I know you can't believe it but Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. Like we said earlier we start thinking about Thanksgiving in February. We raise two types of turkeys, excluding our children, a heritage variety and a broad breasted. The heritage is a lot smaller than the broad breasted breed. They take 32 week to reach harvesting size, as you can tell it is a long time and a lot of work for one meal. That is one reason the bird is so expensive. We've feed this turkey for 32 weeks, not to mention daily opening and closing their houses, dealt with potential health issues and environmental concerns. We are sorry to break the news to you, but turkeys really are not the smartest of God's creatures. They will simply die because they can. Why close them up, we are free-range. Well, we have to due to previous animal attacks on our livestock, Even though the animals are in a fenced pasture and there is electric netting around them. We have still had dogs come in and kill animals. It is not a pretty site when you come into the pasture and it looks like a battlefield, but the causalities of war are dead birds strewn about.   We Excuse us while we get on our soap box. We love dogs. We have several. However, when someone else's animals come on our property, thru two fences and kill's our livestock in which we have invested not only money, but time and labor as well then we say enough. Oh well, back to turkeys, but that was one tangent we felt the need to address.

Since the heritage turkey is so small, flying is no problem for them. They love to roost on the peak of their 10 foot tall house and have to be prodded off the peak at night. This is no easy feat. To do this you have to use an eight foot long piece of PVC pipe to gently poke them until they fly off the roof. More often then not, they choose to show you who's boss and makes a kamikaze flight directly toward you. It is quite the experience to have a 15 pound turkey with a five foot wing span swooping down on your head. Once on the ground, you then have to herd them into the house. Herding turkeys is only slightly easier than herding a group of five year olds through Chuckie E. Cheese's. A lot of times there are numerous trips around the house before you can close them up at night. There are many nights you feel that you have become their nightly entertainment. I promise you I have heard the turkeys place wagers on the number of times they can make the foolish farmer run around the turkey house.

Have we mentioned their one bad day, harvesting day. It begins with the unlucky soul who is the designated catcher to dawn protective clothing from head to toe. He then enters the house and grabs the first turkey, other than the farmer, he can get his hands on. Remember the five foot wings span? They say those wings are so powerful that if they hit you in the face they can knock your glasses off can give you a black eye. I would not know this but I can tell it took me 15 minutes to find my glasses last time. It should be an Olympic event.

Raising heritage turkeys presents a lot of challenges and is costly, but there is something delicious and satisfying about eating a fresh bird that was allowed to grow and thrive as turkeys were naturally meant to do. They have been allowed to live as God planned for them. To see a beautiful flock of tom turkeys spread their tail feathers, hold out their wings and strut around is spectacular. To hear our customers talk about their wonderful meal and the pleasure they shared with their family is gratifying. But isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? Thanking God for how He has blessed our hard labors and sharing your bounty with family and friends. It makes it all worth it!