Sunday, October 10, 2010

The politics of turkey dinner

This being the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving I am cleaning and cooking in preparation for a big family dinner tonight.  The traditional turkey is being prepared and this year we jumped on the bandwagon and ordered a big bird of the Free Range Organic variety from a local farm.  Buying a turkey used to be a simple matter of going to the grocery store and buying a frozen bird, but now there are so many considerations.  Is it local?  Is it sustainably raised? Is it hormone free? Was it treated humanely?  All these questions are valid concerns and since I try to be a thoughtful, ethical person, I opted to pay the big bucks to purchase a bird that led a happy life. The cost?  Over $100!  (The photo above is the tag from the turkey bag.)

I've been checking out recipes on the internet that will do this turkey justice.  The turkey is sitting in the fridge in a dry seasoned salt brine and I just hope that my cooking method will be appropriate and that it will taste delicious.  I also hope that our evening will have a little of the good magic that can happen when 11 varied people with family connections get together to share a special meal.

Although I'm still reeling at the $100 price tag, I am grateful that I have the financial resources to actually make the choice to purchase a politically correct turkey.  Many don't, or wouldn't consider it important. I'll let you know if the flavor was significantly better. 





6 comments:

  1. joanna - happy thanksgiving. i'm grateful that my little family can gather around our old and worn table for food that we have gathered from our area. beer from a 100 km away. candles even closer. jams and preserves made by my mum. even butter tarts that my wife and i just biked 38 km to bring home. only one got smashed up on the way back - so we snaffled it down immediately! steven

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  2. Hi Steven,
    Thirty eight Km? Wow--that's a long way to go for butter tarts (still within the 100 mile diet radius). I bet they're delicious. Have a lovely celebration with your family.
    Joanna

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving form south of the border.
    Yes, buying a turkey is getting more and more complicated
    but better to buy one that at least had a little bit of happy turkey life!

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  4. Happy Thanksgiving !
    You must tell us all about how the Turkey came out.

    cheers, parsnip

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that turkey was good to the last bite.

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  6. Happy Thanksgiving, Joanna! Dry brine sounds interesting...let us know.
    We went with salmon this year - another bounty within 100 miles. And lots of veg from the garden.

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