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| No "wild" turkey here! Deanna Schaus & Jill Walters-Klamer, Cottonwood Mansion |
England loves our "wild" turkeys ~ Caroline Carver writes in her Canadian Christmas Book. A handsel from our Victorian past.*
A poultry dealer, Joseph Tomalin, claimed to be the first merchant to set up a stall in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market. He had three stalls at the market and his specialty was turkeys, which he bought from the farmer for about eight cents a pound, and sold for anything from thirteen to eighteen cents.
He even made six Christmas trips to England to sell his turkeys in Leadenhall Market in London. The train to Halifax, the ship to London cost him $29.00 return, and the ship took about sixteen days on the crossing. "He advertised the birds as Canadian "wild turkeys," which they were not, but they were immensely popular as such, and once he sold his fifty birds within fifteen minutes of arrival!"
