Real Meat, Real Stories

A New Thanksgiving Tradition: Preparing a 32-Pound Turkey

‘Twas Thanksgiving Eve and your farmer Lou Ann began to prepare the feast’s main event; a turkey weighing in at a whopping 32 pounds.  Is this the biggest bird she’s ever cooked? She recalls another gracing her kitchen years ago, when her four children were still babes.  Yet, that bird only weighed a measly 28 pounds, and still bent her oven rack. How will the oven measure up this year?  Her hope lies now in better forged steel than that of the 80’s.

The turkey was packaged in an opaque bag, making it difficult to know what she had to work with during kitchen prep-time.  She removed the packaging to reveal the monstrous beaut of an animal. Only this animal still showed signs of the golden life lived on our land. The legs and wings were covered in patches of dark black pin feathers.  After a smirk, she glances out the kitchen window and her mind wanders back in time, to a neighbors’ farm she knew very well. 

Her high school sweetheart couldn’t wait to seal their fate in love; they wed only months after throwing graduation caps towards the yellow lights hanging from the dusty gym ceiling. After marriage, finding their own space outside of their parents’ home was first priority. 

While attending church one Sunday, a neighbor farmer proposed to Nate and Lou Ann a solution for housing in exchange for help on his farm.  He offered the apartment attached to the farmhouse. With no money in the bank, and a dream in their hearts, they gladly packed small bags and moved into the tall sturdy brick home.

The farmer raised thousands of turkeys and chickens every year for the holidays, offering fresh-dressed birds picked up at the farm, and delivering the rest to local stores. Harvest day was something the young couple will never forget. 

Nate was in charge of the processing day, and helped kill, scald, and pluck the birds. Lou Ann and other ladies from the neighborhood wanting to earn extra money for the Holiday would gut, clean gizzards, pull pin-feathers left behind from the plucking machine, and chill the birds.  One of the most tedious tasks of the process was removing the pin feathers, which seems true still today, 50 years later, as she stands in her kitchen.

Her attention shifts back to the gigantic bird, “I have just the right tool for this,” she pulls the long drawer, and sifts through the stainless-steel pieces to find a small treasure from the past known to her as a strawberry huller; something she rarely ever uses. She learned while working and living at the turkey farm, the best tool for plucking pin-feathers is a berry huller, which looks like an oversized tweezers.  After 40 minutes of this mindful task, the bird was finally ready to settle on the cold porch for the evening. 

Her heart fills with gratitude as she reminisces of the time before children and her own farm, knowing all those moments continue to shape her life as it is now.  All those years, time nor flavor was lost. The next day the monstrous, featherless turkey wowed her and her family’s palettes as Nate declares, “this might be the best tasting turkey we’ve ever raised.”

Modern Challenges of Turkey Processing
Unlike Lou Ann and Nate’s first home at the neighbor’s turkey farm, our farm now must use a USDA processing facility to sell meat by the package across state lines. Finding a USDA turkey processor is challenging, with only a few left within 100 miles of the farm. Last year, we found a great processor in Illinois that also offered cut-up birds and ground turkey. Unfortunately, the business sold a couple of months before this year’s harvest, and the new owners were inexperienced with turkey processing.

Black Feathered Turkeys: Flavor, Sustainability, and Challenges
After preparing our own Thanksgiving bird, we noticed the processor struggled to remove all the pin feathers on some of this year’s turkeys. Birds with black feathers are much harder to pluck, especially if the processor isn’t accustomed to them. We raise these darker-feathered birds because they thrive outdoors and deliver exceptional flavor. Additionally, outdoor-raised birds naturally grow more feathers than those raised indoors.

For anyone who purchased turkeys and faced the unexpected task of plucking a few stragglers, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this caused during your meal prep. The white packaging this year meant the feathers weren’t visible beforehand, leaving us unaware.

Looking ahead, we’ve already booked our 2025 turkey harvest with a more experienced processor. This should resolve the pin feather issue, aside from the occasional feather or two. Meanwhile, any remaining turkeys from this year will now include a berry huller tool to help with any leftover feathers during processing.

Thank You for Supporting Local Farmers
Thank you for following the story behind the food you eat and for supporting the farmers who raise it. We truly appreciate you.