The weather has been warm the past couple of days, but there is still that distinct crispness in the air that assures us – autumn is here. I adore this season, and it always makes me want to make soups, stews, and baked goods. Speaking of which, I made some beef barley soup yesterday, using bones from the 1/4 cow we bought a couple of months back – I’ll be having some of that shortly for lunch! I’m also starting to think about how the holidays always sneak up so quickly, before we even know it, it will be Thanksgiving already!
That’s gotten me to thinking about an idea we’ve tossed around a few times – adding a heritage turkey breed to our repertoire here on the farm. At the very least, I want to raise some for our own table, but I’m curious if others would be interested having us raise one (or more) for them as well; these would be raised to be available next autumn.
Free-range heritage breed turkey has a richer taste than that of homogeneous birds that are raised in an industrial farming complex. Those poor birds have been bred to grow as fast as possible, and as a result, cannot even support their own weight toward the end. We’d be raising our heritage breed birds in the same free-range manner that our laying chickens currently enjoy, without growth hormones, drugs, or animal by-products in their feed – adhering to our usual “beyond organic” vision.
Look at that turkey dinner – doesn’t it look luscious? A dear family friend who we had the pleasure of visiting with recently recollected how turkey used to taste different when he was a child. The smell of it cooking would drive everyone in the home to drooling in anticipation of its arrival on the table. Supermarket turkeys that have been produced in mass operations just don’t have the same effect on him.
The photo above is from a website selling heritage breed turkeys by mail-order, and undoubtedly, due to the special shipping needs, it is quite expensive. ($129.99 for for an 8-11 lb bird, and $179.99 for a 12-15 lb bird.) We’d be able to offer our local customers a considerably lower price. I’ve seen local farms selling birds for $2.79-2.99 a pound, with birds weighing between 15-30 lbs., and I expect that’s the sort of pricing we’d be able to offer- depending upon the demand, of course.
So, for local folks who might be interested, please let us know your thoughts! It will help us determine what the demand might be, to help shape our plans. I’m going to be putting up a little poll on this, in case you would rather not comment about it, but want to let us know.
<—– Check out the poll in the left sidebar.
Now, back to that beef barley soup I mentioned before…I think it’s time to warm some up!
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