NORTH AMERICA – Benjamin Franklin never proposed that the wild turkey should become our national symbol instead of the American bald eagle. In fact, he didn’t think a bird of any kind should be chosen for the Great Seal of the United States.

The myth arose from a letter he wrote to his daughter criticizing the Society of Cincinnati’s newly struck medal that he and others thought looked more like a turkey than an eagle.

According to Franklin, the “Bald Eagle…is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.” The turkey, on the other hand, is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America….He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.”

Native Americans have been eating turkeys for thousands of years. From Central America to the southwestern United States, wild turkeys were first domesticated circa 800 BCE. In 1500 AD Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World and brought some of the tamed turkeys they encountered back home with them.

From there they spread throughout Europe, where varieties such as the Cambridgeshire Bronze, Norfolk Black, White Austrian, Ronquieres, Buff, and Blue were developed. By the year 1600, turkeys were popular fare during holiday feasts across the continent. Those European varieties were shipped to North America with English colonists in the 1600s.

In the autumn of 1621, a three-day feast celebrating the harvest took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, between the Wampanoag people and Pilgrims. It’s come to be known as the “First Thanksgiving.”

The Pilgrims and Wampanoag didn’t raise domestic turkeys, but wild turkey may have been on the menu. Foods such as venison, goose, duck, seafood, corn, squash, and beans were mostly what they ate.

At the turn of the 18th century, domesticated turkeys were common from the mid-Atlantic to the coastal south. In 1789, George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln officially proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. Turkey had been firmly established as the main course by then.

The American Poultry Association (APA) was formed in 1867 and adopted standards for five different heritage varieties: Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, Black, and Slate. The Bourbon Red met their Standards of Perfection in 1909. The Bertsville Small White, Harvey Speckled, Auburn, Buff, Pied, and Royal Palm are other types named to the list since.

Domestic turkey genetics would morph on a path to the 25-pound butterball we see in the grocer’s freezers today. During the 1900s, breeders in Washington and Oregon were producing bigger birds with wider breasts. They named them Mammoth Reds.

Selected for their ample breast meat, Bronze and White turkeys from England were imported by a breeder in British Columbia. The mixing of those two he called Cambridgeshires.

In the late 1930s, a Cambridgeshire Bronze was crossed with a Mammoth Red and a Wagon Wheel Ranch strain to create what were commercially known as “Broad Breasted Bronze” turkeys.

Not content with what they’d created, the breeders developed a white-feathered line from Broad Breasted Bronzes that eliminated the pesky pin feathers of their predecessors. They achieve full growth in a short eighteen to twenty-two weeks, after which the turkeys are ready for market.

The toms of Broad Breasted varieties are bulky and so top heavy that they are unable to mount the hens to reproduce effectively. To propagate the strains, breeders must resort to artificial insemination.

While the turkeys most commonly available to consumers are fine with most people, I’ve always found the white meat of the breast to be a little on the dry side. I prefer the dark meat of the legs and thighs, and heritage turkeys have a higher proportion of that.

Neither Broad Breasted Bronzes nor Broad Breasted Whites are heritage turkeys. To be considered a heritage turkey breed, it must meet certain requirements: The birds must mate naturally and be able to withstand the outdoor elements. Have a long lifespan with hens productive for five to seven years and breeding toms three to five years, with a fertility rate of at least 70%.

They must possess a slow to moderate growth rate and reach maturity in approximately 28 weeks. This gives their bones and muscles time to develop naturally and leads to a healthier and happier (and hopefully tastier) bird.

There are 25,000 heritage turkeys produced each year in the United States and 200,000,000 Broad Breasted Whites. The most readily available breeds of heritage turkeys that can be purchased directly from Front Range farmers are APA certified Bourbon Reds and Bronzes.

These birds tend to be lighter than commercial turkeys and cost up to ten times more per pound. A luxury meat for serious culinary connoisseurs, it is known to be flavorful and delicious. So, if your finances are in good shape and you’d like to taste a piece of history, a heritage turkey may be just the thing for next year’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Sources for this article include www.livestockconservancy.org/heritage-turkey-definitiion/.