freerangeturky's Journal

A Happy Turkey Is a Tasty Turkey
Christmas is a big event and one that deserves the best, fresh Christmas turkey. Too often, though, we make do with low quality birds; stringy flesh that has no taste. Free range turkeys, on the other hand, taste just as a fresh Christmas turkey should taste and make a fitting centrepiece for any Christmas dinner.

Free range turkeys only come from the best quality chicks. There’s no cramming as many birds into a dark and dingy barn as possible here. Your fresh Christmas turkeys will have been raised in an environment that is both spacious and disease free. As soon as they are old enough, the turkeys are given access to an outside area in which they can roam freely. This means the farmers are able to raise fewer birds per year, but you are getting a far superior bird and one which know lived a happy life.

Only the fittest chicks are chosen; some battery farmers are happy to use any old mangy chick, but they only grow up to become mangy turkeys. Free range turkey farmers want their product to be better.

The quality of the turkey is also ensured by only using slow growing strains. Though fast growing turkeys are a cheaper and quicker product to produce, you pay for that in the loss of taste. You get what you pay for. Slow growing strains allow the turkeys to develop at a natural rate and retain their flavour. Typically, free range turkeys will have a 22 week growing period; a full month and a half longer than industrially farmed, fast growing birds.

Your cheap, supermarket turkey is likely to have been fed on an array of growth additives and growth promoting chemicals. While there are various claims around the health implications of eating chemically promoted livestock, the key point to bear in mind is that it really affects the flavour. Additives have their place in farming and livestock rearing, but it should be done in moderation; to encourage growth, not force it. Do you really want to eat a turkey that in life was pumped full of steroids? The rations fed to the best, fresh Christmas turkeys contain a minimum of 70% cereal containing no such growth promoters and additives.

Of course,these birds are still being raised for slaughter. When the time comes, the farmers hand pluck the turkeys on the farms on which they were raised, causing minimal stress to the bird.

Environmental Health and the Traditional Farmfresh Turkey Association regularly inspect farms to ensure they meet the high standards expected of free ranging farming. Their accreditation means you can be sure the fresh Christmas turkey you are buying was raised in the very best conditions.

No one has greater care and love for animals than free range farmers and they want the turkeys they rear to have the highest quality of life. It’s best for the turkey and it’s best for the customer as well. A healthy turkey is a tasty turkey.

Resource

Morton’s Traditional Taste have been raising fresh Christmas turkeys for three generations. Their farming methods are approved by Environmental Health and the TFTA. fresh Christmas turkeys