Turkeys processed for Thanksgiving today

Today we scrambled a bit and successfully processed three tom turkeys for our own Thanksgiving. Our breeding flock has 11 hens and 13 toms, so we decided to have fresh turkey for Thanksgiving.

The equipment we use belongs to the Southern Oregon Poultry group, which had a grand idea. The group purchased the scalder, plucker, stainless table and kill cones. All of this is placed on a small trailer. Then any small farm that wants to can join the group for a small membership fee, and "borrow" the equipment when needed for processing. This certainly makes it easy to raise poultry since now we have access to commercial equipment without investing the high cost of equipment. the plucker is a little small for large turkeys but we manage by doing only one at a time and watching closely.

Today we were under threat of a winter storm watch, and we couldn't pick up the equipment until lunch, so the afternoon was quite a scramble.  It worked out though, and by sundown we had 3 nice size turkeys in the fridge ageing.  Monday morning we hope to process some chickens.

One of the turkeys was nicely matured, with a good fat layer. The other two were a bit smaller and minimal fat. That seems to indicate that by next month the extra toms can be processed and will be perfect age. We really prefer allowing then to gain a good layer of fat because it makes all the difference in flavor and moistness in the meat. Unlike factory turkeys, these are allowed to live at least 5 to 6 months, sometimes as much as 9 months. factory turkeys are normally only 2-3 months old.  It takes at least 5 to 6 months to develop proper fat. This way our turkeys are naturally moist, without needing soaking in some chemical solution before selling.

Another good point is that the fat on our birds is actually healthier fat than factory birds, mostly due to the diet. Our turkeys are pasture raised, living mostly off their own foraging of grass and bugs.  This builds the type of fat that is high in positive elements, and low in negative.  Its actually a good thing that factory produced turkeys do not have much fat, because their diet is so atrocious that any fat developed would be unhealthy to consume.

So.. this Thanksgiving our family will have fresh farm raised turkey on the table. We plan on smoking one and baking the other with stuffing. Next year we will have the same turkeys for sale, hopefully more matured than this flock is right now. Raising our own eggs allows us to determine the optimum processing date based on age, and ensures that the genetics are similar from year to year.

If you'd like to try fresh farm raised turkey for your important family days, let us know. We will be starting a reservation list for next year.