Herbed Roasted Wild Turkey Recipe

© By Othmar Vohringer

There is not better way to provide the main ingredient for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner then by hunting it yourself. I always believed that the far superior quality of the wild turkey over the domesticated kind should be prepared with natural ingredients and in the traditional way. To that end I leave you here with a simple but very tasty traditional recipe. Enjoy and a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.

RecipeIngredients:
1 whole turkey
1/2 cup rosemary sprigs(fresh)
1/2 cup sage leaves(fresh)
1 organic apple(quartered)
1 stalk celery(halved)
1 onion(halved)
1/2 cup butter(melted).

Method:
Rinse turkey with cold water and pat dry. Loosen skin from the turkey breast a bit not totally detaching. Place rosemary and sage under skin then smooth skin over herbs and back into place. Place apple celery and onion into the neck cavity. Place the turkey breast side up on a rack in a shallow roasting pan and brush with melted butter. Cover turkey loosely with a "tent" of aluminum foil.Bake at 325 degrees until meat thermometer registers about 180 degrees. This should take from 3 1/2 to 4 hours but begin checking after 3 hours. Remove turkey and let stand 15 minutes before carving. Serve with gravy.

Tags: Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

Legendary Turkey Call Maker Donates Rare Call to NWTF Museum

National Wild Turkey Federation Press Release


Allen Jenkins, CEO of Allen Jenkins Turkey Calls and one of the National Wild Turkey Federation's founding directors, donated an M.L. Lynch Big Chief turkey call to be permanently displayed in the NWTF's Winchester Museum in Edgefield, S.C., Oct. 23, 2008.

Jenkins presented the Big Chief slate call to George C. Thornton, NWTF CEO, during a luncheon with the NWTF's National Board of Directors. The call will be a part of the Federation's collection of 23 M.L. Lynch turkey calls.

Made around 1952 by Mike Lynch, founder of M.L. Lynch Turkey Calls, the Big Chief is one of the Lynch company's more unique calls. It features a sliding plate with circular wooden cutouts that was intended to help novice turkey callers find the "sweet spot" on the slate. However, the call's square design proved too bulky for many hunters and kept it from reaching commercial success.

"The Big Chief is a unique treasure that most people have never seen," Jenkins said. "It was made to be a fool-proof slate call that any hunter could pick up and use. Although it was never a top-seller, it's a neat piece of turkey call history, and it belongs in a place where other people can see and appreciate it."

Jenkins purchased the M. L. Lynch Company from Mike Lynch in 1970 and has produced more than 3 million handmade and hand-tuned turkey calls since then. He served as a founding director for the National Wild Turkey Federation from 1973-78 and received an Outstanding Service Award from the Federation for his dedicated service in 1979.

An NWTF Diamond Life Sponsor, Jenkins played a vital role in the Federation's growth in its formative years. He helped early membership numbers grow by providing a mailing list of 25,000 names of the most recent hunters who had purchased a Lynch turkey call and distributing approximately 300,000 leaflets about the newly formed organization. Since 1973, the NWTF has grown to nearly a half million members in 50 states, Canada, Mexico and 14 other countries.
The NWTF's Winchester Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to the wild turkey. Each year, the free Winchester Museum entertains and educates more than 10,000 visitors and is filled with one-of-a-kind artifacts, world-class taxidermy, fun games and interactive multimedia exhibits.

Tags: National; Wild Turkey Federation, Rare Turkey Calls, M. L. Lynch Turkey Calls, Press Release

Wild Turkey Conservationist Honored

© By Othmar Vohringer

James Earl Kennamer, Ph.D. (photo: courtesy of NWTF) was selected as the 2008 Alumni Fellow for MSU’s College of Forest Resources, an award given to those who have earned special distinction in their professional field.

Kennamer is currently the Senior Vice President of Conservation Programs for the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). During his nearly 30 years of service with the NWTF, Kennamer has worked with a wide range of conservation and sportsmen’s groups among them the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance
as well as government agencies to ensure a robust wild turkey populations. Through those efforts, he is considered a leading architect of the wild turkey expansion from 1.3 million in the early 1970s to more than 7 million today.
Dr. James Earl Kennamer has been fascinated by wild turkeys since he saw his first wild turkey gobbler killed by his father 53 years ago on Fort Benning military base in Alabama. Six years later, he followed in his dad’s footsteps and bagged his first turkey. Then, in 1980, Kennamer left his tenured position as a wildlife professor at Auburn University to help the NWTF get off the ground. Since then, he has played an instrumental role in wild turkey restoration.

Tags: Wild Turkey Conservationist Honored, Wild Turkey Federation, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, James Earl Kennammer