Heritage Turkey, the Centerpiece of our Farm

With our incubator full and the brooders coming to life, it leaves me wondering if most people understand the importance of preserving the Heritage turkey. It may seem unimportant; we have plenty of “modern” turkeys to fill our freezers so why fuss with something from the past? Why not focus on the future? The answer-Diversity of genetics and we are losing them fast.

Bourbon Red Poult

The early breeds and their wild counterparts roamed North America for centuries, were worshiped by the Maya tribe, provided jewelry and headgear for the Native Americans and was the legendary centerpiece for the first Thanksgiving. Throughout history they have had a close relationship with the human story and that continues today however we have tweaked their story.

As the population has increased, we have demanded more from the turkey. We want faster, bigger, and cheaper, with the perfect skin color for the table. This has pushed the genetics aways from birds that can forage, live naturally, and have some flair. Most of our modern birds are terminal, they grow so fast that their skeletal system cannot sustain the weight and their immune system is not as hardy as many of the heritage varieties. Having our heritage birds ensures diversity of genetics, something to fall back on.

If we want to talk about our selfish motive to raising these birds, it was taste. We currently operate a small turkey farm but until we began raising Heritage our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of Ham. We just didn’t like the taste of the modern birds, so we sought out to solve our sad Thanksgiving dinner dilemma. Once we had Heritage in the field and on the table, we were sold! The taste and texture are nothing like the “Butterball” type turkeys.

This is the reason we proudly raise Narragansett and Bourbon Reds. We have the pleasure of looking after a turn of the century farm, complete with the majestic bank barn and the contrary farmhouse, so it is only fitting that our turkeys are the same types of birds that roamed this farm when it was built and the only type this family eats.

So, every time a new poult hatches, a young tom struts, and the flock gobbles in unison it is a win for everyone, and makes us smile to know that even though the heritage turkey population has continuously declined through the years, we are doing our part to produce the future and the past Thanksgiving centerpieces.