Where did Thanksgiving food originate?

SALT LAKE CITY — Thanksgiving is a time where families and friends come together to enjoy a nice dinner and say what they are thankful for. But have you ever thought about where that delicious food came from?

The KSL Greenhouse Show hosts Taun Beddes and Maria Shilaos discussed the foods people eat on Thanksgiving day and the history that goes along with them.

“A big part of [Thanksgiving] is sharing the food,” Beddes said. “We view food as something that can bring people together and there’s a lot of historical significance to, especially, this holiday.”

Listen to the Thanksgiving food origins podcast below 👇

 

Squash

According to Beddes, Appalachia and the Ozarks are responsible for bringing a lot of summer squash to the table. 

“And then there’s species, also native into Mexico and different parts of North America that pumpkins and winter squash were developed from,” Beddes said.

Beddes said squash originated in North America. Native Americans would breed fruits and vegetables to create a bigger food variety that could last longer.

From there, Europeans would take the seeds back to Europe with them for further development. Eventually, those seeds were then brought back to North America later on.

Mashed potatoes

According to Beddes, mashed potatoes are native to the Andes.

“There’s actually dozens of species of potato, we actually have a few native into Utah that were utilized by Native Americans, but they don’t get the great big tubers on them,” Beddes said.

Potatoes used in mashed potato recipes grows in areas where the temperature doesn’t get over about 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and never gets colder than about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Beddes said Potatoes have been bred to withstand heat in Utah. However, they were grown by different tribes in North America and originated from South America.

Cranberries

Cranberries are not able to be grown in Utah, but they are on many people’s menu on Thanksgiving.

“[Cranberries] are native mainly to the Northeast,” Beddes said. “But there are species of cranberry native all through the Northern, from Canada into Alaska.”

According to Beddes, cranberries were also used by Native Americans and then adopted by European settlers.

Turkey

“So, turkey, I think, has one of the most interesting stories,” Beddes said. “Turkeys were independently domesticated a couple of times by Native Americans thousands of years ago.”

According to Beddes, the turkey people use for Thanksgiving feasts today originated from Mexico. 

“Even though we have native turkeys all over North America, they were taken from Mexico to Europe and Asia,” Beddes said. “And they were bred.” 

From there, Beddes says within 50 or 100 years of breeding, new breeds of turkey were born. 

Why was the turkey named turkey?

“When [turkey] was taken to England, from Turkey, the English assumed it was native there,” Beddes said. “It was called ‘the bird from Turkey,’ and it was just shortened to turkey.”

Eventually the turkey was brought back to America with European settlers.

The KSL Greenhouse Show airs Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 

Kennedy Camarena is a digital content producer for KSL NewsRadio. 

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