Friday, November 19, 2010

Turkey Day on Tuesday!!

It is getting close to turkey day here on the farm. I am not talking about Thanksgiving Day, but the day our customers come and pick up their turkeys. We enjoy doing turkeys, as they have a lot of personality, but it is a long haul.

We buy our turkey poults locally usually 16 weeks before Thanksgiving. They are a bit more fragile during the first 3 weeks while they are in the brooder, but then they are very hardy. Many times you will hear a poult singing while in the brooder. Now, that they are full grown, you can go out in the field and talk to them and they talk back to you.

Turkeys are very good foragers. Our broilers forage some, but the turkeys eat a lot of grass and plants. They are always very eager when Michael moves their pen. They get a whole new salad bar.

We tell our customers about brining their turkey. We always brine ours. The basic brine recipe is 1 cup of salt to every gallon of water that you use. Brining makes a big difference in the tenderness of the turkey. It also gives a moister bird. You can add other herbs and spices to your brine if you like.



1 comment:

Tracy said...

How long do you brine them before you cook them?