President Biden is scheduled to pardon two turkeys raised in Minnesota today in a longstanding White House ceremony. 

The National Turkey Federation unveiled the turkeys on Sunday in a ceremony in the ballroom of the Willard Hotel. 

This year’s turkeys are named Peach and Blossom, Grant Zimmerman, the 9-year old son of National Turkey Federation Chairman John Zimmerman, told the assembled crowd of farmers, lobbyists and diplomats. 

The John and Kara Zimmerman family farms near Northfield, Minn., where they raise turkeys, corn and soybeans. 

Zimmerman explained that the two tom turkeys had been removed from the flock and exposed to people, noise and music before their trip to Washington. Peach and Blossom are 17 weeks old.

The turkeys arrived in Washington by van and after the ceremony they will be driven to Farmamerica, Minnesota’s agricultural interpretive center near Waseca, Minn. 

The National Turkey Federation required attendees, including reporters, to register for the event, but that did not stop the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals from parking a truck with photos of turkeys in cages on the sides directly across from the hotel, featuring the noise of gobbling and recipes for alternative Thanksgiving meals. PETA considers turkey “torture on the holiday table.”

“A lame-duck president will ‘pardon’ a turkey Monday,” NPR said in a report on the history of the turkey pardoning tradition. Time published an interview with  Zimmerman about the “luxurious” lives of the turkeys. 

While the Zimmermans raise their turkeys in barns, wild turkeys are thriving in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. 

In Bowling Green, Ohio, wild turkeys are becoming aggressive, the BG Independent reported.