Peach and Blossom are the two lucky Minnesota turkeys who escaped the fate of a chicken this year by ending up on someone’s Thanksgiving table when they were pardoned by President Biden at the White House on Monday.

“This event marks the official start of the holiday season here in Washington,” Biden told a crowd of 2,500 people gathered on the South Lawn. “It is also the last time I speak here this season as your president and offer thanks. So let me say to you, it has been the honor of my life. I am forever grateful.”

“May we use this moment to take time from our busy lives and focus on what matters most: our families,” Biden said. ‘My father always had an expression: family is the beginning, the middle and the end, our friends and our neighbors. The fact that we are blessed to live in America, the greatest country on earth – and that is no exaggeration. No matter what happens, in America we never give up. We keep going, we keep the faith.”

These birds were plucked for the presidential flock and underwent rigorous training to ride the gravy train to the White House for the honor, said John Zimmerman, president of the National Turkey Federation.

Zimmerman’s 9-year-old son Grant and other young trainers made sure the spotlight wouldn’t ruffle their feathers.

“Preparing these presidential birds took a lot of special care,” Zimmerman said Sunday during a news conference introducing the two turkeys. “We got them used to the lights and camera and even introduced them to a wide variety of music, from polka to classic rock.”

Peach and Blossom, who weighed 41 and 40 pounds respectively, hatched in July. They traveled to Washington this week and, as is tradition, were treated to a suite at the Willard InterContinental hotel before their big day on Monday.

Biden said the birds were named after Delaware’s state flower: the peach blossom.

The president joked that Peach lived by the motto “keep calm and move on.” Blossom’s mantra, he said, was “no foul play, just fun Minnesota.”

Biden was sometimes interrupted by jabbering and responded by saying someone made a last-minute plea.

After the pardon, the two turkeys returned to Waseca, Minnesota, to live out the rest of their feathered lives as “agricultural ambassadors” at Farmamerica, an agricultural interpretation center.

Previous poultry pardoned under Biden include Liberty and Bell in 2023, Chocolate and Chip in 2022 and Peanut Butter and Jelly in 2021.

“And today Peach and Blossom will join the free birds of the United States of America,” Biden said.

The White House turkey pardon is an annual tradition that is usually filled with a plethora of lame jokes.

The history of the turkey pardon

The origins of presidential turkey pardons are a bit vague. Unofficially, reports point all the way back to Abraham Lincoln, who saved a bird from its demise at the urging of his son Tad. However, that story may be more folklore than fact.

The real beginning of what has developed into the current tradition has its roots in politics and dates back to the presidency of Harry Truman in 1947.

Truman ruffled feathers by starting “poultry-free Thursdays” in the aftermath of World War II to preserve various foods, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day all fell on Thursdays.

After the White House was flooded with live birds sent as part of a “Hens for Harry” counterinitiative, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board presented Truman with a bird as a peace offering — although the turkey was not. saved from a feast.

President John F. Kennedy started the trend of publicly saving a turkey that was given to the White House in November 1963, just days before his assassination. In subsequent years, the event became more sporadic, with even some first ladies like Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter stepping in to host the guests of honor on behalf of their husbands.

The tradition of public sparing returned in earnest during the Reagan administration, but the official tradition of pardoning poultry in the White House began in 1989, when then-President George HW Bush offered the first official presidential pardon. In the more than thirty years since, at least one lucky person has gotten a few extra sips every year.