White Turkeys
When one thinks of farm animals who graze, one immediately conjures up images of sheep, goats, cattle and horses.  At Coon Creek Family Farm, one of our most aggressive grazers is the turkey!  These amazing and inquisitive creatures love to eat grass!  They thoroughly enjoy being raised in the great outdoors where they can chase grasshoppers, dust bath and most of all - eat off our certified organic green pastures. 

Many of our white turkey customers have called us after the Thanksgiving Holiday to say their Coon Creek Family Farm turkey was the best bird they have ever eaten!  Make them part of your family tradition!  Order one (or more!) today!

We highly recommend you brine our turkeys.  Information on this process can be found here:  How to Brine a Turkey

We use a clean cooler to hold our turkey during the brining process.  We place this in the garage overnight the night before Thanksgiving.  Here our turkey is in the salt brine (using Kosher or Sea Salt - NOT iodized salt) with some added maple syrup, garlic and onions.  The flavor is superb and the meat moist!

More info on Holiday Turkeys - Planning/Thawing Etc:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/manitowoc/flp/documents/112104.pdf

Why Heritage Breeds?
"Heritage turkeys" are those rare breeds with interesting names such as Narragansett, Bourbon Red and Royal Palm.  These stately turkeys once graced the barnyards of many of America's small family farms.  Unfortunately, many of these turkeys became endangered as the industrial model or turkey production replaced the idea of growing food locally via the family farm.

We acquired our initial small flock of Royal Palm turkeys from a local farmer who was retiring from raising turkeys.  According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, there are fewer than 1000 breeding pairs remaining. Over the years, we have raised a number of different heritage breeds including Narragansetts, Blue Slates, Royal Palms, and Bourbon Reds.

We do need to charge significantly more for these birds.  The reasons for this include higher costs of the pullets (baby turkeys) and feeding and caring form them over a much longer period of time.  We hope you agree that the taste, price and the preservations efforts are worth it!

Cooking Heritage Turkeys
http://www.reeseturkeys.com/recipes.htm
http://www.williamrubel.com/heritageturkeys/roasting-heritage-turkeys/
http://www.localharvest.org/features/heritage-turkey-recipes.jsp

	This is the day our first baby turkeys arrived for the 2002 season.  The boys and I picked them up at the post office and brought them home.
	The white turkey poults are placed in a brooder with a heat lamp.  The temperature in the brooder starts out at 95-100  degrees.
	Here you can see the assortment of Heritage turkeys we received in the spring.  The light colored turkeys are our Blue Slates.  The varigated ones are the Narragansetts.
	As the turkeys outgrew the brooder, our challenge was to take an old building we got from a neighbor and transform it into a turkey shelter. The inside of the turkeys new home is complete with clean straw, water, feed and plenty of roosting space.
	The turkeys love their new home and are all snuggled in for the night.
	Narragansett turkeys were named for Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island where they were developed.  These turkeys have traditionally been  known for being calm, having good maternal abilities and excellent meat quality.  We plan to select as breeding stock at least 3 hens and one tom from our current flock.
	This Narragansett baby arrived the morning of July 25th.  He and his siblings were flown in via the post office from New Mexico!  These birds have way more frequent flyer miles than we do! This little one will grow to look like the turkey pictured above.
	The "Blue Slate" pullets have a beautiful face.

Updated October 29, 2007