I’ve been chasing wild turkeys, both with a shotgun and a camera, for more than 40 years, but April 2022 was my most satisfying spring hunt ever.
The history of the wild turkey in Ohio is one of boom and bust. A bird of mature woodlands, turkeys thrived in pre-settlement times when our state was 95% forested. In 1915, a researcher by the name of Wright, after reviewing records from the 18th and early 19th centuries, wrote, “In all the United States, no state had more turkeys than Ohio and her neighbors.” Just how many wild turkeys existed in the Ohio country hundreds of years ago is anyone’s guess — a million, perhaps?
When stockings are hung by the chimney with care, they cry out to be filled with made-in-Ohio gifts that help Santa not only enchant everyone’s nearest and dearest but also give a boost to entrepreneurs and artisans throughout the state.
American Classic Snack Company, Wadsworth
Using locally grown corn and ingredients such as homemade caramel and toffee, American Classic Snack Company has produced handcrafted, small-batch popcorn snacks for more than 30 years. While Buckeye Blitz is a year-round favorite generously coated with peanut butter and chocolate, the company’s palate-pleasing treats also include Bear Claw with Cashews, Beer Cheese + Bourbon, Caramel Apple, and Pumpkin Pie Crunch.
Plump hens and toms are living on borrowed time these days at Bowman and Landes Turkeys near New Carlisle in Miami County.
Baby turkeys, known as poults, arrive at the farm the day they hatch, each weighing one-fourth to one-third of a pound. The poults initially spend time in climate-controlled barns but quickly move, at 6 to 8 weeks of age, to outdoor ranges equipped with feeders, water, and shade shelters. Fencing keeps them in and predators out.
In the middle of one night this past July, Pioneer Electric Cooperative experienced an outage affecting 1,041 members.
Leading the way
Electric cooperatives are not strangers to overcoming challenges. Co-ops were born because bringing power to rural America was (and remains) a difficult task that for-profit utilities wanted no part of.
That explains why, from their beginnings, electric cooperatives have been at the forefront of developing, adopting, and using cutting-edge technology — not because it’s fun and fancy, but because it’s a necessity.
