Check out the story in the Salisbury Post about our MPU (mobile processing unit):

http://www.salisburypost.com/News/122910-Wild-Turkey-Farms-mobile-slaughterhouse-qcd#comments

Wild Turkey Farms News- December 17, 2010

Wild Turkey Farms News- Dec 17, 2010

Did anyone notice it's been cold? At least we had a nice balmy day on Thursday and looks like today will be a repeat. I know many of you have been looking forward to our last batch of chickens for the year since early December. I've got to confess that even though I've been looking forward to taking them off the payroll, the weather over the last 2 weeks has had me less than enthusiastic about processing them though. We plan to take advantage of this nice weather & process some of them this afternoon. What we don't get to today we'll hopefully finish tomorrow afternoon. Come find us early at the farmer's markets tomorrow for the chickens we do get to or plan to come visit us at the farm over the weekend to pick up a fresh bird.

As many of you know we're really passionate about promoting the many great local foods available from not only us but the many other great small farms in our area. We feel strongly that healthy, local foods can and should be available to everyone regardless of income. We would like to invite you to share the holiday spirit and help make good food available this holiday season to the less fortunate. You can do this by purchasing some extra at the farmers markets and taking it to your local mission. To really make your money go farther visit with the farmers at the end of the market and help them by purchasing some of their leftover vegetables to donate.


Davidson Farmer's Market (9-Noon). We're all tailgating in the lower parking lot on Jackson St this weekend so come find us at our winter spot.

Salisbury Farmer's Market (10-Noon) Domisty will be there so you can stock up for your holiday meals. Best bet is to email us your order today so she can have it ready for you to pick up.



We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Hippie Kitchen Bakery- Huntersville / DFM
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Flat Iron Restaurant- Davidson
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury


From our Family to yours: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thanks for your support, have a great weekend, and we'll see you at the market.

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie
Wild Turkey Farms
China Grove, NC

Wild Turkey Farms News- December 3, 2010

Wild Turkey Farms News- Dec 3, 2010


Thanksgiving Review- Yet another Thanksgiving has come & gone and the reports are that our turkeys we're loved by all. This year's rough summer resulted in turkeys that were a bit lighter than expected so we hope that didn't inconvenience anyone. This year we processed about 70 Turkeys with lots of help from friends, family, and others. Turkey Day starts with lighting the burner on the scalder before daylight and ends when we get home from deliveries about 10pm so I've got to say we're glad to see that day done. Don't worry though, we've already begun making plans for next year's birds.

Thanks to Mary Jane Leach from DFM for the nice article she wrote on our turkey processing day (click here to see).

NO CHICKENS WILL BE AVAILABLE THIS WEEK- They are not quite ready so we're going to have to wait another week.


Davidson Farmer's Market (9-11am). We'll be leaving early this week since they are closing Main St by noon. Come by & get loaded up on Pork, Beef, & Eggs.


We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Hippie Kitchen Bakery- Huntersville / DFM
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Flat Iron Restaurant- Davidson

Thanks for your support, have a great weekend, and we'll see you at the market.

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie
Wild Turkey Farms
China Grove, NC

Happy Thanksgiving

To say that November is a busy time of the year for us is an understatement!

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is a very long day for us.....this year it was a 16.5 hour day. The day started at 6 am (we slept in). Lee headed to the farm & I got the boys to school. By the time I got back to the farm our volunteers were there, the turkeys were caught and we were ready to start processing.

Since some of our volunteers had never processed poultry we ran through the game plan with everyone. It really does work well if everyone has a specific job. We had someone killing the turkeys, then they went to the scalder (this helps to loosen their feathers), next the plucker (where the feathers are removed) and finally to the tables to be eviscerated. Lee & I supervised & helped out as needed but our job was to take the turkeys weigh them, tag them & get them into their ice baths.

The time went by quickly & then customers started arriving at the farm to pick-up their turkeys. I didn't even have time to change clothes....... We learn something every year that we can use to improve upon the next year. This years lesson was to label the coolers & freezers with which turkeys are in them. Then maybe we don't have to look through 5 coolers to find turkey #22.

Then came the task of assigning everyone a turkey. I had about 6 sheets of paper that we had written the turkey number & weight on. I compiled them onto one sheet of paper and then took our spreadsheet of all the customers which included name, phone number, where the turkey would be picked up at, & if they had requested a larger or smaller bird. After assigning everyone their bird it was time to package them up & load the market trailer to start our drop-offs.

Did I mention that by this time it was around 6 o'clock in the evening and we had eaten a slice of pumpkin bread & coffee at about 9 o'clock that morning and a handful of chips for lunch.

Our first drop-off was Davidson Town Hall. Of course no matter what time we say we will be there we are late. This year the traffic was AWFUL!! We had a couple different people call and ask where we were and I told them we would be there soon.... We also had a few customers call us and say there is no way I can get there. This put us late getting to our Salisbury drop-off also but I had called a customer to say what everybody know please.

So once again the Thanksgiving season has ended for Wild Turkey Farms.

We are very thankful for our customers who continue to support us year after year. We are very thankful for the volunteers that we have year after year. I actually had a couple volunteer to help next year with the logistics of the turkeys so maybe we can find them a little easier next year.

I included a few pictures of our day.

There will be more posted on the Facebook page.

Turkeys

Scalder

Plucker