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Turkey Talk: Heritage, free-range and organic
Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, and if you’d like to serve a free-range, organic or even heritage turkey, here are some of the options in Austin.
Greenling Organic Delivery is selling locally raised turkeys from Richardson Farm and others from Prairie Organic, which is based in Wisconsin. Wheatsville Co-op is also selling Prairie Organic turkeys; Newflower Farmers’ Market and Sun Harvest have free-range turkeys available. Inquire at the meat department for availability.
Alexander Family Farm is another source for locally raised turkeys.
Sprouts Farmers Market, the newest addition to the quickly expanding natural grocers scene, and Natural Grocer, the Colorado-based chain, both have online ordering available for free-range turkeys. Through Nov. 23, you can order a free-range turkey from the Arizona-based Sprouts and specify with location you’d like to pick it up at. Natural Grocers is taking orders online for free-range, free-range organic and heritage varieties on its Web site.
Heritage or heirloom turkeys cost four to five dollars more than most other kinds of turkeys, but the meat is markedly darker and more gamey than regular turkeys (so don’t think you can pull a fast one on your Thanksgiving guests who are used to Butterball birds.)
If you do get a heritage turkey, check out these cooking tips from Saveur magazine. Because they aren’t raised to have breasts proportionally larger than they should be, the meat can dry out easily. (Saveur also ran this great profile of a passionate farmer in Kansas, above, who is doing his best to save heritage breeds.)
(Be careful: Some heritage and local birds can cost upwards of $6-7 dollars a pound, so keep an eye on the size of bird you order, otherwise you might end up with a $140 turkey.)
Kosher turkeys have been pre-brined, but brining is a good idea if your turkeys usually dry out. (Read more about the brining debate, plus a guide on how long to roast and whether you should trust the plastic “popper” in this column from last year’s Thanksgiving.)
Photo by Jim Turner for Saveur.
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By jennifer austineatssandwiches.wordpress.com
November 11, 2009 11:15 PM | Link to this
thank you so much for posting this ! the more people buying heritage turkeys this thanksgiving the better !
By Jennifer Angell
November 5, 2010 2:39 PM | Link to this
Thank you! I was researching where to get our family turkey this year and your article helped me find one. I can’t tell you how much time you saved me!
By kunde
May 9, 2011 1:46 PM | Link to this
Lots of excellent reading here, thank you! I was browsing on yahoo when I uncovered your post, I’m going to add your feed to Google Reader, I look forward to more from you.