Ground Turkey for Thanksgiving? Why Not.

Leah’s mother exaggerates most things by a factor of 1000. Filling up her car these days, for example, costs about 100,000 bucks. So, while listening to Dixie as she told a wonderful, romantic story of cooking a turkey underground one snowy December—about 29,000 years ago—with her sweetie, Hal (now Leah’s Father), we couldn’t help but wonder where to orient ourselves—taking the hyperbole factor into account. I was leaning toward a situation that looked more like a turkey being cooked in the wood burning oven with the cabin door open.

So, we called [what we assumed was] her bluff by repeating the experience.

On Easter weekend we travelled to Reid Island, a small water-taxi-only rock tucked between Galiano and Thetis Islands where Leah’s family has had a cabin for about 30,000 years. Sunday was “Ground Turkey” Day, and we set out to work.

Supplies: Shovel, Axe, 17lb turkey, roasting pan, olive oil, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, Hal’s complicated stuffing, clam pot, lemon, butter, LOTS of beer, LOTS of wine, LOTS of Fireball.

As it happens, the exhausting of our alcoholic supplies makes certain details of the experience difficult to recall. Fortunately, we seldom do remarkable things without the presence of 1000 HD video cameras. We’ll allow the resulting footage to tell the rest of the story.

—Jay and Leah