With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it seemed appropriate to write about wildlife that is iconic for the holiday - turkeys and cranberries! We all know that no Thanksgiving meal would be complete without an oven roasted turkey and a side of cranberry sauce. As it turns out, both of these Thanksgiving staples have a presence in the Adirondacks.
Cranberries! (Source: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com)
Typically when we think of cranberries, we imagine an industrial sized harvest, with tiny red orbs floating on the surface of a flooded field, ready for canning and selling. While these cultivated berries are grown on “carefully managed upland fields,” wild cranberries tend to grow in bogs. Cranberry Lake, for example, earned its name from the extensive cranberry bogs that it contained. Once harvested, cranberries can be used in breads, juices, and sauces. In addition to being a tasty Thanksgiving treat, cranberries also contain many vitamins such as Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and antioxidants. The berries provide a range of health benefits from prevention of kidney stones to lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol. So, don’t feel guilty about taking that extra helping this year!
A Wild Turkey (Source :http://www.dec.ny.gov)
During the time of European colonization, wild turkeys were prevalent throughout the state of New York. However, with habitat loss (due to creation of agricultural land) and hunting (which was unregulated), wild turkeys disappeared from the state in the mid-1840s. Turkeys only returned to New York in 1948 when a population living in Pennsylvania crossed the border. In 1959, the State Conservation Department began trapping turkeys where there was an overabundance, and dispersing them throughout the state of New York. Today, there is an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 turkeys in the state. Having learned from the past, wild turkeys are now a legally protected game species in the Adirondacks and the rest of New York.
Sources:
http://www.cliftonfineadk.com/#!cranberrylake/c20r9
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/11/native-foods-cranberries.html#more-57096
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7062.html
With all we've learned about the poor agricultural capacity of Adirondack land, it was nice to learn that two important parts of a classic Thanksgiving meal can be found in the Adirondacks. Thanks for showing that the Adirondacks can give us some great food!
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