Happy Holiday: The Narragansett Turkey

I first saw this beautiful turkey breed at the Shaker Museum in Albany. I inquired and found out that it was a Narragansett. A once popular domestic turkey from where else, Rhode Island.

According to the Livestock Conservancy, the Narragansett turkey is named for the “sandy Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, where the variety was developed.” It might have descend from the “Norfolk Blacks – brought to America by English and European colonists beginning in the 1600’s.”

A popular breed, especially in New England, it was recognized by the American Poultry Association in 1874. They were especially a good breed because they did not require a lot of feed. Instead, they could roam in large flocks eating insects. These majestic and calm birds were replaced by the Standard Bronze turkey which reigned supreme until the 1960s when the standard white turkey took over. It is what we are most familiar with today.

Heritage breeds, like the Narragansett, have been making a comeback recently. According to an article from the Washington Post, published in 2012, “heritage breeds have even amounts of white and dark meat.” Some have likened the meat to wild turkey with a game like taste.

Some still list this once common breed as threatened with extinction, and still others as threatened. “The way to save them is to eat them,” one farmer stated. Oklahoma State University reported that the “American Livestock Breeds Conservancy took a census in 1997; the results came back with six breeding Narragansett turkeys in the United States. Another census taken in 2003 found 368 breeding turkeys.” Backyard Poultry believes there are over 2,000 Narragansetts as of 2021. This is in part thanks to The Livestock Conservancy (TLC) and Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (SPPA) who promoted breed.

More and more Americans are turning to heritage breeds like the Narragansett. Both because of their unique taste as well as to save the genetic diversity of this majestic breed. Perhaps next Thanksgiving holiday you can order a heritage turkey as opposed to a “factory” produced turkey.