"HeritageTurkey" news and stories

First things first. Salon's Diary of a turkey killer is decidely not the daily musings of someone who works in a slaughterhouse. It's a thoughtful piece by a former vegetarian turned carnivore who decides to raise and kill her own bird. The author is also quite an engaged gourmand. She grows her own heirloom tomatoes, and thus chose to purchase a heritage bird. A Heritage Bronze, like the one pictured here, to be specific.

The author details the high and low points of raising Harold the turkey from chick to tom, including the death of his significant other, Maude. Inevitably the article ends with Harold's slaughter and the subsequent feast. What's interesting about the piece is how the writer deals with slaughtering a live animal as an eater who was intimately familiar with the PETA party line.

Given how much I love meat, I also found the following quote pretty cool, "...despite a vocal minority of die-hard vegetarians and vegans, it's carnivores who are chic." But I shouldn't even be allowed to write that. First of all I'm hardly chic, and, unlike the intrepid author, I've yet to come to terms with my killer instinct. One of these days I'll watch or help slaughter an animal, not that it's something I look forward to. But I'm sure it will give me a more profound understanding of how meat comes to my table.

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