Goodbye pumpkins, hello turkeys

Here Comes Turkey Week—Next week is actually the most notable week for Turkeys, but Palmer is starting the turkey trend early. Just because. Everywhere you look in Palmer, are turkeys. Of course there is Turkey Red, most everyone’s oldest and favorite fine dining place in Palmer. There is the Turkey Trot, in Palmer, which occurs on November 28th. It’s 5km Fun Run in downtown Palmer starting at the Train Depot and dogs, kids, strollers and sleds are welcome. Food donations will be collected the needy in our community.

Where are All The Turkeys?—There really are some live ones still roosting in trees, in the dark, out near the Butte and up on Lazy. And there are thousands of turkeys hanging out in both the frozen food lockers and cases at the grocery stores. There are plenty of fresh ones too—although most are not local. Most of the local fresh turkeys were grabbed up by reservation with the farmers, back in August.

Turkey Muscles—This is definitely the hardest week for grocery store cashiers because they have to lug, scan and pack those big turkeys. And this is AFTER pumpkin week which was equally intense in terms of weight.

Turkeys in Cars—If you look in some of the cars parked in town, more than one vehicle has a frozen turkey defrosting in a tub on the back seat. Backseat Birds is an interesting concept…but it works while our temps are close to zero.

Turkeys on Back Decks—Back Deck Birds sit like lawn ornaments awaiting their transition into the house.

Turkeys in the Bathtub—These special Bathtub Birds are now in their next state of evolution….as they do the defrost slowly in the lead up to the big day.

Squashed Turkeys—These birds are smushed into Garage Coolers. In fact, these lazy big birds haven’t made it out of the garage yet but they are perfectly content to lay splayed out in the camping beer cooler.

Other Turkey Items—There is the famous Turkey Sandwich and Turkey Soup which won’t be on the table until next week. There are the turkey pants, which is the loosest fitting trousers to wear for the Thanksgiving feast. There is the Turkey hat and Turkey toe socks which we could all do without. And finally there is a new item called the Hot Turkey Hand Pie, which is exactly what you would think is a combo of pumpkin pie topping, on a glazed ginger crust, with warm turkey and gravy filling.

Turkey Rumors—There is ongoing argument over the gobble…some say only males gobble but some say both genders, toms and hens, gobble gobble.

Turkey Eyesight and Emotion—In the daylight turkeys have excellent vision but they’re not so good for night driving. When a turkey gets excited its neck and beak turn blue or red in a big blush—but when unemotional—their skin complexion stays white and calm.

Turkey Snood and Wattle—The big red dangly things on the turkey face and neck is combination of strange and mysterious hood ornaments, also know as their snood and wattle. I understand they are not terribly functional but supposedly the longer the snood, the more suitable for mating! Regardless, both snood and wattle are really fun words to pronounce and both cause me to giggle.

Palmer Turkeys—In the Palmer area, we have seen quite a few more turkeys, started from domestic birds. "Alaska turkey" is a “reference” to the fact that there are officially no wild turkeys in Alaska, meaning it is the only U.S. state where you cannot find wild turkeys naturally; due to the cold climate, turkeys are not native to the state. Turkeys like long days with good, solid photo periods, which Alaska does not provide year round and therefore wild turkeys are not common. However we have some interesting trees with turkeys hanging in them and flocks of turkeys moving around in the rural areas and neighborhoods. It seems that hunting of turkeys is not allowed but it is a confusing thing. If you’re interesting in growing a Palmer turkey it is said that you will need to feed the fine bird 84 pounds of food to grow a 30 pound turkey. And that explains why if you’re buying a locally grown, fresh turkey, it will cost a-lot, but will also be worth it!

Barbara Hunt is both Palmer writer and artist. She works hard to keep the robust pulse of Palmer, Alaska. She shares the good stuff in the weekly Palmer Alaska Buzz Column in the Mat Su Valley Frontiersman and daily on the Palmer Alaska Buzz Facebook Group. Contact at bhunt@mtaonline.net or text 907.315.3222