Farmer Roy Flanagan is seen near a turkey that soon will be carried to boiling water to loosen its feathers for plucking. [John-Henry Doucette/The Princess Anne Independent News]THE INDEPENDENT NEWS
PUNGO — Family and friends gathered on Monday, Nov. 21, at Flanagan Farms to help with the Thanksgiving harvest of turkeys raised at the Pungo farm.
There is also a harvest shortly before Christmas.
Dozens of people come to help, volunteering long days to prepare the animals for sale at the family farm.
Killing and preparing the birds is followed by a feast for the helpers, as it has been for generations. [John Doucette, editor of The Independent News, is kin to the Flanagans.]
Robert E. Lees III helps guide birds to an enclosure near the area where the birds are killed and plucked before they are dressed for sale. Lees has been helping for 26 years, part of a tradition that brings generations together. “It’s something special,” Lees said. [John-Henry Doucette/The Independent News]
