It was a bright, early September day in southeastern Kansas. A few miles outside of Lindsborg on a grassy lawn beside an antique farmhouse roamed more than a hundred beautiful turkeys.
Golden brown with rainbow-colored iridescent highlights, the turkeys had gathered in a semi-circle before Frank Reese, Jr., owner of the Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch. The birds were staring intently while chattering
freely, making the hallmark noise we humans translate as “gobble, gobble, gobble . . . ” The actual sound is less guttural, more musical. (Despite folk tales, Reese says his turkeys are intelligent and make good company.)
The scene suggested a rural town meeting in times past. The birds were curious and involved, seemingly asking the humans to explain themselves and their presence. The turkeys followed Reese as he walked across the farmyard, and some even took wing briefly in what amounted to prolonged hops across the grass.
Along the way were other turkeys, including the black-and silver-striated Narragansett, the black, the Bourbon reds with their telltale white wings and tail, and the superb American Standard bronze.
Reese, who raised his first turkey at the age of 5, has a mission, one he pursues with a passion: He is dedicated to saving and preserving turkey breeds called “heritage” because they are pure American strains.
“I love turkeys,” he said. “I’ve stopped asking myself why. I just do. I have the oldest strain of Standard bred turkeys in North America and increasingly, as I grow older, I am concerned about the future of our heritage birds.”
Until recently, there had been little for Reese and his supporters to cheer about.
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy conducted a turkey census in 1999 and found seven native American breeds were in the “critical” category. This meant fewer than 500 breeding birds and five or fewer primary breeding flocks. (The number of flocks is important because disease or predators can destroy an entire flock.)
The conservancy’s Don Bixby said the turn from bronze to white (a.k.a. “factory”) turkeys in the 1960s was abrupt. “The heritage breeds lost their market quickly and totally,” he said.
Curiously, Reese is not protesting the commercial poultry industry and its practices. He realizes that a return to artisanal farming as the main source of turkey meat is impractical. What he asks is help in saving and propagating sufficient numbers of heritage birds to remove them from the categories of “critical” as well as “watch” (fewer than 5,000 breeding birds) on the conservancy’s priority list.
“If a heritage breed turkey [one defined in terms of unique shape, size and color by the American Poultry Association’s standard of perfection] is lost or interrupted, we’ll never get it back,” he said.
Patrick Martins, director of Slow Food USA, the national arm of the international artisan-appreciation organization, concurs. He believes there are important implications for our food supply if these turkeys disappear.
“We need heritage turkeys’ genetic diversity as a safeguard,” Martins said. “If these heritage birds disappear, so do our options. Industrial turkeys cannot copulate. They could disappear in a single generation. Then the number of farms and farmers continues to go down. It’s risky. The situation is totally precarious.”
The effort to restore heritage turkeys’ numbers has brought together people concerned about diet and health, the environment and animal welfare.
And eating tasty food, for there is a hedonistic factor as well. Heritage turkeys have taste. Indeed, they taste like turkey.
Heritage birds pushed out
The big-breasted white turkeys commonly sold in supermarkets are in no danger of immediate extinction, nor are they in short supply. An estimated 270 million are grown yearly in factory environments. (By contrast, Reese has one of the largest flocks of heritage birds in the nation: At last count it numbered 2,500.)
These factory-raised turkeys are processed, frozen, packaged and sold at prices far below what producers of heritage birds can charge. They are white, short, fat and weak (their bones never develop fully in a 12-week life span, half the time required to raise heritage birds). They are incapable of procreating or flying. Chained to racks, kept awake by artificial light and overfed, these sandwich-fillings-in-waiting are reminiscent of galley slaves at their oars.
Furthermore they belong to none of the intriguing breeds mentioned previously, nor will you find slate or chocolate or buff or black Spanish or white Holland or royal palm-heritage breeds that are in danger of disappearing as well.
“It has been a long time since heritage birds were produced for eating,” Reese said. “From the 1850s into the 1950s, Americans ate turkey raised by individual farmers on individual farms. Since then they’ve mostly been used as novelty birds, kept as pets or to decorate the yard. Many of them now may weigh only 10 pounds. My Bourbon reds are 14 to 16 [pounds] and have some breast meat and fat on them. They’re made to eat.”
Reese’s cause received a big push a year ago when the U.S. arm of Slow Food launched a nationwide campaign to sell heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving. Its goal was to preserve genetic diversity.
Slow Food reported that more than 5,000 turkeys, raised on 22 family farms, were sold through 20 local chapters and 50 restaurants last year. (All these numbers are up substantially this year, Martins added.)
John Caveny, who farms in Monticello, Ill., a few miles west of Champaign, has been an enthusiastic participant in the program. He raised more than 200 Narragansett and Bourbon red turkeys this year.
Unlike Reese, Caveny is a thoroughly modern farmer whose crops include grass as well as sheep and cattle. He pointed out some problems that confront farmers who decide to raise heritage turkeys, including the long growing time compared to chickens, and the cost of feed. (While they forage during the day, turkeys still consume feed.) Since the turkeys are free-ranging, predators also are a threat.
Getting meat on the bones
“If I am asking the consumer to pay $3.50 a pound, and want him to buy more than once, the bird must have meat on its bones and reach a certain weight,” Caveny said. “That line of thought led me to the Bourbon red.
“They grow fast and are among the meatiest breeds of turkey. They’re relatives of our native turkeys, so people are preserving our heritage when they buy one. I have a lot of grass to use as forage and therefore can save money on grain. Raising these turkeys by sustainable methods without forcing nature is possible, and the birds remain a quality product when frozen. This could be done on a large or small scale. I can see raising a thousand pretty easily.”
Caveny said he was formulating a new timetable that would start the process earlier, increase free-range time, separate hens from toms after eight weeks and continue with two flocks to create 10- to 12-pound birds with superior flavor.
At Townline Farm Poultry Reserve in Linesville, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Bill Yockey operates a hatchery for a variety of heritage birds and raises them as well. This year his flock numbered about 400. Yockey, who began by raising midget whites, said the availability of various-sized birds weighing from 10 to 20 pounds should spur sales as Thanksgiving approaches. “I’m anticipating a rush,” he said.
Facing the hurdles of price ($3.50 a pound versus $1 or less for supermarket turkeys) and limited availability (Slow Food is the only source in Chicago), consumers might buy a heritage bird for one or both of two reasons: patriotism and/or pleasure.
“This is handcrafted food,” said the conservancy’s Bixby, “special meat for special occasions. Once consumers recognize this and treat it as high-quality specialty food, conservation will be relatively easy.”
The patriotism relates to their origin. Wild turkeys from the Americas were transported to Europe as early as the 16th Century. They returned later with settlers from Europe and were mated with wild turkeys here. The black turkey, for instance, has been traced from Mexico to Spain to England to the American colonies.
Reese, however, is an American Standard bronze fan all the way. The bronze is an upstanding, tall bird with beautiful coloration granted a “standard of perfection” classification in 1874. It was the nation’s poster turkey, as familiar to Americans as the buffalo on the nickel.
“The bronze are the foundation,” Reese said. “They’re everything and they’re going, going but not quite gone.
“Some farmers bastardize the breeding process and create the equivalent of scrawny crows,” Reese said. “My aim is to bring these turkeys back to what is good about the Standard: marketable size and weight, beautiful color and a handsome carcass.
“It may strike people that I’ve assumed the role of keeper of the chalice.”
As the keeper of what is recognized as the oldest continuous flock of Standard breed turkeys in the country (it has been traced to 1916), Reese has earned it, and whatever his role, the work is time-consuming and not very rewarding financially.
He estimated that four to five years of breeding is necessary to develop heritage turkeys with proper configuration and 10 to 15 years to develop a bird such as the bronze with the Standard color pattern.
By 2000, the conservancy could report that its call for action to “protect genetic diversity” had spurred farmers to double the heritage breeding stock in the years 1997 through 1999. That trend continues.
Then, in 2001, turkeys got another boost when Slow Food–citing the turkey as the “all-American farm animal”–nominated it for the movement’s Ark of Taste, an honor roll of foods worthy of preservation.
There are notes of caution, however.
Another conservancy official, Marjorie Bender, conducted a sold-out turkey breeder clinic at the Kansas State Fair in early October.
“Thanks to Slow Food, there has been some growth in consumer interest in the heritage birds,” Bender said. “But to develop a strategy to bring back the standard birds is a multilevel process.
“We need more hatcheries to increase the breeding population, but if we get them, there’s another stumbling block. The turkeys need to be processed before they go to market, yet there are virtually no independent, federally inspected processing plants to use.”
Heritage turkeys just aren’t going to be produced at a scale that will interest the corporate poultry industry or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“To save these and other endangered breeds we will need to rely on small farms and small processing plants,” Bender continued. “If this is to be sustainable in the long term, marketing will have to take center stage.
“We need to raise awareness and excitement among consumers. At the same time we have to temper our expectations.”
“Heritage turkeys won’t be coming off the priority list anytime soon,” Bixby said, “but at least we still have real birds who are allowed to walk and forage and are fed a wide range of foods.”
And demand is ahead of last year, at least for Reese.
“I’ve been talking to the Kansas State [University] agriculture department,” Reese said, “and next year I am going to give them some of my eggs. It’s been years since they had a heritage bird there. Now the students will be exposed to turkeys that almost disappeared before they were born. It will be tremendous.”
As for consumers who want to support the effort, the best way for them to help save heritage turkeys, ironically, is to eat one.
Buying a turkey
To obtain a (frozen) heritage turkey for Thanksgiving or later in the holiday season, contact Slow Food’s supplier, John Caveny. He has a few birds (dressed and frozen) available for pickup in Chicago on Nov. 25 only. Cost is $3.50 per pound plus $6 delivery. Call 217-762-7767 or e-mail: soilsteward@prairieinet.
net.
Also, Ben Franklin Turkey Farm near Harvard has a limited number of Bourbon reds for sale. Owner Mike Clarke said the heritage birds will be processed two days before Thanksgiving at a packing plant nearby in Wisconsin and will be available for pickup–fresh, not frozen–on Nov. 26 at $3.05 per pound. But Clarke has only 20 to 25 left unspoken for. To reserve and for information on pickup, call 815-943-4938.
Another source of information is the turkey section of the online Eat Well Guide (www.EatWellGuide. org). This is a directory of producers, grocery stores, restaurants and mail-order outlets for sustainably raised and organic meat including heritage turkeys. It is sponsored by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment.
Tasting notes
When it comes to heritage turkeys, the pleasure is in the eating, as proved by taste tests of two birds in the Tribune’s test kitchen.
The first was a 14-pound Narragansett that emerged from the oven with a light gold, parchment textured skin. The meat was aromatic, sweet, chewy but pleasant. There were clumps of fat here and there, but not much, and not much melted fat in the bottom of the roasting pan. The dark meat, moist and nutty with a long aftertaste, was judged superior to the milder but still flavorful white meat.
The second, a Bourbon red, was slightly larger and slightly older with rich, juicy meat, was even better.
–William Rice
Making a difference
This report wraps up Good Eating’s Lost and Found series. Across the country, organizations and individuals continue the fight for endangered plants and animals, and heirloom vegetables and fruits. Here are just a few organizations that offer consumers a way to make a difference.
FISH AND SEAFOOD CONSERVATION:
The National Audubon Society’s Living Oceans/Seafood Lovers Initiative provides consumers with information about sustainable fish and seafood. Contact them by writing Suite 2, 100 W. Main St., East Islip, NY 11730, or call 888-397-6649. Or visit the Web site: audubon.org/campaign/lo/seafood, where you can download a wallet-size card to help with seafood-dining choices.
The Marine Stewardship Council is a nonprofit international group that supports environmentally responsible fisheries management. Its Web site offers consumers information about sustainable fish and seafood, recipes and stores that sell certified, environmentally sound fish products. Contact the U.S. office at Suite 102, 2110 N. Pacific St., Seattle, WA, 98103. 206-691-0188. Or visit its Web site: eng.msc.org.
Meat breeds conservation:
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is a non-profit membership organization that serves as a clearinghouse for research and education information on livestock and genetic diversity. Contact them by writing: P.O. Box 477, Pittsboro, NC, 27312 or calling 919-542-5704. Its Web site: albc-usa.org.
Plant conservation and
heirloom plants:
Seed Savers Exchange, based in Decorah, Iowa, saves garden seeds from extinction; its 8,000 members grow and distribute seeds of heirloom and traditional varieties of vegetables, fruits and grains. For a catalog, call 563-382-5990 or visit its Web site, seedsavers.org.
Seeds of Change also sells a variety of organic heirloom seeds; call 888-762-7333 or visit seedsofchange.com.
Underwood Gardens, 1414 Zimmerman Rd., Woodstock, IL, 60098, also is a source for heirloom seeds. Write for a catalog or visit online, underwoodgardens. com.
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A look at the series
Previously:
Lost and found kickoff
Texas wild rice
Heirloom beans
Antique apples
American sturgeon
This week: Heritage turkeys
To view past articles in the series, go to chicagotribune. com/goodeating and click on Lost and Found.
