat and the apples - all the rest were here, waiting to
be enjoyed and spread to the rest of the world.
