I miss the turkeys

[grasswire]

The property I live on is home to two dozen turkeys each year -- heirloom birds that are grown for the owners' friends and neighbors. Sunday the turkeys "went missing." One minute I saw them racing around their big pen trying to avoid being caught by the men in rubber boots; the next time I looked out the window they were all gone.

They are crazy funny animals. Their warbling is extremely comical. Almost like meowing. They don't like the sound of emergency vehicles and go nuts when the fire station nearby sends engines out. Their posturing with tail feathers aflutter is something to see.

The garden is nearly as bare as the turkey pen. The grapes left behind hang in blackened bunches on bare vines. Dry and withered and black. The persimmon tree bears some bright orange beauties still, and looks straight out of a folk art scene -- so stylized and primitive. The five fig trees show droopy leaves from last night's first frost, but there are still figs on board. I touched some red raspberries, frozen right on the vine. Maybe I could pick them and put them in the freezer just the way they are!

What could I rescue today from another frost coming tonight? I picked about twenty huge anaheim chilis and some other peppers. Hope I can use them all. And tomatillos, frozen hard but I'll put them directly into a saucepan. There are leeks, but they will be fine in the ground. Ah, flat leaf parsley. It's almost frozen, but not quite. I picked a big bunch of that.

The colors of the autumn garden are spectacular. I wish I had taken the camera to the turkey pen on Saturday.

[hippywife]

1. So, all in all

how do you feel about living out there now? :)

[Denninmi]

2. That's sad. Poor things.

I hatched 6 turkey eggs this spring, and they are now almost fully grown. They are safe, just pets, not dinner. I couldn't do that if I had to. My Thanksgiving turkey came from the store, an "all natural" (frozen) bird for $.89 a lb. I'm such a hypocrite.

You must be somewhere warmer than I am -- your post sounds like my place a month ago. Everything except for the hardiest herbs, brassicas, and a few onions and leeks are gone. But, I do still have persimmons on the tree, just at their peak. Only problem is most of them are too high in the air for me to get, and I don't do ladders do to a terrible fear of heights. So, I just have to wait for them to drop and hope it works out. Sometimes they fall after they freeze, and I can pick them up without much damage, wash them off, let them thaw, and they're still good for baking.

[grasswire]

3. how about one of those apple picker poles?

I think they are about 25 bucks or so.

What do you bake the persimmons with? Sugar?

[Denninmi]

4. I have one of those. Doesn't work with these.

It would work on the Asian type persimmons grown in milder climates, but those won't grow here, too cold. I have the American (native) persimmons, and they're too small, about the size of a quarter to a half dollar.

I have found persimmon pulp very versatile -- I have used it any any sweet recipe that calls for pumpkin, squash, or sweet potatoes, and it always turns out virtually identical. Cookies, cakes, whatever. I even made a pumpkin pie type pie substituting persimmon and cutting back just a little on the sugar due to the sweetness of the persimmons, and that turned out fine as well.

[grasswire]

5. I didn't know that persimmons grew so small.

I'll bet the tree is pretty. Kind of like Christmas balls, only orange.

[Denninmi]

6. I took this photo 3 years ago in late October.

They weren't completely ripe at that point.

[tigereye]

10. nice! lovely photo, too.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I have also cooked persimmons in a little water until soft, put them through a food mill

and used the pulp in an apple butter recipe. It's delicious on buttered biscuits.

[yellerpup]

7. You paint a lyrical picture for us, grasswire.

A melancholy portrait of the change in season and the change in luck for the turkeys next door. I can empathize with your rush to save and make use of the last fruits from the freeze. So very nice I can feel the nip in the air. Beautiful.

[tigereye]

11. that's exactly what I thought!

[yellerpup]

12. She's good, isn't she?

You're really good, grasswire!

[tigereye]

9. that was wonderfully poetic writing!

I can see everything you are talking about.



We ordered a free-range farm turkey from our CSA and I felt a bit bad after I looked at their pictures, running around the farm.

[Denninmi]

13. These are mine. I hatched them on Memorial Day weekend.

Just pets. They had a much better than average Thanksgiving for their species -- they got kale, apples, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and a box of stale raisin bran.

[pengillian101]

14. Those lucky ducks, lol! n/t

[tigereye]

15. huh, I've never seen the feathers before- almost hawk-like. Interesting.

[Tesha]

16. Wild turkeys are back in our part of the world.

In summer, Mr. Tesha was out walking every morning around dawn
and he see either of several flocks most days out. Both had two or
three adults and a whole bunch of turklettes. They're quite
impressive to see.

The hunters around here of course think there are too many of them
and so they should "cull" some of them, but the turkeys' numbers
aren't that high yet.

Tesha