Heritage turkey, that is. Rare birds are making a comeback.
BY CLAIRE WALTER

Four years ago, when Christie Aschwanden found herself hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, she wanted a local, organically raised turkey, but “they were all accounted for. I ended up getting an organic turkey all the way from California and thought ‘This is wrong."

In 2007, Christie and her husband, Dave, decided to right that wrong by raising three turkeys “as an experiment” so they wouldn’t have to import a holiday bird again. In 2008 and again this year, their turkeys—now a flock of 50—will not only grace their own Thanksgiving table but will be sold to neighbors who also want a local bird. As a happy ancillary benefit, the Aschwandens’ birds also gobble up the grasshoppers that favor their produce gardens, orchard,
and newly planted vineyard.

The Aschwandens, who moved to Cedaredge from Boulder, have raised five breeds of heritage turkeys, which the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy defines as one showing the genetic traits of flying, natural mating, and longevity—the way turkeys used to be. When the Conservancy was established in 1997 to preserve all sorts
of threatened farm animals, to their knowledge only 1,335 heritage turkeys were kept alive for breeding purposes in the entire United States. Since then, that number has increased about tenfold, but it is still a drop in the proverbial bucket in the context of overall annual American production of more than 270 million birds. The Conservancy is currently monitoring 13 turkey breeds (see recipe section).

Although the American Poultry Association developed a Standard of Perfection back in 1874, the turkey industry’s enthusiastic adoption of mass production since the second half of the 20th century had pushed the natural breeds of the 19th century to the brink of extinction. The only turkeys most Americans know today are short-legged, big-bodied birds, known in the poultry industry as “Broad-Breasted Whites.” Such a turkey has mostly white meat, has been frozen, perhaps injected with water or canola oil to make it moist, and might sport a little pop-up thermometer embedded in its flesh. Such commercial turkeys are mere shadows of their wild ancestors.

“Our industrial food supply often sacrifices flavor, but nowhere is that more true than in the production of turkeys,” says Carol Ekarius of Cripple Creek, author of Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, who herself has raised turkeys and other farmyard birds. “Almost 99.9 percent of the turkey marketed in the United States is one breed, the Broad-BreastedWhite. It can stand up to the conditions of industrial production, and as the name implies, it puts on a lot of breast meat, but it lacks the wonderful flavor and texture that turkey was traditionally known for.”

Flavor and texture, or their absence, are the results of how turkeys are bred and raised. Mass-produced turkeys cannot fly, cannot mate naturally, are raised in confinement, and take just 16 to 18 weeks to grow to roasting-pan size. By contrast, heritage turkeys are clean-line breeds whose skeletal frames can support their bodies. They have a natural balance of white and dark meat, strong wings, and powerful legs that allow them to run around farms and fields foraging on seeds, grains, and insects, using both their muscles and their brains to find food. They take some 10 weeks longer to mature than commercially raised turkeys, the main reason industrial turkey farmers don’t care for them—and also why naturally raised heritage turkeys cost significantly more than supermarket birds.

When Jim Sorensen began raising turkeys at Shanaroba Organic Farm in Carbondale years ago, he said the “average” commercial turkey operation would keep up to 1,500 turkeys in the space he devoted to 100 or so birds. He is taking a sabbatical from turkey farming, pasturing horses for two years as the livestock version of crop rotation, but he plans to bring heritage birds back in 2010. He is considered an authority on the subject and points out commercial turkeys are given approximately 30 times more antibiotics than most humans receive in a lifetime, as well as steroids and other growth hormones—a health concern that, added to taste and texture, has driven people to heritage birds.

In the same vein, Greg Michaud of the Old Feed Store in La Porte noted the “trend to recapture traditional turkeys and get away from industrial practices that have damaged the species.” He adds that animals that cannot reproduce naturally are by definition not sustainable.

Brook Le Van, co-director of Sustainable Settings in Carbondale, started raising turkeys when Shanaroba was in turkey high gear. “I called Jim Sorensen and asked, ‘What do you feed them?’” “He told me turkeys are great insectivores and great grazers [on field grasses, seeds, and dandelions]. He told me he also fed them a little grain and
as many apples as he could get.We have apple trees, so I walked them over and they went to town on the apples that had fallen to the ground.”Without knowing on what the turkeys had been foraging, a chef who buys Sustainable Settings’ turkeys told Le Van he tasted the meat’s “apple background.” Even in the turkey world, it seems you are what you eat.

Raising Turkeys
The Old Feed Store and Murdoch’s Ranch and Home Supply with two Front Range locations (Longmont and Littleton) are sources for “poults,” which is the official name for turkey chicks. Michaud gets baby birds from the Privett Hatchery in Portales, New Mexico, which delivers within a day of shipping. “The sooner you get them on feed,
the healthier they are,” says Michaud. Murdoch’s gets its turkeys from Murray McMurray ofWebster City, Iowa. It was founded in 1917 and claims to be the world’s largest rare-breed hatchery.

Many customers like to buy their poults in March or April, so they are ready for Thanksgiving. Michaud favors June, because the conversion ratio of feed to body weight drops as the mature. “Their growth is on a curve,” he explains. “They grow fast but as they get older eat more feed, but they don’t grow any more.”

Raising turkeys is fairly straightforward. They need to be under a heat lamp for four to five weeks until they feather out, but then they can be outside to free-range by day. Predators are a major problem, but turkeys only need two or three square feet to roost at night. Experts recommend a fenced, roofed-over enclosure for night time. When they are ready to roast instead of roost, most people are squeamish slaughtering their family bird even where legal. Michaud can recommend a processor to kill, pluck, and clean turkeys.

The Ebert Family Farm in Byers typically orders what’s called “a hatchery assortment” that usually includes HollandWhite, Slate, Palm, and Bourbon Red.

To Julie Ebert, turkeys’ literal bird brains mean that the farmers have to do a lot of thinking for them. “Turkeys have a very high death rate as they are fairly simple minded.We raise chicks under heat lamps from the end of March, when we get them, until early to mid-May. They naturally smother each other, so we raise them in Plexiglas rings so they have no corners to get trapped in.

“They are pretty slow to figure out if they are too hot or too cold and how to move farther or closer to the heat lamp to adjust their body temperature. The first few weeks, when we feed them in the morning, we often find a few that didn’t make it through the night, and they seemed fine at the evening feeding.

“At about four to six weeks, when they are poult size and starting to get their next round of feathers instead of just chick fluff, and depending on the weather, we move them to the floor of our poultry barn so they have more room and can go outside in a netted area during the day. This room also has Plexiglas curves at the corners. Then at about seven to eight weeks, when the warmth of summer is here, we move them to a large paddock where they can graze but stay
locked in at night to protect them from coyotes.”

Small farmers, 4-H-ers, and people who are interested in raising more of their own food are the main customers for turkey poults, which are becoming so treasured they are usually spoken for well before harvest time. Greg Michaud keeps hoping to eat more of his own heritage birds, but his customers often beg him, “Sell us your last Bourbon
Red,” they’ll say. He’ll relent, because his customers have become friends, who also look to him for advice on preparing the birds.

“Heritage turkeys are cooked differently,” he says. “We brine them for 48 hours with wines, herbs, spices, and vinegar. That’s a cooking technique, not cheating [by charging turkey prices for water].”

Carol Ekarius is especially enthusiastic about MidgetWhites, developed at the University of Massachusetts in the 1950s and now considered by many to be a heritage bird. Smaller than most other breeds, they mature at about 12 pounds and are a good option as “backyard birds” that also are suitable for less than a full-on holiday dinner for a crowd.

“All heritage breeds really do have great flavor and texture. In taste tests carried on by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and Slow Food, the heritage turkeys knock commercial turkeys out immediately. The MidgetWhite came out of those tests as the crowdpleasing favorite, and thanks to its small size, it’s an ideal bird for
people who want to try raising their own turkeys for personal use.” That use is growing, as is an appreciation for the taste of heritage turkeys at the table.

THE OLD FEED STORE’S BRINED TURKEY