Christmas is a big event and one that deserves the best, fresh Christmas turkey. Too often, though, we make do with low quality birds; stringy flesh that has no taste. Free range turkeys, on the other hand, taste just as a fresh Christmas turkey should.
Free range turkeys only come from the best quality chicks. There’s no battery farming here. No cramming as many birds into a dark and dingy barn as possible here. The tastiest fresh Christmas turkeys are housed in a barn bedded with straw and with plenty of room for them to move around, along with access to roam in an outside yard to range once they are 8 weeks of age (the earliest age at which it is safe for them to do so). This means the farmers are able to raise fewer birds per year, which does in turn effect the price: but for that slightly higher price tag you are getting a far superior bird and one which know lived a happy life.
Only the fittest chicks are chosen to become your fresh Christmas turkey; some battery farmers are happy to use any old mangy chick, but they only grow up to become mangy turkeys. Free range turkey farmers want their product to be better.
Free range turleys are grown from slow growing strains. Though fast growing turkeys are a cheaper and quicker product to produce, you pay for that in the loss of taste. You get what you pay for. Slow growing strains allow the turkeys to develop at a natural rate while retaining their flavour. Typically, free range turkeys will have a 22 week growing period; a full month and a half longer than industrially farmed, fast growing birds.
Your low cost, supermarket turkey is likely to have been fed on an array of growth additives and growth promoting chemicals. While there are lots of claims concerning the health implications of eating chemically promoted livestock, the key point to remember is that it really affects the taste. Additives do have their place in farming and livestock rearing, but it should be done in moderation; to encourage development, not force it. Do you really want to eat a turkey that in life was pumped full of steroids? The rations fed to the best, fresh Christmas turkeys contain at least 70% cereal containing no such growth promoters and additives.
Of course, there is an inevitable juncture between the careful raising of the turkey and their reaching you. But it doesn’t have to be cruel. When the time comes, the farmers hand pluck the turkeys on the farms on which they were raised, causing minimal stress to the bird.
Environmental Health and the Traditional Farmfresh Turkey Association regularly inspect farms to ensure they meet the high standards expected of free ranging farming. Their accreditation means you can be sure the fresh Christmas turkey you are buying was raised in the very best conditions.
Nobody has greater care and love for animals than free range farmers and they want the animals they rear to have the best quality of life. It’s best for the poultry and it’s best for the customer as well. A healthy turkey is a tasty turkey.
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Morton’s Traditional Taste have been raising fresh Christmas turkeys for three generations. For fresh Christmas turkeys raised to the highest welfare standards, get in touch with them now.The best fresh Christmas turkeys
