Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, New York. This week Peter writes: This will be our tenth Thanksgiving at Turkana Farms. And we can be thankful that the house has, at last, been fully restored, the final room being the eighteenth-century basement kitchen that was its earliest room. It now serves as a dining room when we want to cook on the fire and enjoy a crackling blaze as we eat. We can also be thankful that our barn, which was in such a dilapidated state when we arrived that it was ready to roll over, now stands foursquare, freshly re-painted, and re-roofed. And that the chicken coop, virtually roofless and windowless, with most of its south facade falling to pieces when we arrived, is now a comfortable hen house for our Rhode Island Reds. We can be thankful
that our nearly forty acres is now completely fenced, the brush and undergrowth cut back, and our pastures lush enough to support our flock of Karakul sheep, herd of British White beef cattle, our Ossabaw pigs, and heritage turkeys. We can be particularly thankful that each year more and more of you are joining our farm community and making our quixotic venture more and more viable. One group, however, that is not joining us in this thankfulness is our feathered friends. It is, indeed, “November days” here at Turkana Farms, and the “trailer is parked in the yard.” Last week our Toulouse geese and Rouen ducks, to their surprise, went off to market. All of the turkeys are spoken for, and they went off to meet their fate on Monday morning. Thus ends another cycle at the farm, and we move towards the quiet of winter. But not to end on a down note: You’ve all recently heard the tale of my first Thanksgiving Day in Turkey years ago. But I have yet another, shorter story of Thanksgiving in Turkey. It took place about twelve or so years ago when, in order to take advantage of a cheap international air flight, I found myself in Turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I could not resist sending out postcards to friends and relatives saying “While turkey is usually inside me on Thanksgiving, this time I am in Turkey." But enough of nostalgia. We both wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving-- wherever you may be celebrating it. —Peter Davies
