Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a juicy turkey on the table. But too many of us have been stung by the supermarket deep-freezed variety. Battery farmed with no taste and dry meat. 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 battery farming here. 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, which does in turn effect the price: but for that slightly higher price tag you are getting a far superior bird and one which know lived a happy life.
Only the fittest chicks are chosen to become your fresh Christmas turkey; 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.
Free range turleys are grown from slow growing strains. Again, some farmers are happy to use fast growing turkeys and while they are profitable and the end product cheaper, the flavour doesn’t even begin to compare. You get what you pay for. Slow growing strains allow the turkeys to develop at a natural rate while retaining 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 all sorts of growth additives and growth promoting chemicals. While there are lots of claims around the health implications of eating chemically promoted livestock, the most important point to remember is that it really affects the taste. Additives do have their place in farming and livestock rearing, but it should be done in moderation; to encourage development, not force it. Do you really want to eat a turkey that in life was pumped full of steroids? Fresh Christmas turkeys are fed on 70% cereal.
Of course, there is an inevitable juncture between the careful raising of the turkey and their reaching you. But it doesn’t have to be cruel. 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.
Some non-meat eaters decry animal farming as cruel, but that’s just not true. Nobody has greater care and love for animals than free range farmers and they want the birds they raise to have the very best quality of life. It’s best for the turkey and it’s best for the customer . A healthy turkey is a tasty turkey.
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Fresh Christmas turkeys have been raising fresh Christmas turkeys for three generations. For fresh Christmas turkeys raised to the highest welfare standards, get in touch with them now.
