Peach and Blossom are the two lucky Minnesota turkeys who avoided the fate of ending up on someone’s Thanksgiving table this year 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 that I will speak here as your president this season and express my thanks and appreciation. Let me tell you, it was the honor of my life. I am forever grateful to you.”

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

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

Zimmerman’s 9-year-old son Grant and other young coaches made sure they stayed in the spotlight.

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

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

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

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

Biden was interrupted at times by verbal exchanges and responded that one of them was making a “last-minute plea.”

After the pardon, the two turkeys went back to Waseca, Minnesota, to spend the rest of their feathered lives as “agricultural ambassadors” at Farmamerica, an agricultural information 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 “packaged” with a plethora of corny jokes.

The History of the Turkey Pardon

The origins of presidential pardons are somewhat unclear. Unofficial accounts date back to Abraham Lincoln, who, at the urging of his son Tad, saved a bird from extinction. However, this story may be more folklore than fact.

The real beginning of what has become today’s tradition has its roots in politics and dates back to the presidency of Harry Truman in 1947.

Truman caused resentment when he instituted “No Poultry Thursdays” after World War II to try to preserve various foods, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s all fell on Thursdays.

After the White House was flooded with live birds as part of the “Chickens for Harry” counter-initiative, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board presented Truman with a bird as a peace offering – but the turkey was not saved from a holiday feast.

President John F. Kennedy began the trend of publicly sparing a turkey that was delivered to the White House in November 1963, just days before his assassination. In subsequent years, the event became a little more sporadic, with even some first ladies like Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter stepping in to receive the guests of honor on her husband’s behalf.

The tradition of public pardons returned in earnest during the Reagan administration, but the official White House poultry pardon tradition began in 1989, when then-President George H. W. Bush offered the first official presidential pardon. In the more than three decades since then, at least one lucky bird has gotten a few extra feeders every year.