11/25/2020
Friend, DJT,
Ready for Thanksgiving? I’m getting there. I dissected my 14-lb bird it last night & now it is brining in buttermilk. I may have made a mistake by feeding Ms Karissa a few turkey scraps. Some dogs have trouble digesting turkey. I hope she isn’t one of them.
It looks like you enjoyed the turkey pardon yesterday. It was nice that Corn behaved himself & sat nicely throughout the event. He must be exceptional, as turkeys are not known for their intelligence. Perhaps he was given some special medication to calm his nerves. In any case, it was a beautiful day & I appreciated hearing you joking around.
I hope you spent some time visiting with Corn & Cobb’s growers, Ron & Susie Kardel. As you know, Ron presides over the National Turkey Federation. His colleagues are having a rough time of it this year as this T-day will be like none other.
Just in case you didn’t have time to talk to him, I’ll fill you in on their plight. According to the NYT, 70% of Americans are planning to celebrate T-day differently this year. No one wants birds as big as Corn & Cobb since large gatherings are taboo. Some people are opting for a part of a turkey. Others are cooking geese, ducks & chicken. My friend is roasting Cornish hens.
The producers who are suffering the most are those who farm fresh turkeys. They committed to their flocks right before Covid hit & now they’ve got a bunch of big live birds with nowhere to go. The whole industry is just recovering from the 2015 outbreak of turkey flu & the packing plans have had CV issues. To top it all off, the advances in plant-based proteins that taste like meat has the whole meat industry in a snit.
As you work on the next CV relief packages, I’m sure the turkey growers would appreciate some help. You can work with Ag Sec Purdue to get those excess turkeys into the homes of our unemployed citizens. Don’t prop the farmers up, too much. The GOP prefers free markets, right?
I look forward to hearing about your Thanksgiving.
HYITL,
