Heritage Turkey Sales
SALES INFO for 2010 (updated 6/16/10)
The 2010 season continues to see difficult economic times. Due to the very minimal sales of turkeys in 2009, we have greatly limited the amount of breeding among our turkeys compared to other years. We as usual recommend contacting us as early as possible as this will be another first-come, first-served year.
Our 2010 prices will be unchanged from last year, $7 per pound, dressed weight. If you want giblets with your bird, you MUST tell us at the time of ordering, we otherwise do not save them as they involve extra processing work and many people do not use them.
There is a $10 fee for killing and dressing the bird, which we do under very exacting standards of humaneness and cleanliness. We spend most of an hour preparing each bird. These prices do not include shipping/delivery. Delivery to Sacramento, SF, or East Bay Area is $15. We can ship to any area in the US using FedEx Standard overnight, but we will require full payment in advance for the bird and estimated shipping charges. Local delivery to the Davis, Woodland, or Colusa area is at no charge.
The birds can also be picked up at our farm for no delivery charge. The birds may be purchased live, in which case the prices are those for our live bird sales. Our heritage turkeys usually dress out at 6-15 pounds–please read the information below to learn more about how these differ from “grocery store” birds. A NON-REFUNDABLE $20 deposit will be required to reserve each bird for holiday orders. Your order will be reserved upon receipt of your deposit. Please fill out our Turkey Reservation Form and feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Delivery schedule for 2010: TBA.
Live costs are: $8/chick plus $1/week up to adulthood, at which the cost is by live weight, $4.50/lb. (Birds sold for dining are adults).
ABOUT OUR BIRDS
We raise two breeds of heritage turkey–Narragansett, and Beltsville Small White. We no longer raise Royal Palms….after much thought our stock was sold to another conservation breeder so we could better focus on the other two breeds. The birds are for sale to the public. Our primary goal is the sale of live birds to others who wish to conserve these breeds. Secondly, we aim to offer birds for dining that are of the highest quality. What do we mean by “highest quality”? Well, lots of other turkey farmers tout their birds as “naturally raised, free range”. What this means, in plain English, is that the birds are not kept in an enclosed, crowded turkey house. They are raised in large numbers, with access to the outdoors. Each bird, instead of having almost no room to move about, has at least the amount of room of the average coat closet. Since a pen with that many turkeys cannot possibly support any vegetative growth, the birds must be entirely fed a grain/mix diet. Certainly, these conditions are an improvement over the experience of commercially managed turkeys, and their meat retains much of the sought-after flavor.
Our birds, by comparison, live the avian version of those “Happy Cows” in the TV commercials. All of our breeding birds are our pets and will never be eaten; only their progeny are sold. We select carefully each year for desirable characteristics. We keep our numbers small, and keep as much greenery alive as possible in our pens. Our pens are large and creative, and include mature almond trees for shade and roosting in at night, which they prefer. They have a variety of smaller shelters from the elements. They come and go as they wish, flying in and out of their pens as the mood suits them. They are segregated by breed only at mating time. They are supplied with high quality commercial feed and are fed vast quantities of whatever produce is unfit for our CSA customers. They drink fresh running water off of our orchard irrigation system. They fly, they take dirt baths, they explore, they run, they cruise around looking for fallen almonds to eat, they live their lives doing what turkeys do. We will never breed more birds than our property can support in this manner, period. When the time comes for our birds to be used for eating, their lives are ended in a manner that is virtually painless and simply allows them to drift into unconsciousness. We do not transport them, or stress them in any way, prior to “the end.” This is a far cry from the experience of a commercial slaughterhouse. We have education in food safety protocol, and process each bird using high standards of sanitation. Purchasing a bird from our farm, and from our partners at Wind Dancer Ranch, means making a choice to consume meat which is produced as ethically and humanely as it is possible to do. Also, since diet and exercise contribute to the complexity and flavor of the finished meat, we feel that our birds offer absolutely superior flavor and texture.
Our birds reproduce according to the natural cycle of the year, which means egg-laying and brooding during the spring and summer months only. A heritage bird requires 6-8 months or longer to attain its adult body weight; unlike the Broad Breasted White (think Butterball) birds which are bred to convert protein into breast meat at an astounding rate. This long growth period also contributes to the incredible flavor. Because of this circumstance, we have birds available to eat from around November until they are sold out for the year.
We would like our potential customers to realize also that heritage turkeys look and cook very differently than birds from the grocery store. Some articles claim that “you cook ‘em just like any other turkey”, to which we say………..NO!! The appearance of the dressed bird is very small, compared to what one is used to seeing. When we prepared our first bird, we thought “that’s it?!”, but experience taught us a lot. First, these birds are cooked to a lower temperature, 140-150 in the thigh (not the bone!). Do not roast them to the recommended temperature for a commercial turkey–you will get SHOE LEATHER to eat. The distribution of light and dark meat is even, with even the light meat being very flavorful. The breast meat is moist, and has a texture closer to that of a fine pork loin. The wings and thighs, because the birds actually use them in life, are tougher. We prefer to have our roast turkey meal with breast meat and other tender areas, and then use all the bones, wings, and thighs for an uncommonly savory soup in the following days.
COOKING YOUR BIRD: Many have asked for cooking instructions. If anyone wants to thoroughly research the topic, Google the words “Cooking Heritage Turkey”. For a nuts-and-bolts article (and the one we use when we cook!) here’s the link:http://www.localharvest.org/features/cooking-turkeys.jsp
BUYING A LIVE BIRD FOR MEAT: We can sell you a bird if you prefer to “do the work yourself”. The prices as are mentioned above. We encourage everyone to realize that food safety is important, and we strongly discourage this idea if you are inexperienced at processing animals, as it is possible to contaminate your meat with harmful bacteria if dressing is done incorrectly. If you choose this option, you will need to make prior arrangements to accept a bird with your own large, secure animal carrier, and be prepared to care for and house it properly until you process it. If we feel that anyone inquiring will not be able to do this, and does not have the needed knowledge and skills, we reserve the right to decline to sell the bird.