Thanksgiving Alternative: Adopt a Turkey

The Adopt a Turkey Project, which gives people the opportunity to sponsor one of the rescued birds who reside at the group’s shelters in New York and California, has provided care for more than 1,000 rescued turkeys over the last 25 years. For a one-time donation of just $30, adopters receive a special adoption certificate complete with color photo and fun details about their new adopted turkey friend.

Turkeys are, in fact, intelligent and social animals, who form lifelong bonds and possess unique abilities to communicate with one another. Just as “Free Birds” brings to life the personalities of each of its animal characters, caretakers at Farm Sanctuary know that real-life turkeys possess distinct personalities and exhibit a joy for life. Among the adoptable turkeys are:

Tulip, who lives at Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter; she is sensitive and kind to her flockmates and loves grapes and cranberries, 

Minerva, an attention-loving turkey with a passion for sunflower seeds, who resides at the rescue group’s shelter near Los Angeles, and

Tibbott, an outgoing guy who resides at Farm Sanctuary’s Northern California Shelter; he loves to meet new people and snack on lettuce and grapes.

“After more than 25 years of caring for rescued turkeys through our Adopt a Turkey Project, we’re delighted to team up with Reggie and Jake this Thanksgiving,” says Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur. “We hope their amazing adventure will inspire even more people to adopt a turkey as part of their holiday tradition.”

To learn more about the Adopt a Turkey Project, visit adoptaturkey.org or call the Turkey Adoption Hotline at 1-888-SPONSOR.

This is a guest post from Farm Sanctuary which operates three shelters in New York and California that provide lifelong care for nearly 1,000 rescued farm animals, works to change laws to decrease abuse of farm animals, and promotes compassionate vegan living.

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Tofurky for the Holidays

See how easy Vegan is?  If you need a vegan alternative for Thanksgiving and Christmas, you can pick up a Tofurky and gravy in the frozen section of your grocery store (they are that mainstream these days) and have all that extra time to visit with family and friends rather than cooking and cleaning.  This year I'm really liking that idea.  We always do vegetarian holidays anyway, but I'm in the kitchen more than I'd like to be.  This year I'm trying something different and buying as much of the meal as I can.  I have to say, I've never been one for the fake meats, but if you are, it might be a good fit.

Tofurky is a healthier and more environmentally friendly option than meat, and it' as easy as popping it in the oven.  While Tofurky is not organic, it is gmo free.  I hope they change this and offer organic options down the road.  Meanwhile, this is kid and travel friendly.  Find out more HERE. 

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Two Vegan Pumpkin Pie Ideas for Your Thanksgiving Menu

Need some ideas for Thanksgiving pies?  A little twist on pumpkin perhaps?  Even if you're not vegan, you might want to consider making these pies for Thanksgiving.  For the last few years, I've been making the vegan cheesecake pie from Fat Free Vegan (it's not fat free, but who cares).  It's so good, I might make it again this year.

But I'm also excited to try the vegan cheesecake recipe from the new Vegan Pie In the Sky cookbook.  Though I'll be making it for the first time next week, I have no reservations recommending this as all other recipes I've tried from these authors have been great.  Check out the blog post on Post Punk Kitchen which shares the recipe and the gorgeous photo at the top of this post.

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Rethinking that Thanksgiving Turkey or, Guess who's Not coming to dinner

Each year over 46 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving dinners.   I haven't eaten turkey since I was a kid and I promise I do not feel a void. I've enjoyed my Thanksgivings every bit as much, and really feel that the turkey is an irrelevant, cruel and outdated tradition.  Our festive organic vegan dinner will include some delicious whole grain stuffing and miso mushroom gravy, roasted root vegetables, steamed broccoli, a big organic salad, and pumpkin pie.  Sounds yummy, right?

Turkeys are not stupid as we have been told.  They're very social creatures enjoying the company of other turkeys and other species, including humans.  They have relationships and show affection just like our cats and dogs and enjoy having their feathers stroked.  They have good hearing and vision, see in color, and have great geographical and communication skills.   Wild turkeys can fly short distances at speeds up to 55 mph and they can run on the ground at 25 mph.

Domestic turkeys cannot fly because they weigh too much.   Factory farm turkeys suffer tremendously during their short painful lives.   They have their beaks and toes cut off, they suffer painful health effects from being bred to have abnormally large breasts for white meat, they can no longer breed naturally because of this physical issue so breeder turkeys are kept locked up in a confined space, and they are killed violently and inhumanely.  The whole thing is so flagrantly disrespectful and barbaric, I believe if more people realized the backstory of their Thanksgiving turkey (and also the amount of pharmaceuticals and pesticides they contain), they would make the effort to find a truly free range local organic turkey or forgo it altogether.

It just seems to me that Compassion would go hand in hand with Gratitude, right?  Maybe a compassionate meal would make that point a little better.  Gratitude for our limited resources, gratitude for life and other living creatures.  And gratitude for our loved ones and being able to share this moment in time together, gratitude for the love in our lives...it really has nothing to do with the turkey.  For more on this topic, check out GENTLE THANKSGIVING or watch this horrifying video of turkeys in a factory farm.

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And a piece of Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake...

We have been feasting big time today on steamed broccoli, brussels sprouts, acorn squash, whole grain stuffing with miso gravy and salad. It was soooo good. Too good! For dessert I made this double layer pumpkin cheesecake, modified from THIS recipe. Vegan food is so yummy, it's hard to believe people eat otherwise.

I'm so thankful to live in a place where fresh organic food is readily available, and that I have a sweet little munchkin to cook for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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