It was the fall of 2019, and I was in my parents’ new living room, discussing Thanksgiving plans after a massive cross-country move that left half of my family back in Texas. We didn’t even know who would be where on the big weekend; it was looking like it would be just me and my parents. So we started debating how to cut down on our usually massive menu — and whether it was even worth making our traditional pot of post-Thanksgiving gumbo for so few people. But we missed home and the Texas-style barbecue we’d left behind. Smoked turkey, we mused, would make a much better gumbo. We no longer had a smoker, but we already knew where to turn. For years, a family friend had been ordering their bird from Greenberg Smoked Turkey, in Tyler, Texas. We preordered the turkey that same day. Six years later, I’m still ordering a Greenberg Smoked Turkey as my Thanksgiving centerpiece, and I’m still making it into gumbo.And, really, I’m using other celebrations as an excuse to order it, too. Greenberg ships its turkeys year-round (it smokes a whopping 2,500 turkeys daily), and they’re available in a range of sizes. So there’s no need to relegate succulent, smoky, herby meat to just one day out of the year.