Raising Turkeys: the Possibilities

Raising Turkeys: the Possibilities

 Five Ideas for What to Do With All That Turkey Meat.

We usually start off our year with six turkey chicks.  On average, we’ve lost one turkey per year.  It is important not to let your turkeys grow too large or they risk death by heart attack. We learned that our first year raising turkeys. This year we harvested all six turkeys.  

1: Smoke And Slice the Turkey Breast

This is a delicious and cost savings way to use your turkey.  This cold cut turkey in the deli is $9/pound at least.  By packaging these in small portions and freezing, you will be able to enjoy it all year round.

2: Turkey Pot Pie

Find yourself a delicious recipe and cook up some turkey pot pies.  We have a large family and so we use full size aluminum casserole pans to freeze for ready made meals later in the year.  The nice thing is you could make these to whatever size your family needs. This is a great use of the extra turkey bones with meat that are harder to freeze in nice sized portions.  We make these the day the turkeys come back as meat.  Many times there is extra turkey broth from this project and that also could be frozen or even canned for later meals.

3: Frying a Turkey 

This is the first year we have tried this and it was fantastic for a whole family get together.  It was fried in peanut oil for one hour and then cooled here for a good 20 minutes prior to cutting and serving.

4: The Classic Thanksgiving Turkey 

We have enjoyed home grown thanksgiving turkey a few years now.  It feels wholesome and connects this family tradition to our history laden holiday in a deeper way.  Having this with our canned vegetables is very satisfying.

5: Selling or Bartering With Other Farmers

We are blessed to have a maple syrup farmer to trade a turkey for their delicious maple syrup.  This is a relationship that has been built and have continued for the same number of years that we have raised turkeys.  We would love to continue to network with other farmers to barter for other desired items.