Let’s take a look at the agriculture of Thanksgiving

Hello Coshocton County and Happy Thanksgiving! Whether you are reading this before the big meal starts or winding down from all the festivities of the holiday, I hope you are reading this with grateful hearts. This is one of my favorite holidays, and Thanksgiving truly kicks off the winter holidays and getting to spend time with our families.

There are so many cool facts about the holiday when it comes to the history and the unique ways people spend it together. Something that is very interesting to me is how rooted in agriculture this holiday is.

In 1621 this first Thanksgiving meal was originally called the harvest feast, which followed a difficult first year for the Pilgrims. It was a celebration of the shared knowledge of agriculture from the Wampanoag people. The Pilgrims learned how to cultivate local crops like corn and pumpkins, which was vital for their survival.

Since the 1621 harvest meal, the holiday has morphed into different traditions and ways of celebrating, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the agriculture aspect. Now it may not be a celebration of growing crops any longer, but we do eat those “crops” for our meal.

I would like to share with you some cool facts about the most popular foods that are consumed on this holiday.

Let’s start with the turkey. Typically, most Thanksgiving turkeys are from the most common domesticated breed, the broad-breasted white turkey. Other breeds are sometimes used in niche markets. Broad-breasted white turkeys are raised in environmentally controlled barns that are the size of football fields and are protected from weather and predators.

A turkey is fed corn and soybeans with supplemental vitamins and minerals. It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 38-pound tom turkey. Turkeys reach maturity at 14-18 weeks and then are processed to be ready for your Thanksgiving dinner. It takes much more than feed and a nice environment to live in to raise a turkey. Farmers rely on vaccinations, strong biosecurity, best management practices and regular inspection of birds for infections.

While mashed potatoes are a popular dish on everyone’s dinner table, sweet potatoes are a unique substitute for most. Sweet potatoes are planted in the summer and harvested in the fall. Their ideal growing climate is hot summers, which helps the potatoes mature faster. Sweet potatoes are high in calcium, potassium, and vitamin A and C while being rich in fiber. Sweet potatoes are essentially small pieces of root from last season’s crop. They are ready to harvest in 90-120 days, and you know they’re ready when the tops of the plant begin to die. Sweet potatoes are a healthier option to include in your holiday meal.

Next up is corn. Corn is the most widely grown crop across the country, and it is grown mainly for animal feed and not human consumption. While field corn is not what you see sitting at your table during Thanksgiving, sweet corn is. Sweet corn has three distinct genetic backgrounds:

—Normal sugary: Best eaten soon after harvest. They don’t store well as the starch converts rapidly.

—Sugary enhanced: High sugar content with same tenderness and creamy texture, superior in eating quality.

—Supersweet: Delays conversion of sugar to starch to stay sweet longer. They have crispy, tough-skinned texture with low creamy texture and lacking “corn” flavor. Affects frozen and canned corn. 

—Combination of any of the above (synergistic or augmented supersweet).

Sweet corn matures in 60-100 days from planting, and to determine if it’s ready to harvest, just look at the top of the ear. When the silks are dry and brown, you are ready to take the ear.

Corn is used for just about everything: Antibiotics, foods, drinks, glues, soaps, insulation, corn starch, oil, high fructose corn syrup and more.

While there are more popular dishes we could talk about pertaining to Thanksgiving, these are just a few to point out. I encourage everyone to look up some interesting facts about their favorite Thanksgiving food and learn a little bit about agriculture related to Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone enjoys spending time with your family and friends and don’t forget to tell someone how grateful you are for them. Happy Thanksgiving!

Brett Kinzel is the extension educator of agriculture and natural resources for Ohio State University Extension Coshocton County.