Turkey time is right around the corner and you know what that means...time to order your pasture-raised turkey from Walpole Valley Farms! Our turkeys are raised on pasture and moved every few days to a new plot. As the turkeys move from place to place, they gobble up (no pun intended) bugs, worms, grubs and copious amounts of grass. Our turkeys eat a locally raised GMO-free grain as well as what they find on their own, but they do prefer the bugs and grass and our pastures benefit from the manure that they spread as we move them about on the farm.
From now until Thanksgiving, the turkeys are fattening up on a wonderful, natural diet. They have another month until our October turkey harvest. Many people ask us why we slaughter our turkeys in October if Thanksgiving is in November. The answer is a simple one for us, we want the turkeys to be as healthy as can be and we don't want to finish them on grain alone. The October weather can be unpredictable and many times in November we have already had a few snowfalls. Point being, there isn't anything for these birds to eat from the pasture from late October into November. We slaughter our turkeys in October when they have reached a good weight and freeze them the day of the harvest to preserve the freshness and flavor. A turkey that has been eating grain and grain alone will taste much different and be quite a bit fattier than a bird eating mostly from the pasture.
Our phone typically rings off the hook during the week before Thanksgiving with people on the other end of the line looking to purchase a pasture-raised turkey for their family meal. At that point in our season all of our turkeys are sold out. Due to the specialty product that it is, we raise only a small number of turkeys. So if you haven't ever had a locally raised, pastured turkey, now's the time to make the order. Stop on in at the farm store during our regular hours or give us a call to reserve yours today!
Caitlin
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