Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Interesting Turkey Review


A cyber friend of mine in Virginia raised heritage breed turkeys this year - Midget Whites and Bourbon Reds.  It was an interview with her and the accompanying video that gave me the idea for the turkey building that I built this year.  She just posted this article from HamptonRoads.com titled "Let's put turkeys to the test".  It reviews a taste test they did between your store variety Butterball turkey, a fresh farmers market turkey (breed?), and 2 of the birds from my friend (one of each breed).  The review was very interesting to read and makes me think on the future.

My Broadbrested Whites this year - so far hens are averaging 12 pounds dressed weight.
The original plan really was to raise heritage breeds this year, but with the "busy" of the spring, we just didn't get the order planned in time and thus with only 4 months to go, the commercial Broad Breasted White was it.  Having raised it differently than your normal Butterball though, I'm quite anxious to hear back from customers this year what they thought of the turkey quality.  (Hint to those customers -- PLEASE give me a review!) 

Midget Whites - heritage breed, average 13 pounds for toms, 8 pounds for hens
It also makes me start thinking on what to do next year -- stick with the BB Whites, do heritage only or maybe do a mix to give customers the option.  If you have an opinion, please let me know. 

Flock of Bourbon Red turkeys - heritage breed, up to 23 pounds for toms, 14 pounds for hens

I can tell you that a heritage type bird will take longer to mature (6 months as opposed to 4) so the price will be slightly higher, but beyond that, I would like to hear from you on what you would want. Of course no matter what, we're talking pastured turkey -- no antibiotics, plenty of room to run and eat grass and bugs and lay in the sunshine. No obligation to order at this point. Sometime in the spring I'll start taking orders and I'll probably do more than the dozen that I had this year (although I did start with 15).



Which one would you like to see on your table?

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