Happy Thanksgiving

In many ways, Thanksgiving is the purest of the holidays.  No matter what your religious heritage, learning gratitude is essential to becoming a civilized being.

In our house when I was a child, we were expected to be able to answer the question "What are you thankful for" in a ritual that came before we ate.  Over the years, I have settled on one answer, "I am thankful that skilled people grow my food."

This is a picture of my grandfather and his brothers threshing wheat in Wilson County Kansas in late summer 1940.  Skill, hard work, AND organization brought in the harvest.

This is what the harvest looked like last fall in Minnesota.  7720 views the last I looked.

And a little feature on the turkey business.  Oh, and it's true--turkeys are even stupider than their reputation would suggest.  LOTS o turkeys grown in Minnesota.

Everything You Need To Know About The Big Turkey Industry

Gus Lubin | Nov. 24, 2010, 2:10 PM 

Even as millions of Americans bite into turkey on Thanksgiving, the big turkey industry is getting crushed.

American turkey farms had a total income of $3.57 billion in 2009, down from $4.48 billion the year before, according to the USDA via eatturkey.com.

Turkey farmers suffered from low domestic sales and exports because of the recession, according to Watt Poultry. High commodity prices have also cut into bottom lines at Hormel, Kraft and others.

This year production is expected to decline another 0.5%, according to Watt. more