| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Jen |
Posted - Nov 20 2007 : 6:49:36 PM
From SlowFoodUSA's new blog: www.slowfoodblog.org
"A Heritage Thanksgiving"
With Thanksgiving almost upon us, many of us are trying to avoid buying a flavorless supermarket turkey and are wondering: where in the world can I find a heritage turkey? Some of you might even be asking: what is a heritage turkey?
To qualify as a heritage turkey, a bird must reproduce through natural mating, have a long, productive outdoor lifespan, and have a slow to moderate growth rate. Today’s heritage turkeys reach a marketable weight in about 28 weeks (unlike Butterball turkeys, which are marketable at 12 weeks), giving the birds time to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to building muscle mass. This growth rate is identical to that of the commercial varieties common in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century.
The American Poultry Association (APA) recognizes Black, Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, Slate, Bourbon Red, Beltsville Small White, Royal Palm as heritage turkeys. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) also classifies the Jersey Buff, and the White Midget as Heritage turkeys. Slow Food USA includes the Bronze, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Jersey Buff, and White Midget breeds on its Ark of Taste.
Has the promotion of these Breeds by the ALBC and Slow Food USA made a difference in the market? The answer is emphatically yes. As recently as 1997, all heritage turkeys were in danger of extinction. Only a total of 1,335 breeding heritage birds, as recognized by the American Poultry Association, were found. There were so few of some varieties that ALBC feared they were all but lost: just 6 Narragansetts, 77 Slates, and 81 Blacks. Only the Bourbon Red, with 714 breeding birds, while endangered, was not considered critically so. By 2006, Narragansetts had increased to 686, and Standard Bronze had leaped by 117% in just three years to 957—moving both of these varieties out of critical status.
There are still, unfortunately, few enough heritage turkeys that they may be hard to order as the season approaches, but the marketplace plays an increasingly important role in the success of heritage conservation. Since 2002, the market for heritage turkeys has approximately doubled annually, based on reports from producers and distributors in the ALBC network. This is in large part thanks to Slow Food Members who have showed increased support of heritage turkeys as well as the farmers who raise them.
To find a heritage turkey farm near you for this Thanksgiving you can search:
* Local Harvest (http://www.localharvest.org/)
* The Eat Well Guide (http://www.eatwellguide.org/)
* or e-mail albc@albc-usa.org.
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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