Turkey Trivia

Let's do it. Turkey trivia. I think most of us realize Minnesota is number one in turkey production. We produce around 44 million birds with North Carolina second with 33 million. Minnesota is home to the number two turkey producer the Jennie-O-Turkey Store. North Carolina is home to  Butterball which is the number one producer.

We really go through the turkey at Thanksgiving time. There were around 100 million turkeys living on farms in the United States and we'll be eating around 46 million of them this week.

There are plenty of variations and recipes when it comes to turkey but I'm not going to share any. The only one I recall is you stuff the turkey's butt with popcorn kernels and then when you hear the popcorn pop your turkey is done. Ain't too sure if that's true as I'm not much of a cook.

You've perhaps heard the story that Ben Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national symbol of our country and not the eagle. President Thomas Jefferson was opposed to this idea. There's a story that suggests Franklin began referring to the male turkey as Tom in sort of a jab against President Jefferson who opposed his idea.

Football and Thanksgiving go hand in hand. Did you realize that the Detroit Lions began playing football games on Thanksgiving in 1934 and have done so ever since except during the war years. This year's opponent of course is from the turkey capital, Minnesota.

Here's a bit of a surprise perhaps, which country consumes the most turkey per year per capita? The answer is Israel.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. I won a ham in a charity raffle so we'll be skipping the turkey this year.