Thank you for your purchase of a free-range heritage turkey for your holiday table!
We are changing it up this year! Rather than take all of our turkeys at once to an off-site processor, we will be processing turkeys here on the farm as they reach their target size. We plan to process most turkeys between early October and early November; turkeys processed at this time will be frozen (unless otherwise requested) and available for pickup before the holidays. Heritage turkey, processed and picked up before November 15th, will cost $8.50/lb (which is dang cheap for a pastured heritage turkey!).
But what if I want a fresh bird? What if I don't want a frozen turkey in my freezer for a month? We got you covered -- for an extra fee, you can leave your frozen bird in our freezer to pick up during the week before Thanksgiving if you don't have space to store it at home. For a double extra fee, you can have your turkey processed within one week of Thanksgiving! (What we are trying to avoid is having to process 20 or 30 turkeys all at once, especially if there's bad cold snap like last year.) Since bigger turkeys take up more storage space, and take more effort to process, fees for storage and processing before Thanksgiving are as follows
- Frozen turkey, picked up before November 16th: $8.50/lb
- Frozen turkey, picked up November 16th or later: $9.00/lb
- Fresh turkey, processed between November 16th and 19th, picked up fresh by November 22nd: $9.50/lb
We have a Bourbon Reds, Narragansetts, and Narragansett x Bronze turkeys. Most will be 8-14 lbs; plan on 1.5-2 lbs of turkey per person. We have some turkeys that are a little older (hatched in April) so there is a better chance of getting a larger turkey if that's your jam. There is a $50 deposit per turkey, so you will only be paying the remainder of the cost when you pick up. If you haven't paid your deposit, please do so ASAP at the following link for credit card, or in person for cash or check:
Due to our limited quantities, we can't guarantee sizes -- but we will do our best to match your order with our supply. Turkeys will be matched to purchasers in order of receipt of your $50 deposit, so if it's important to you to get a certain size (usually larger ones sell out quicker), then reserve ASAP.
Questions and Answers:
- How big will the turkeys be? We expect most to be between 8 and 14 lbs; you can choose your preferred size in the form below.
- What does the turkey include? It will be the turkey, plus neck and giblets as the default. We can also return feet if you like. Everything just gets put in the bag and weighed, so they do add to total cost. Let me know in the form if you do/don't want the funny bits back.
- What about Christmas turkeys? It would be the same fee structure as above, but in the days before December 25th instead of November 23rd. Let me know in the comments (last question in form below) if you want to reserve for Christmas.
- What if I want a turkey before Thanksgiving? Yeah sure, we can process your turkey anytime.
- If I sign up for frozen, is there a chance I would get unfrozen? Yes, but there would not be an additional fee in that case. Unless you have a different deadline than Thanksgiving, your exact processing date would depend on the size of the turkey you want (if you want as big as possible, they will need more time to grow and would be processed later). That being said, the older the turkeys get, the more curious they get about things like the busy road our front or the back field where a coyote might be looking for a meal, so we are motivated to process early!
- If I sign up for fresh, is there a chance I would end up with a frozen turkey? Possibly -- it would depend mainly on the weather. In 2022 there was extremely cold weather the week before Thanksgiving, and in such conditions we can't process due to water lines freezing up. If it looks like that is going to happen again, we will contact you and figure out what to do.
- Will you be able to deliver turkeys to Ypsi Farmer's Market like in 2022? Not sure yet -- they are in the process of hiring a new market manager and I would have to coordinate with them, so I am waiting to ask. Growing Hope is generally pretty cool and flexible, so I would guess yes.
- Can I have my turkey cut up into pieces? Spatchcocked? Legs cut off so it's ready to follow the recipe on your website? Yeah, sure. Probably an extra fee for fully cut up or spatchcocked, depending on how hard it is, but we do have the tools for all that. We can take the legs off the crown for no fee.
