Want to try a Heritage Turkey?

A flock of heritage turkeys. Image Courtesy Springfield Farms in Maryland

In honor of America's Thanksgiving holiday this week, I'm reprinting last year's post on Heritage turkeys - something a lot of folks may have never heard about. If it's too late to order one this year, at least it gives you something to think about for next year!
For Thanksgiving, have you considered something other than a traditionally farm-raised turkey? Most families eat the standard “large white” or “broadbreasted white” turkey; 48 million get consumed every Thanksgiving, 99% of which are traditional factory-farmed birds. Those turkeys get raised just to be eaten. That means they can’t even run, fly, or mate - takes pretty much all the fun out of being alive doesn’t it? They are engineered to grow plump quick, and often pumped with antibiotics and hormones. Christine Heinrichs, author of How to Raise Poultry and publicity director for the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, also has a great post about the various labels you might encounter on her blog post, Thanksgiving turkey.
Huffington Post highlights another company, Mary’s Free Range Turkeys highlighted in a Discovery Channel  How Stuff Works video . They take seven months to raise these birds. No doubt the conditions here are far better than those in traditional factory farms, but also different than conditions on small farms where birds that can truly roam to their heart's delight. Small farms can't produce as many turkeys, though, so it's a tradeoff.