Please note: Cancellation fee is $50.

Pasture-Raised + Why It Matters

We raise all our turkeys on fresh pasture, and with no chemicals, antibiotics, or GMO feeds. We pride ourselves in regularly moving our turkeys into fresh pasture. This is the game-changing distinction between our birds and industrial organic grocery store birds. And it makes a world of difference, as the Turkeys get up to 40% of their nutrients off the pasture. Happier, healthier birds. Check out the video below to find out more about why we, and other farmers, are going back to raising birds on fresh pasture daily.

FARMING PRACTICES (NOT FREEZING) DETERMINE QUALITY & TASTE MOST

No surprise here, but we think the farming practices are by far the most determinative of quality and taste. And of course, we are really proud of how our turkeys are constantly on fresh pasture, receive non-GMO feed, no antibiotics, no chemicals, and are treated humanely from start to finish!

OUR BIRDS ARE FROZEN 2 MONTHS INSTEAD OF THE 6 MONTH NORM

We slaughter and process our turkeys in September, and they are immediately frozen that day. Industrial turkey growers are raising Thanksgiving turkeys 10 months of the year which means that the "Fresh" store turkeys are often up to 6 months old.

"FRESH" BIRDS IN THE STORE HAVE LIKELY BEEN FROZEN & THAWED

Unfortunately, the bird that you see in the grocery store that is labeled "Fresh" or "Never Frozen" actually was almost certainly frozen. What?! Yes, it is very misleading. The USDA allows the industry to keep turkeys at 26 degrees Fahrenheit for months, and then defrost to the 40 degrees Fahrenheit you see at the grocery store with the label "Fresh" or "Never Frozen."  Those same pre-thawed birds could also be 6 months old. Which all leaves us the fun Yogi-Berra-like thing to say: "Our frozen turkeys are fresher than their fresh turkeys!"

WHY WE NO LONGER SELL FRESH TURKEYS

Way back in the day we used to raise our turkeys to sell fresh, but we learned some things along the way. So here is why we no longer do that...How turkeys grow is quite variable, so trying to time their growth to be the sizes that customers want right before Thanksgiving is very tricky and often doesn't work out great. This means customers are counting on a certain size turkey and then at the last minute they find out they are getting a much smaller or larger bird than they wanted.

Turkeys like ours that are actually raised outdoors on pasture are a lot happier to be raised in the nicer weather of late spring to early fall. I remember some miserable turkeys in cold November rains. It can be tough on the birds. It can also be tough on us farmers to be processing processing turkeys in late November. There have been some really cold days, where we were even battling frozen water lines. Eek!

And finally, we just haven't seen a noticeable reduction in the quality of our frozen turkeys. They are one of the tastiest things we raise, and we sell to some of the best chefs in the area who are very happy with them.