Wild Turkey Farms

WTF News- February 10, 2012

2012-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- February 10

Will winter ever get here???? The trees are budding, flowers are popping out of the ground, and all of this since the first of Feb. I just hope this doesn't mean we're going to spend the first half of April covered in snow. Regardless of the weird weather patterns, this is one of my favorite times of year. We're somewhat rested up from our winter break, the days are noticeably longer, the garden has been plowed, seeds have been started in the greenhouse, and the pastures are full of lambs and pigs. Now if we can just get the pastures full of knee high grass & clover we'll be set, but that too will come in time.

One of our winter projects has been to update our website www.wildturkeyfarms.com (actually last winters project but we're finally getting it finished up) so keep check as we expect to launch it any day now.

Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- The egg situation is getting much better as the days keep getting longer but eggs are still in limited supply this weekend so come early to load up.

Don't forget to check out our Wild Turkey Farms Facebook page and "like" us to get the most up to date info.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Whiskey Warehouse- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Salisbury Wine Shop- Salisbury
The Bread Riot- Salisbury

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

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

2012-02-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

The Farmer

Each day I go into the fields
to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing, everything needs to be done.
Plow, harrow, disc, water, pray
till my bones ache and hands rub
blood-raw with honest labor—
all that grows is the slow
intransigent intensity of need.
I have sown my seed on soil
guaranteed by poverty to fail.
But I don’t complain—except
to passersby who ask me why
I work such barren earth.
They would not understand me
if I stooped to lift a rock
and hold it like a child, or laughed,
or told them it is their poverty
I labor to relieve. For them,
I complain. A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Each day I go into the fields.

W. D. Ehrhart, "The Farmer" from Beautiful Wreckage. Copyright © 1999 by W. D. Ehrhart. Source: Beautiful Wreckage (Adastra Press, 1999)

WTF News- January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Jan 27

Just a short newsletter this week before I run out to play in the mud. Thanks to everyone that has been supporting us through the winter by coming out to the winter market at DFM, eating at the restaurants that support us, and stopping by the farm. If this winter has been any indication, it's shaping up to be a good and busy year.

We have lots of things underway at the farm now. We have plans to expand our egg laying operation significantly and, increase numbers of pigs & chickens we raise. We are going to offer a spring/summer vegetable CSA again this year (details coming soon), we're also working with Chef Charles Catering to host a couple more Charcuterie classes in Feb & Mar, we are planning a couple farm tours, another farm dinner, and we have a new website that will launch soon. We've just expanded our grain handling capacity to accommodate this increase in pork and chickens so I guess you could say we're committed at this point. So to say we've been busy and getting busier may be an understatement.

We have a fresh batch of our WTF T-shirts in XXL, XL, L, & M for those of you that have been waiting patiently since last fall!!!

Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- The egg situation is getting much better as the days keep getting longer but eggs are still in limited supply this weekend so come early to load up.

Don't forget to check out our Wild Turkey Farms Facebook page and "like" us to get the most up to date info.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Whiskey Warehouse- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Salisbury Wine Shop- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Coming Soon......

2012-01-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that January is almost over. We have been busy at the farm and have REALLY enjoyed not having to get up early for the Markets every Saturday. Although, by the time spring rolls around I'm ready to hit the Markets and see my customers again.

We hope by February the new & improved WTF website will be up & running. More details about that soon......

We have also restocked in WTF t-shirts & hats and we still have the ever popular WTF stickers.

WTF News- January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Jan 13

Happy New Year and Happy Friday the 13th!!!! Stay clear of guys with machetes and hockey masks but come see us at Davidson Sat Morning!!!

First Market of the Year Specials-
Hotdogs only $6/pack while they last!!!!
Polish Sausages - Buy 2 get 1 free while they last!!!

Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- we will be in the lower parking lot near our friends at Chef Charles Catering.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but eggs are in extremely short supply this weekend so come early to load up.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Whiskey Warehouse- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Salisbury Wine Shop- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Health & Wellness Newsletter- Salisbury Pediatric

2012-01-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

January 9, 2012

From Dr. Weil's Newsletter. I wanted to pass this information along.

The HFCS debate rages on:

""High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a cheap sweetener chemically derived from corn. This ubiquitous ingredient of junk food has been in the news lately, in part due to a proposed name change by the Corn Refiners Association - the group wants to rename it "corn sugar."

Whatever you call it, HFCS is a marker for low-quality food and has no place in a healthy diet. But unfortunately, it is widely used: HFCS is found as a primary ingredient in soft drinks and often hidden in processed foods including salad dressings and ketchup, jams, jellies, ice cream, bread and crackers. It is one of the biggest sources of calories in the American diet.

The most widely used kind of HFCS may have disruptive effects on metabolism, as the body doesn't utilize fructose well. In fact, regular consumption of HFCS may contribute to obesity, which in turn is a risk factor for several types of cancer and diabetes. In my opinion, HCFS is definitely bad for you and should be avoided - read food labels carefully and minimize your consumption of items that list HFCS as an ingredient.""

I would concur that an unnatural processed product like HFCS is likely to be unhealthy for us. We can sustain life on intravenous glucose (sugar) but prolonged IV fructose causes liver dysfunction and failure. Fructose occurs naturally in fruit and honey, but the volume of ingestion has skyrocketed with the use of HFCS. Why would they need to hide the name if the safety was without doubt???

My take home point today: Nature provides fructose - use this form in moderation. Avoid HFCS until safety data is unequivocal.

Hedging my bets,

Dr. Magryta

Carbohydrates
Episode 3 - the carbohydrate dilemma - when, how much and why?

Next Step: Now this is a beauty of nature. During the race or once you start exercising, your body releases chemicals called catecholamines which change the physiology of your metabolism to reduce insulin use and increase sugar availability.

In other words, your body is shifting away from storing sugar as fat and giving it to the muscles to do work. This is very useful when running away from a bull or whatever wants to chase you!!! Therefore, it is an ok idea to consume high GI* foods during a race or exercise. You will not have an insulin response and you will avoid a sugar trough. Pay attention to the types of carbs that you eat and you are beginning the process of attaining peak performance.

Here is your chance to eat chocolate and not suffer the consequences of weight gain!

Preferably - Dark Chocolate

Dr. M

********
Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

Glycemic Index

In the past, carbohydrates were classified as simple or complex based on the number of simple sugars in the molecule. Carbohydrates composed of one or two simple sugars like fructose or sucrose (table sugar; a disaccharide composed of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose) were labeled simple, while starchy foods were labeled complex because starch is composed of long chains of the simple sugar, glucose. Advice to eat less simple and more complex carbohydrates (i.e., polysaccharides) was based on the assumption that consuming starchy foods would lead to smaller increases in blood glucose than sugary foods

(1). This assumption turned out to be too simplistic since the blood glucose (glycemic) response to "complex" carbohydrates has been found to vary considerably. A more accurate indicator of the relative glycemic response to dietary carbohydrates should be glycemic load, which incorporates the relative quality and quantity of carbohydrates in the diet.

Measuring the Glycemic Index of Foods

To determine the glycemic index of a food, volunteers are typically given a test food that provides 50 grams of carbohydrate and a control food (white bread or pure glucose) that provides the same amount of carbohydrate on different days(2). Blood samples for the determination of glucose are taken prior to eating and at regular intervals after eating over the next several hours. The changes in blood glucose over time are plotted as a curve. The glycemic index is calculated as the area under the glucose curve after the test food is eaten, divided by the corresponding area after the control food is eaten. The value is multiplied by 100 to represent a percentage of the control food. For example, a baked potato has a glycemic index of 76 relative to glucose and 108 relative to white bread, which means that the blood glucose response to the carbohydrate in a baked potato is 76% of the blood glucose response to the same amount of carbohydrate in pure glucose and 108% of the blood glucose response to the same amount of carbohydrate in white bread (3). In contrast, cooked brown rice has a glycemic index of 55 relative to glucose and 79 relative to white bread (4). In the traditional system of classifying carbohydrates, both brown rice and potato would be classified as complex carbohydrates despite the difference in their effects on blood glucose levels.

Physiological Responses to High- versus Low-Glycemic Index Foods

By definition, the consumption of high-glycemic index foods results in higher and more rapid increases in blood glucose levels than the consumption of low-glycemic index foods. Rapid increases in blood glucose are potent signals to the beta-cells of the pancreas to increase insulin secretion (2). Over the next few hours, the high insulin levels induced by consumption of high-glycemic index foods may cause a sharp decrease in blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia). In contrast, the consumption of low-glycemic index foods results in lower but more sustained increases in blood glucose and lower insulin demands on pancreatic beta-cells (5).

Glycemic Load

The glycemic index compares the potential of foods containing the same amount of carbohydrate to raise blood glucose. However, the amount of carbohydrate consumed also affects blood glucose levels and insulin responses. The glycemic load of a food is calculated by multiplying the glycemic index by the amount of carbohydrate in grams provided by a food and dividing the total by 100 (1). Dietary glycemic load is the sum of the glycemic loads for all foods consumed in the diet. The concept of glycemic load was developed by scientists to simultaneously describe the quality (glycemic index) and quantity of carbohydrate in a meal or diet.

From the Linus Pauling Institute at: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/foods/grains/gigl.html

Copyright © 2010-2012 Christopher J. Magryta, MD. Readers, please note: The information provided in this newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for advice and treatment provided by your physician or other healthcare professional and is not to be used to diagnose or treat a health issue.

WTF- Happy New Year

2012-01-10T06:31:00.000-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Happy New Year!!!

We'll it's hard to believe that the holidays have come and gone, the house is a mess, the kids are still out of school, and we've had a week of seemingly not getting a damn thing done around the farm but it's been fun. We've spent the last couple days, like many of you I'm sure, reflecting on 2011 and how it somehow flew by. Spring CSAs, winter markets, summer markets, new markets, old markets, summer drought, fall rains, the great goose round up, farm tours, farm dinner, thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas BBQ, and many, many customers which we consider friends and family- seems like too much to have gone through in a mere 365days. In just another 72+/- hours we'll get to start all over and do it again for 2012. Now that Christmas break is behind us it's time to dive into the seed & poultry catalogs to work on orders, and hit the spreadsheets to plan out 2012.

It's truly been a blessing to be able to do what we do and have such a great family of customers to support us so from the bottom of our hearts- THANK YOU ALL!!!

Markets-

As always, we are around the farm during the week so you are welcome to give us a call and come out. 704-202-9348

We'll be back at the Davidson Farmers Market on January 14 (9-noon)

Salisbury Farmers Market is done for the winter but we're working on some alternatives so stay tuned

Elizabeth Market is done for the winter but we'll be back in the spring. We're still making deliveries to restaurants so if you need an order shoot us an email and we'll get with you somehow.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Whiskey Warehouse- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Salisbury Wine Shop- Salisbury
Bread Riot - Salisbury

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

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

WTF NEws- December 16, 2011

2011-12-16T13:45:00.001-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Dec 16

Hard to believe that Christmas is only about a week away. We'd like to take this opportunity to say that we really appreciate all of the support that everyone has given us over the past year. You guys are awesome!

I think at this point most of you are familiar with Marti the goose and how he has grown up thinking that he's a pig. I've probably even mentioned how Marti has the ability of hold his own when fighting pigs to get his share of food. Well this week I witnessed just how tough that goose really is. For the past 2 weeks it's just been Marti and 2 sows in a pasture together until it came time to put the boar in with the sows. Now I've never thought much about anyone getting hurt but I could tell that as soon as the boar stepped off the trailer that all hell was about to break loose. For those that haven't been in the presence of an amorous boar, they start foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog and and start talking dirty with load guttural grunts. Now I don't know if it was the slobber, grunts, or just the fact that there was a new face in the pasture but something set Marti off. The boar was so busy trying to make new friends with the girls that I don't think he noticed the flapping, honking wad of feathers that was about to attack. As Marti blindsided the boar he bit fast on his right ear and proceeded to flail him in the head and side with his wings. Not knowing what was going on, the boar took off running across the pasture with Marti attached to the side of his head. Marti would eventually let go and return to eat with the sows. Once the boar would "shake it off" and head back to join the sows, Marti would repeat the scene. It got to the point that I almost felt sorry for the boar as he would hide in the corner of the field. Now this went on over a 2 day period but eventually the boar admitted that Marti was the boss and a truce was drawn for the time being. It's hard to believe that 15lbs of honk & feathers can terrorize a 600lb boar to that extent.

This is the last weekend your WTF Smoked Pork Shoulders for Christmas. We're teaming up with our friends that BBQed the pig at our farm dinner in October to smoke our delicious pork shoulders so you don't have to cook for Christmas (or at least don't have to cook as much). The cost is $70 each for shoulders that will run 13-15lbs each and should feed up to 20-25 people. These will be slow cooked over wood coals all morning and be ready for pick up Christmas eve afternoon. As always the supplies are limited and when we're out, we're out so get yours early.

Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- we will be in the lower parking lot near our friends at Chef Charles Catering.

Elizabeth Farmers Market - The Market is closed for the season so we will be working on an email pre-order only system. Email us your order by Friday afternoon and come by the Customshop Restaurant to pick it up between 10:30-11am Saturday morning.

Salisbury Farmers Market_- (9am-noon)- Domisty will be back and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll have it ready for you to pick up.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but eggs are in extremely short supply this weekend and may be none existent by the time we fill restaurant orders. The chickens have been on strike the past 2 weeks but they are starting to pick up again so hopefully they'll be back at full speed by next year.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Whiskey Warehouse- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Salisbury Wine Shop- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Birthday Meal at Customshop

2011-12-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

If you have not tried Customshop yet you neeed too!

We went last week-end to celebrate Lee's birthday.

We started with a Charcuterie & Cheese platter- we had help from our waiter on what to select but we knew we definitely wanted the House made Chicken Liver Pate. I never thought of myself as a "chicken liver" person but this was pure bliss!

Lee opted for the Crispy Duck & I wanted to try something different then what I would usually get....I have to admit I was close to ordering WTF Pork Chop. We know those farmer's & they raise a good pig! But in the end I chose the Trigger Fish from our friends at Rock Stone Seafood.

We also had the Pumpkin Gnocchi & Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

Then finished up the evening with the Bread Pudding.

Christmas Shoulders

2011-12-07T07:59:00.001-08:00

Don't Forget To Order Your Christmas Shoulders Now!

.
Just got word that the cookers are about full for WTF Christmas Shoulders!
Feed your family right this Christmas. Our whole WTF Berkshire shoulders (13-15lbs ea) will be slow smoked over wood coals and ready for pick up Christmas Eve 2-5pm. Ready to eat shoulders are $70 ea.
Don't need that much? Order one of our whole picnics (6-7lbs) for $40
Order yours today! Delivery to sites in Charlotte and Concord will be available.

Traveling for the Holidays?
Take some WTF with you. Our Pepperoni & Salami Chubs or Beef Snack Sticks are perfect for holiday travels. A box of these in your carry-on luggage are guaranteed to make you the star of the tarmac while your plane is delayed.
Can't travel to see your family this year? Mail them some WTF Pepperoni, Salami, or Snack Sticks to show them your love.

No Markets this weekend but give us a call and come by the farm!- We'll be back at the markets Saturday Dec 16.

Some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury
Simply Local @ Atherton Market- Charlotte

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

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

WTF News- December 2, 2011

2011-12-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

WTF News- December 2, 2011

Now that turkeys have come and gone for the year we've had a few days to relax, re-coop, and reload. Over Thanksgiving we managed to get away to Wilmington for 4 days of serious bonding with the in laws' couch while Domisty and her mom got some momma/daughter time and her dad got his fill of the boys. Now after the week of doing turkey related running, calling, emailing, and arithmetic I was ready for some down time. After 2 days I was caught up on a season & a half of Burn Notice, loaded up on war movies, and had about all of the cooking shows I could stand. Couple this with spending a couple nights sharing the couch with Rosty and by Friday afternoon the mental fatigue of being confined to the house was starting to show. It got so bad we had to venture out on Black Friday afternoon which was a good opportunity to catch up on some people watching. It made me glad that our business is not tied to that madness even though some of you might beg to differ on the day's we're short on eggs or late to the market. At least none of our great customers have resorted to pepper spraying each other to get the last pack of pork chops (please don't get any ideas). Saturday Rosty and I ventured out on a father/ son kayaking trip on the Cape Fear river in which we ended up walking barefoot around one of the dredge islands looking for shark teeth and having a great time. All in all it is nice to escape for a while and come back recharged and ready to get back to work- cause God knows it's there waiting on us to return.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and all the great comments on the turkeys this year. We really enjoy the encouragement.

This weekend we will start taking orders for WTF Smoked Pork Shoulders for Christmas. We're teaming up with our friends that bbq the pig at our farm dinner in October to smoke our delicious pork shoulders so you don't have to cook for Christmas (or at least don't have to cook as much). The cost is $70 each for shoulders that will run 13-15lbs each and should feed up to 20-25 people. These will be slow cooked over wood coals all morning and be ready for pick up Christmas eve afternoon. As always the supplies are limited and when we're out, we're out so get yours early.
We have a limited supply of whole rabbits for $7.25/lb if anyone is interested in getting one please email us so we'll be sure and have enough. -Yes I'll try and remember to send some to Davidson this weekend.
We are restocked on whole chickens and will have them as well
Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- Town Hall parking lot will be closed due to the Parade Saturday but don't worry- we will be in the lower parking lot near our friends at Chef Charles Catering.

Elizabeth Farmers Market - The Market is closed for the season so we will be working on an email pre-order only system. Email us your order by Friday afternoon and come by the Customshop Restaurant to pick it up between 10:30-11am Saturday morning. We will do this tomorrow and again on Saturday Dec 17.

Salisbury Farmers Market_- (9am-noon)- Domisty will be back and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll 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.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Happy Birthday!

2011-11-30T06:21:00.000-08:00

If you see this guy today wish him a Happy Birthday!

I love you sweetie!

-do

Turkey Drop-Off #1

2011-11-22T04:28:00.000-08:00

Last night was our first turkey drop-off/pick up & according to who you ask I think it went great!

We were on our way to Charlotte when the bottom fell out & it started raining but by the time we got there it was just a light drizzle.

We had about 70 turkeys in the freezer in no particular order so the first few people had to wait while I found their turkey number but other than that smooth sailing.

Then it was off to Davidson.......

For all of our Davidson customers you know we are always going to be running a few minutes behind. But once we got there & got our system figured out everything went great.

Thanks to Patti for helping Lee with getting the turkeys picked -up & tagged and to Patti & Becky for their help at Davidson getting everyone their turkeys.

We have great friends who are always willing to help us out.

Remember there is a farm pick-up this afternoon & we will be in Salisbury this evening.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WTF News- November 18, 2011

2011-11-22T04:25:00.000-08:00

There's a serious frost on the pumpkins this morning. I guess it's about time for it since we're less than a week from Thanksgiving. I spent a rainy Thursday morning unloading turkeys at the processors and I've got to say that I am SOOOO glad we are not processing turkeys on the farm this year. So in the spirit of thankfulness I wanted to share a quick recap last year's turkey day:

5:30 get up, dressed, and eat.
6:00 fire up the scalder so the water will be hot in an hour or so.
6:10 wonder where the help is???
6:15 take trailer to field and start catching turkeys before it gets too light and they become active
6:35 help shows up and we finish catching turkeys
7:00 realize fire on scalder went out & relight- clean up and get ready, send someone to Dixies for a box of coffee and Brian's Grill for biscuits.
7:30 rest of help shows up (about 9 people a mix of volunteers and paid help), fire's "hot enough" so we start
7:35 realize it wasn't hot enough and spend the next 20 minutes waiting for it to get hot while 6 people pull feathers one at a time by hand. , cuss occasionally
8:00 waters hot, helps ready, so away we go.
10:00 need more ice - send someone to store for ice, get another box of coffee too since we're in town anyway
Noon- send someone to pick up lunch and eat lunch in shifts since we're only half way done.
2pm - almost done, customers showing up to pick up birds
3pm finished processing and start clean up.
4:30 thank everyone, pay some, send everyone away and go feed.
5:30 - Oh crap! almost forgot to pick up kids from after school care
6pm - peanut butter crackers for supper, finish bagging and tagging turkeys, haul butt to Davidson of 6:30 drop off
7pm - get to Davidson, apologize for being late, take money, pass out turkeys- (in the rain at that)
7:15 - leave to head to Salisbury for 7:30 drop , get caught in traffic due to wreck on I77
7:45pm get out of Davidson
8:30pm- get to Salisbury, apologize, take money, pass out turkeys
9:30- pick up kids from grandparents eat a bite of leftovers and head home
10pm get home, put kids to bed
10:15- Decide to do something different next year.

Now you know why we outsourced processing this year. Hope everyone has a Safe & Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks to Christopher Lux for his article on Wild Turkey Farms thanksgiving turkeys.
This week stock up on those Thanksgiving Day items like smoked jowls & bacon ends for seasoning, eggs, sausage for stuffing, breakfast items for the morning after.
We have a limited supply of whole rabbits for $7.25/lb if anyone is interested in getting one please email us so we'll be sure and have enough.
We are restocked on whole chickens and will have them as well
Davidson Farmers Market (9am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Elizabeth Farmers Market (9:30am-noon) - We'll be back this weekend. Come stock up.

Salisbury Farmers Market_- (9am-noon)- Domisty will be back and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll 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.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- CharlotteBlack Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Thanksgiving Turkeys on their way........

2011-11-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

Turkey Pick-Up times

2011-11-17T06:07:00.001-08:00

For those of you who were able to get a WTF turkey here is our pick-up schedule:

Monday
6-6:30pm at Customshop Restaurant on Elizabeth Ave in Charlotte- Get there early and enjoy a beer and a bite to eat while you wait. We will be on the street between Customshop and Carpe Diem.

7:30-8pm at Davidson Town Hall Parking lot (where we set up at the farmers market)

Tuesday
3-5pm at the farm (1015 Old Cress Rd Salisbury Nc 28147)

6-6:30 in the Biscuitville Parking lot at Jake Alexander Blvd & Hwy 150

WTF News- November11, 2011

2011-11-17T06:05:00.001-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Nov 11

Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all that have served our country. We pray for all of our service men and women to return home quickly and safely.

We will not be at the markets this weekend but we will be back next weekend. If you've run out of WTF goodies and can't wait just give us a call and come by the farm.

We'll be back at Salisbury, Davidson, and Elizabeth next weekend (Nov 19) 9-noon

Need something fun to do Saturday? Come join us at the Waterworks Art Gallery Chili Cook Off at the F&M Trolley Barn in Salisbury Saturday at 6:30pm. Nothing could be better for a cool fall evening than sampling chili and drinking beer and wine while helping support the local arts community. Lots of local teams will be competing in the cook-off, 3 of which are using WTF meats. Come out and help vote the WTF teams to the winners circle. Go Ashley, Capri & Kimmy, Josh, & Lynne!!!

Have a great weekend.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

UCity- Talking Turkey

2011-11-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

Talking turkey
By Christopher Lux Photography by Roy Walter
Posted: Friday, Oct. 28, 2011

Although the name suggests it, turkeys were not sold on Lee and Domisty Menius’ farm until very recently. Wild Turkey Farms started in 2001 when Lee Menius took the reins of the 140-year-old family farm in Salisbury. With his wife and two sons, he raised and sold beef, pork and eggs. But not turkeys.
“People kept calling and asking about our turkeys,” he says. “‘Why are you Wild Turkey Farms if you don’t have any turkeys?’ they’d ask. I just liked the name.”
But those many phone calls pushed the Menius family to try raising Thanksgiving turkeys. Their first year they had only 20 turkeys, last year they had 80 and this year they have over a hundred.
The free-range turkeys are processed fresh and sold on a first come, first served basis. He sends out an email mid-October announcing how many turkeys they have and how much they will cost per pound. The first ones to email back get the privilege of purchasing a turkey. When they’re gone, they’re gone. “Last year we sold out in five hours,” Menius recalls.
As for the price, Menius says, “Feed’s our biggest input for turkeys. Feed decides the cost of the turkey, really.”
Though it’s too late to get your Thanksgiving turkey this year, it’s a good idea to sign up for their email list to receive next year’s email announcement. The pasture-raised pork, grass-fed Angus beef and free-range eggs can be purchased at Davidson, Elizabeth Avenue and Salisbury farmer’s markets, or by contacting the farm directly.

For more information, visit www.wildturkeyfarms.com or email them at wildturkey_farms@yahoo.com

Check out UCity magazine & RWalterPhotography

The pictures the photographer took at the farm are great!! We had finished up the Know Your Farms farm tour that day so we were a little tired but we had a lot of fun taking the pictures. That is actually the first "real" family portrait we have had taken since Charlie was born!

The BIG Chili Cook-Off

2011-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

I hope if you don't already have week-end plans you'll come out to Waterworks Visual Arts Center for the 3rd annual chili cook-off.

Rumor has it that there will be some WTF chili there.......

When I ate lunch at The Sweetest Thing yesterday there was Wild Turkey Farms chili on the menu & it was YUMMY!!

Hope to see you there!

WTF News- November 4, 2011

2011-11-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Nov 4

We hope everyone enjoyed our new 100% GRASS FED BEEF SNACK STICKS last weekend. We'll have more of them this weekend. Want to stock up?- just email us about bulk pricing.

This week- Chicken & Dumplin Special (or chicken soup if you prefer)- Leg Quarters $2.99/lb THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!!

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Elizabeth Farmers Market (9am-1pm) - We'll be back this weekend. Come stock up.
Salisbury Farmers Market_- (9am-noon)- Domisty will be back and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll 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.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

WTF News- October 28, 2011

2011-11-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Oct 28

Thanks to everyone who emailed for a turkey. Many of you may have been waitlisted but don't let that discourage you. If you haven't emailed us yet
please do and we'll put you on the waitlist.

We hope everyone enjoyed our new 100% GRASS FED BEEF SNACK STICKS last weekend. We'll have more of them this weekend. Don't forget that these and the pepperonis and salamis make great Halloween treats for yourself or someone special. Want to stock up?- just email us about bulk pricing.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Elizabeth Farmers Market (9am-1pm) - We'll be back this weekend. Come stock up.
Salisbury Farmers Market_- NOT THIS WEEK- Domisty will be back next weekend (Nov 5)and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll 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.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

It's Turkey Time

2011-10-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you new to WTF & our Thanksgiving turkeys.....

We offer our turkeys through our e-mail newsletter. You must be on the newsletter list to receive info about turkeys.

The 2011 turkeys have been claimed & a waitlist has begun!

IT'S TURKEY TIME!!!!

Here is the email you all have been waiting for. This will be short and sweet but will hopefully answer all of your questions. We are getting in the short rows as we close in on thanksgiving and the turkeys are growing right along.

We hope that this year our birds will be a little bigger than last year and they look to be on track to make 12-15lbs on average for the table. The price for this year is $4.65/lb.

If you are interested in reserving a bird please reply back to this email RIGHT NOW.

You will receive a confirmation email letting you know if you have- a)gotten a turkey; b)been added to the waitlist; or c)missed out this year. DO NOT SEND MONEY UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO IN YOUR CONFIRMATION EMAIL. Any "stray money" will be considered a donation to the "we love Wild Turkey Farms and wanted to buy you a beer fund"

As usual we will take a $20 deposit to hold your bird with the balance due at pick up. Also let us know if you have special request such as a smaller or a larger bird.

We plan to do the usual evening drops at Davidson and Salisbury, at the farm, and possibly somewhere in the Charlotte area (times to be announced). So if you will let us know where you'd like to pick up it will help in our planning.

Thanks for your support and we look forward to hearing from you.

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie
Wild Turkey Farms
China Grove NC
704-202-9348

Back in the Kitchen

2011-10-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

First, you start with apples

Then you enlist the help of a snaggle-toothed helper

Peeled apples.....

The finished product...yummy apples to enjoy this winter.

I asked Lee to pick me up some apples from the Davidson Farmer's Market on Saturday. I had big plans for what I was going to do with the apples but then something hit me like a ton of bricks. I laid down to rest at about 5 o'clock Saturday evening & did not get out of the bed until 8 o'clock the next morning but I felt SO MUCH better! I think sometimes our bodies know when enough is enough (at least mine does) and we have to slow down and rest.

There may still be a chance for making applesauce this week-end but if not we will have plenty of canned apples. Charlie has also requested apple cobbler but since this is Rosty's birthday week-end he has requested pumpkin pie. I think I'll make the pumpkin pie this week-end & the apple cobbler next week-end. I'm glad my kids enjoy yummy desserts like pumpkin pie (made with canned pumpkins from last year) & apple cobbler.

I also make a recipe called Slab Apple Pie. I cheat a little & use the pre-made pie shells & then freeze them. We have really enjoyed these & it's great to have a few of these in the freezer for when you need them!

4-H

2011-10-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you with kids ages 9 to 12 check out the following opportunity:

4-H Junior Day

4-H Junior Day will be held Saturday, November 5 at the Rowan County Extension Office. Registration begins at 9:30 and the day will conclude by 2:30. This event is open to youth ages 9-12. During the day, you will participate in workshops (nutrition, flag etiquette/citizenship, and rocketry). There will also be a community service opportunity. Lunch and snacks will be provided. The cost for the workshop is $5. You must email sara_drake@ncsu.edu or call 704-216-8970 by Monday, October 31 to register.

If interested in Rowan County 4-H opportunities check out the website & the blog.

WTF News- October 21, 2011

2011-10-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Oct 21

OK we're rested up and ready to get back to work. Hope to see everyone this weekend at the farmers markets but dress warm, it's going to be chilly in the morning.

This week we'll be restocked on Hickory Smoked Bacon, Lamb, and Beef !!!

We also welcome a new product to our lineup- BEEF SNACK STICKS- Looking for the perfect snack? Try our new beef snack sticks made from our 100% Grass Fed Beef. Look for them on the table at the farmers markets.

Grill Baby- Grill!!!!
-Grab a pack of hamburger & pack of American brats for $9 or make it hotdogs instead for $11

Crock Pot Filler
- Beef Osso Bucco roast $3/lb

Souper Special
- Beef soup bones $2/bag
- 3 meaty chicken backs for $3

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good still. This year's birds are $4.65/lb. Don't reply to this email but look for that all important turkey announcement in your inbox next week (say, about Wednesday afternoon somewhere around 4pm maybe???).

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market (8am- noon)- Domisty will be back this weekend and as always space is limited so email us your order and she'll have it ready for you to pick up.

Elizabeth Farmers Market (9am-1pm) - We'll be back this weekend. We'll have the grills fired up for brats and other goodies from the Customshop so stop by and load up your freezer and grab lunch with us.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

300 East- Charlotte

2011-10-19T06:00:00.002-07:00

For our belated anniversary supper we decided to try 300 East.

They are one of the restaurants that have been supporting Wild Turkey Farms by buying local & supporting other local farms also.

We started with the

Chesapeake Style Crab Cakes ~ with Remoulade and Corn Salsa

Lee had the Daily Seafood Special & I had the Spanish Pizza ~ Spiced Chicken, Serrano Ham, Smoked Gouda & Manchego with Roasted Pepper Tomato Sauce

Since it was our anniversary we splurged and had dessert which was Pumpkin Cheesecake.

My second choice was the Black Bean and Green Chile Chicken Tortilla ~ Brown Rice, Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Avocado, Lime Crema & House-Made Salsa........my next trip this is definitely what I will get!!

WTF News- October 14, 2011

2011-10-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Oct 14

As I was driving yesterday I realized that the green of summer is starting to give way to the colors of fall. Halloween is just around the corner. It's that time of year when the crock pots are yearning for a tasty WTF pork or grass fed beef roast but don't put your grill up just yet, the weatherman says we've got a great weekend ahead so let us stimulate the economy and your appetite with our grilling, crock pot, and souper specials.

Grill Baby- Grill!!!!
-Grab a pack of hamburger & pack of American brats for $9 or make it hotdogs instead for $11

Crock Pot Filler
- Beef Osso Bucco roast $3/lb

Souper Special
- Beef soup bones $2/bag
- 3 meaty chicken backs for $3

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good. Our turkeys are growing right along just like a turkey should so hopefully we'll have plenty of them this year. As usual we'll sell our thanksgiving turkeys through this email list. We'll have details on price, size, etc coming in the next month.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Reminder- We will Not be at either the Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market or at Salisbury Farmers Market this Saturday.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

WTF News- Ocober 7, 2011

2011-10-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Oct 7

Short and sweet again. Thanks to everyone that came out for the farm dinner last weekend, it was absolutely awesome. Check out the pics on the Wild Turkey Farms facebook page.

Hope you'll forgive us but with the farm tour and the farm dinner behind us we just couldn't pass up what may be the last beautiful weekend to run to the beach for a short break and some fishing. Hopefully by the time you are reading this I'll be floating along in the ocean on my kayak fishing. Courtney and Becky will be at Davidson to take care of you.

Thanks & have a great weekend.

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good. Our turkeys are growing right along just like a turkey should so hopefully we'll have plenty of them this year. As usual we'll sell our thanksgiving turkeys through this email list. We'll have details on price, size, etc coming in the next month.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Reminder- We will Not be at either the Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market or at Salisbury Farmers Market this Saturday or the next.
If you need to fill the freezer up next week email me an order and you can come by the farm to pick it up or we'll figure out someway to get it to you.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Pics are posted on Facebook

2011-10-04T08:06:00.001-07:00

If you want to see pics from the Farm Dinner check out our Facebook Page

Dinner on the Back Forty

2011-10-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Isn't there an old saying "It takes a village to raise a child"......well, it takes a village to put on a farm dinner too!

We are so appreciative to everyone that came out. We had a great turn-out and the weather cooperated with us. It did get a little cool but the bon-fire took care of that!

We would like to thank :

Our cooks- they did an excellent job on the pig!

The Chefs- the food was delicious!!!

Our local musician- love to hear her play & sing!

The flowers.

The many friends that let us borrow things- the tables, the chairs, the light plant, the mums.

The volunteers- we had help getting the evening feeding done, setting up & decorating the tables, keeping our kids occupied before, during & after the dinner.

A very SPECIAL THANK YOU to my husband, Lee.

He has worked so hard on the planning of this dinner & in my opinion he knocked it out of the ballpark!!!

I hope I did not forget anyone (that's why I did not name names) but please know we appreciate every one's support!

WTF News- September 30th

2011-09-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Sept 30

Short & Sweet this week- Been busy getting ready for the farm dinner this weekend & thanks to everyone who's coming. It's shaping up to be a great event. We've got some great new products in the works so stay tuned for details in the coming weeks. Have a great weekend.

On a personal note- Sept 29 marked 10 years of Domisty putting up with me on an official basis. I am truly blessed to have a partner that works as hard as she does to make everything happen. She manages to work a full time job, help at the farm, raise Rosty & Charlie, get up early on Saturdays to work the market, and still hasn't manage to kill me or the dog for getting in the way.....Thanks and I love you Do.

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good. Our turkeys are growing right along just like a turkey should so hopefully we'll have plenty of them this year. As usual we'll sell our thanksgiving turkeys through this email list. We'll have details on price, size, etc coming in the next month.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Reminder- We will Not be at either the Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market or at Salisbury Farmers Market this Saturday.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
300 East Restaurant- Charlotte
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Just Bear With Me.....

2011-09-29T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago I married my true love, my best friend!

Happy anniversary Lee, I love you!

Last Call

2011-09-26T06:59:00.001-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms

Last Call for Tickets - Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will put a white table cloth twist on a traditional down on the farm pig pickin with fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and there are just a few spots left so let us know asap if you still want to come.

thanks

WTF News- September 23

2011-09-26T06:58:00.001-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Sept 23

Last Call for Tickets - Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good. Our turkeys are growing right along just like a turkey should so hopefully we'll have plenty of them this year. As usual we'll sell our thanksgiving turkeys through this email list. We'll have details on price, size, etc coming in the next month.

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (~9am- noon)- Make plans to stock up this weekend because we won't be at the EFM Oct 1 (since we'll be getting ready for the farm dinner.)
Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Email us an order and we'll have it ready when you get there. Customshop plans to break out the grill again this weekend so come by and grab a bite to eat while you shop. The shrimp tacos were awesome last weekend!!!

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Thank You!

2011-09-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

As always preparing for the KYF (Know Your Farms) Farm Tour is always a busy time. There is always a little grumbling that we don't have enough time to do every thing we want to do around the farm & there are ALWAYS a few snafus to the day but this year just like the past 2 years we had a blast!! We love meeting all of you, getting to talk to you & answer your questions!

As always, we owe a big THANK YOU to our volunteers. There is no way we can do all the work ourselves so THANKS to our cooks, servers & market trailer staff.

This year we incorporated our Open House along with the KYF Farm Tour so we had several of our Salisbury customers & friends make their first visit to Wild Turkey Farms. We are always happy to show off the farm & have everyone visit and learn about the farm & our farming practices.

Again thanks to our volunteers, the KYF staff & volunteers and to all who came out to visit!

WTF News- September16, 2011

2011-09-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Sept 16

Cool weather finally!!! Been a busy couple weeks getting ready for our farm tour and open house Sunday afternoon but we're getting there. Hope everyone will be able to come visit.

Thanksgiving Turkeys- So far so good. Our turkeys are growing right along just like a turkey should so hopefully we'll have plenty of them this year. As usual we'll sell our thanksgiving turkeys through this email list. We'll have details on price, size, etc coming in the next month.

Farmers Markets- We're reloaded with our hickory smoked bacon this week but quantities are limited so reserve yours now!!!

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (~8:30am- noon)- Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Email us an order and we'll have it ready when you get there.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Upcoming Events:

Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

Sunday Sept 18- 1- 5pm We're on the Know Your Farms Tour again this year. In conjunction with the tour we will hold an open house so come by and see what's happening. No charge for just visiting our farm!!! We'll have hotdogs, brats, and possibly some BBQ available so fill up your bellies then fill up your freezer with some of our great natural meats. We'll also have a locally made favorite "Uncle Scott's Root Beer " available. No reservations necessary just drop by at 1015 Old Cress Rd Salisbury 28147

Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

15 Kid & Toddler Superfoods

2011-09-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

As many of you have heard my spiel at the Farmer's Market you know why we use the practices that we use at the farm. We not only want good healthy food with no antibiotic or hormones added for ourselves as well as for our kids.

So when I ran across this article I thought it made perfect since to share.

A list of 15 Kid & Toddler Super foods as reported by parenting.com:

1.Eggs

2.Oatmeal

3. Fruit

4. Nuts

5. Milk

6. Blueberries

7. Tofu

8. Tomatoes

9. Low-fat Greek yogurt

10. Cabbage

11. Salmon

12. Cocoa

13. Black Beans

14. Basil

15. Cinnamon

The only one that we don't eat at all is tofu. The other items either both or one of the boys will eat. Both of my boys LOVE fruit which I am so grateful. We eat seafood at least once a week (we actually had salmon on Sunday). And of course, we have a steady supply of eggs from our chickens.

Do you ever Google your name?

2011-09-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever just Google your name?

I do.

I google my name, Lee's name & the farm name. You'd be surprised at what you'll find sometimes. I have found articles that ran in our local newspapers that were picked up by newspapers in Virginia & Florida. I have found mention of articles in other blogs. I even found a comedian who was joking about our MPU.

Yesterday I was looking for a particular item & instead of finding what I was looking for exactly I found this article. It is very interesting so please read it but I will tell you my favorite part just in case you don't read it!

The author is talking about on-farm meat processing and she refers to a story that was featured in the Raleigh News & Observer about our MPU (mobile processing unit). She refers to Lee as " a successful and ingenious North Carolinian, Lee Menius." I LOVE IT!!!

WTF News- September 9, 2011

2011-09-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Sept 9

Another busy week has come and gone and we're nearly a third of the way through September already. Come see us at the markets this week.

Farmers Markets- We're reloaded with our hickory smoked bacon this week but quantities are limited so reserve yours now!!!

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (~8:30am- noon)- Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Email us an order and we'll have it ready when you get there.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Upcoming Events:

Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

Sunday Sept 18- 1- 5pm We're on the Know Your Farms Tour again this year. In conjunction with the tour we will hold an open house so come by and see what's happening. No charge for just visiting our farm!!! We'll have hotdogs, brats, and possibly some BBQ available so fill up your bellies then fill up your freezer with some of our great natural meats. We'll also have a locally made favorite "Uncle Scott's Root Beer " available. No reservations necessary just drop by at 1015 Old Cress Rd Salisbury 28147

Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11 we wanted to remember all those that lost their lives during that tragic event & since then defending our country.

WTF News- September 2, 2011

2011-09-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Sept 2

Fall is in the air finally, well sort of. We've had a few nice cool mornings, cooler daytime temps, and even a few leaves changing/ falling though I'm not sure if it's from fall or just an overall lack of water this summer. This lack of water is starting to become a real problem for our grass fed beef production and we really appreciate everyone tolerating our fluctuating stock of beef this summer. Normally our summer pastures can really pack the pounds on them but this year has even been rough on the weeds which have been drying up. Hopefully we'll have a better fall to finish out our remaining animals and then we can start getting ready for next spring.

As if the hot temps and drought haven't been enough, the corn crop (which is just getting started) is poised to begin at the highest prices I've ever seen (at anytime of the year). When we started raising hogs in 2002 corn was about $2.30 per bushel (that's 56lbs) and soybeans were about $4.50/ bushel. This week's market report has corn at over $8.25/bushel and soybeans at close to $15/bushel and I've heard rumors of $12 corn in Chicago. I joked with another hog producer yesterday that it might be about time to update the resume, but I seriously hope it doesn't come to that just yet. I've been blessed to get to this point in my life where I enjoy my work and have a boss (Domisty) that doesn't beat me up too bad most of the time.

Labor Day is a great time to fire up the grill. Come stock up on chicken, chops, burgers, hotdogs and brats for your holiday weekend (or next hurricane party)!!!

Our Grill Baby Grill Special is back for Labor Day
-Grab a pack of hamburger & pack of American brats for $9.50 or make it hotdogs for $11

Farmers Markets- We're reloaded on the pork chops, ham steaks, brats, and all the pork grilling goodies!!!
Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (~8:30am- noon)- Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Email us an order and we'll have it ready when you get there.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Upcoming Events:

Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

Sunday Sept 18- 1- 5pm We're on the Know Your Farms Tour again this year. In conjunction with the tour we will hold an open house so come by and see what's happening. No charge for just visiting our farm!!! We'll have hotdogs, brats, and possibly some BBQ available so fill up your bellies then fill up your freezer with some of our great natural meats. We'll also have a locally made favorite "Uncle Scott's Root Beer " available. No reservations necessary just drop by at 1015 Old Cress Rd Salisbury 28147

Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM/ EFM
Carpe Diem Restaurant- Charlotte
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
The Sweetest Thing- Salisbury
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

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

Thanksgiving is right around the corner......

2011-08-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Where in the World is WTF???

2011-08-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

I know we have been almost non-existent this past month. I wish I had a good story to tell you but the truth is that we have been EXTREMELY busy with just our everyday life & duties.

We very much need a vacation but when you have a farm & animals vacations almost never happen. So we decided that we would do a few day trips. You may remember that we took the boys on a canoe trip to the New River.

Charlie also celebrated his birthday this summer so my parents treated our family to an overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge.

This is a picture of the boys in the room with their swimming suits on ready to go to the water park. We had a lot of fun. Rosty has already requested this for his birthday too!

Lee & I were able to get away for a total of 26 hours......Don't laugh we enjoyed every hour that we were away! We were in the Linville Falls area. So we hiked to the falls....I realized how out of shape I was and it wasn't a long hike at all!

We missed the excitement though......

This happened the day before we were there

We decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway home....

& stop for a picnic.

The Menu:

WTF pepperoni & salami with cheese & crackers

Cantaloupe wrapped in WTF prosciutto

Homemade salsa & chips

Plums

School also started this week

I took my camera to the farm & took some pics of the animals & I have ideas for blog topics tucked away in my mind so hopefully we'll be back on track next week with new blog entries.

Thanks for your continues support of WTF.

WTF News- August 26, 2011

2011-08-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 26

I've got lots of stories & farming commentary swirling around between my ears but unfortunately it's late, we just survived the first day of school, and I'm beat so I guess I'll have to keep you in suspense until next time.

Hopefully if everything falls into place we'll be restocked on pork chops, tenderloin, boston butts, etc this weekend. Check out our WTF Facebook page for last minute details.

We still have some of our All Beef Hotdogs Made From Our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef- THESE ARE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY SO COME GET EM WHILE WE GOTTEM!

RABBITS ARE HERE!!!! As announced earlier this year, we have expanded our offerings and our rabbits are finally ready but quantities are very limited. If you'd like to get one email us an order & we'll have it ready to pick up at the market of your choice.

Farmers Markets-
Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Upcoming Events:

- Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

-Sunday Sept 18- 1- 5pm We're on the Know Your Farms Tour again this year. In conjunction with the tour we will hold an open house so come by and see what's happening. No charge for just visiting our farm!!! We'll have hotdogs, brats, and possibly some BBQ available so fill up your bellies then fill up your freezer with some of our great natural meats. We'll also have a locally made favorite "Uncle Scott's Root Beer " available. No reservations necessary just drop by at 1015 Old Cress Rd Salisbury 28147

Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

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

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

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

WTF News- August 19, 2011

2011-08-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 19

HOTDOGS, PEPPERONIS, & SALAMIS ARE BACK!!!!

And this week we got a small batch of All Beef Hotdogs Made From Our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef- THESE ARE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY SO COME GET EM WHILE WE GOTTEM!

RABBITS ARE HERE!!!! As announced earlier this year, we have expanded our offerings and our rabbits are finally ready but quantities are very limited. If you'd like to get one email us an order & we'll have it ready to pick up at the market of your choice.

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Sunday Oct 2 5:30 pm - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Back Forty. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as longtime friends and WTF supporters Chefs Trey Wilson & Justin Solomon from Customshop restaurant in Charlotte will serve up so white table cloth food, fine wines, and local brews in a green pasture setting. Dinner will feature our WTF meats and other local foods from local farmers and fishermen. Tickets are $60 and will be for sale at the farmers markets Saturday but seating is limited so make sure & hurry.

Sunday Sept 18- 1- 5pm We're on the Know Your Farms Tour again this year. In conjunction with the tour we will hold an open house so come by and see what's happening. We'll have hotdogs and brats available so fill up your bellies then fill up your freezer with some of our great natural meats.

Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

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

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

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

WTF News- August 12, 2011

2011-08-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 12

Pasture Roasted Pork, Beef, and Chicken

Rain Rain PLEASE!!! Weatherman says it looks like rain (again) so let's all keep our fingers crossed. Last weekend he promised it to us and all of it fell in downtown Charlotte. Some luck huh? Just plan on coming to the market early to dodge the afternoon showers. I guess the chickens are starting to get used to the heat because we're getting plenty of eggs now so come stock up.

HOTDOGS, PEPPERONIS, & SALAMIS ARE BACK!!!!

And this week we got a small batch of All Beef Hotdogs Made From Our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef- THESE ARE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY SO COME GET EM WHILE WE GOTTEM!

RABBITS ARE HERE!!!! As announced earlier this year, we have expanded our offerings and our rabbits are finally ready but quantities are very limited. If you'd like to get one email us an order & we'll have it ready to pick up at the market of your choice.

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendence so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- WTF is whole again- A Hubbell is back!!! This week we welcome back Becky Hubbell after being gone to a cooler climate all summer. Courtney and Becky will be at Davidson so come check them out. Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

Save The Dates

Sunday Oct 2 - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Farm. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as Chef Trey and Chef Justin of the Customshop Restaurant serve up a fine dining experience on the farm. Dinner will feature our WTF pasture raised meats, organic produce from other local farms, fresh caught NC seafood from local fishermen, and music from local artists. Details and tickets will be available soon.

Sept 17-18- Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

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

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

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

WTF News- August 5, 2011

2011-08-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 5

Pasture Roasted Pork, Beef, and Chicken

Rain Rain PLEASE!!! Weatherman says it looks like rain so let's all keep our fingers crossed.

As the saying goes- "Any publicity is good publicity". Whoever said that never had our luck. Many of you may have seen the news about the giant turkey meat recall. Somehow our "friends" at one of the Charlotte news stations listed Wild Turkey Farms not as being involved in the recall but as one of the larger turkey farms in NC. We figure (hope) that there was a high school intern that googled turkey farms in NC and we popped up. After more than 10 years dealing with television, radio, and paper reporters, it's still amazing the lack of fact checking that occurs in some of our news sources.

I would like to take this time to thank everyone that helps support Wild Turkey Farms. We work hard to provide you with safe, healthy, and high quality foods that you can feel good about feeding your family. Hopefully these recalls help everyone realize the importance of having that direct connection with your food and farmer. Join those that enjoy this confidence and come see us at the market.

Save The Dates

Sunday Oct 2 - Join us for our first WTF Dinner on the Farm. Send the kids to the sitter's and join us as Chef Trey and Chef Justin of the Customshop Restaurant serve up a fine dining experience on the farm. Dinner will feature our WTF pasture raised meats, organic produce from other local farms, fresh caught NC seafood from local fishermen, and music from local artists. Details and tickets will be available soon.

Sept 17-18- Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Know Your Farms Charlotte Area Farm Tour, Go to www.knowyourfarms.com for ticket info.

HOTDOGS, PEPPERONIS, & SALAMIS ARE BACK!!!!

And this week we got a small batch of All Beef Hotdogs & Pastrami Made From Our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef- BOTH ARE VERY LIMITED & FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY SO COME GET EM WHILE WE GOTTEM!

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Courtney and Joe will be covering for us again at Davidson so come check them out. Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

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

WTF News- July 29, 2011

2011-08-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- July 29

HOT & DRY- the same ole story. You know it's too hot and too dry when the briars and the crabgrass start to dry up. As the boys and I were making the evening rounds we decided that we're going to change all of our farm signs from "Pasture Raised Pork, Beef, and Chicken" to " Pasture Roasted".

HOTDOGS, PEPPERONIS, & SALAMIS ARE BACK!!!!

And this week we got a small batch of All Beef Hotdogs & Pastrami Made From Our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef- BOTH ARE VERY LIMITED & FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY SO COME GET EM WHILE WE GOTTEM!

WE ARE RELOADED ON OUR GRASS FED LAMB & BEEF TOO!!! Ground, Chops, Kabobs, Steaks, Short Ribs, Etc- we've got it all (even if it's only for a while)

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Courtney and Joe will be covering for us again at Davidson so come check them out. Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

WTF Update

2011-08-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to assure everyone that Wild Turkey Farms is not linked in any way to recent turkey meat recall. Thanks for your support!

WTF News July 22, 2011

2011-07-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- July 22

MISERABLY HOT & HUMID. That's the only way to describe the majority of this week. I (and all the critters) am hoping that we'll get a break soon but it looks like at least a couple more days to go. Things at the farm have been going full bore for the past couple weeks.

The Great Goose Roundup 2011
This spring we thought it would be a great learning experience to let Rosty and Charlie hatch some goose eggs from our pair of Chinese geese. Fortunately (or unfortunately- however you want to look at it) we had good luck hatching them off and have been awash in geese ever since. After a few semi-successful ads in the local feed stores and on Craigslists, we were still plagued with 11 of these increasingly aggressive, hissing, leg biting, pasture alarms. Lucky for us, our neighbor Andy was going to the livestock sale in Shelby on Thursday and had room for a few extra hitchhikers. About 20 minutes until dark we began the attack- Domisty, Rosty, Charlie, & myself. After a few failed attempts at herding them to the barn we decided to try the "crowd, dive, and grab technique". Now this may sound cruel and borderline on animal cruelty but I can assure you that the geese fared quite well. Domisty and he boys fared quite well since they left all of the majority of the "dive & grab" part to me. As if being hot, sweaty, and out of breath weren't enough, the geese seemed to stay in the areas covered with bull nettles, spiny pigweed, and goose poop which made the "dive" part of the technique rather unenjoyable. This went on until about 30 minutes after dark and all but 1 goose had been caught. I unfortunately underestimated the amount of attachment that Rosty & Charlie had for one small goose in the group, so this was followed 30 minutes of crying about having to sell "Baby Goose". Lucky for them there was only enough room on Andy's truck for 9 geese so Baby got a reprieve for now. Who knows, perhaps one of you would like a goose for Christmas.....

The turkeys are in!!! We got 200 baby turkeys in this week and so far they are doing good despite the heat. Some of you may recall that last year the heat claimed a large chunk of our turkeys but we're hoping it won't be the case this year. We'll plan on starting our Thanksgiving turkey list in mid October (but we have plenty of time to get you the details on that so stay tuned).

HOTDOGS ARE BACK!!!! We picked them up Thursday so come by the markets and stock up on this summertime favorite.

WE ARE RELOADED ON OUR GRASS FED LAMB & BEEF TOO!!! Picked it up on Thursday too. Ground, Chops, Kabobs, Steaks, Short Ribs, Etc- we've got it all (even if it's only for a while)

Pepperoni and Salami are still a couple weeks out.

Elizabeth Ave Farmers Market (8am- noon)- We've just started at this brand new farmers market. Our friends Chef Charles Catering, Landis Gourmet Mushrooms, Customshop Restaurant, and Stone Seafood are all in attendance so come visit see us on Elizabeth Ave (1 block back toward uptown from Customshop). Send us an order and we'll

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Courtney and Joe will be covering for us again at Davidson so come check them out. Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

Who felt like this today?

2011-07-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

What does WTF do for fun???

2011-07-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just gotta have some fun!

We woke yesterday morning & Lee said "Let's go canoeing!"

As a family we had never been canoeing before & it has probably been 15 years since I have been in a canoe but I thought it sounded fun & I thought the kids would love playing in the water.

We drove up to Jefferson, NC to New River Outfitters.

I was a little nervous on the way up because it was looking dark in the direction we were going but we were 30 minutes away so we kept on. We got our canoe rented & loaded up in the van for them to take us to the drop off point and guess what....it started raining. luckily, it was a light rain & only lasted about 15 minutes. It never really warmed up even though the sun did try to peak out a few times.

We had a great time! Lee took his fishing rod & got to do a little fishing, the boys got to play in the water & I took my book but read the same paragraph 3 times so I just took pictures & watched the boys play! The water was just a little cold for me.....I know I'm a wimp!

I'm already planning our next trip....maybe we'll camp next time!

Charlie
My boys

Me & my boys

Rosty

The boys playing in the water

WTF News- July 15

2011-07-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- July 15

Thank goodness for the cool weather, that heat and humidity was about to get the best of us and all the critters. As usual it's been a busy couple weeks and this summer I've had the pleasure of being a full time farmer and babysitter since both of the boys spend the day with me at the farm. Luckily both my mom and grandma live at the farm so the boys have somewhere to go when things get too busy or hot. The boys have really enjoyed the heat since we set one of our cattle water tanks " aka- the swimming pool" up under the pecan tree for them to swim in and the afternoon breaks at grandma's house consist of homemade ice cream or ice cold watermelon. Domisty has been busy canning so that we can eat good all winter long. The pigs are the real winners as they get to enjoy the watermelon rinds and trimmings from Domisty's canning adventures which is usually accompanied by a cool water hose down. All in all I guess we're making do even when it's hot. It's shaping up to be a great weekend so come see us at the markets Saturday.

I know we told many of you that we'd have em back this week but I just got word this morning that they are not able to deliver our hotdogs this week. Real bummer for all of us. Pepperoni and Salami are a couple weeks out too.
Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & we'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

CAN you guess what I have been up to?

2011-07-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

You start with green beans

then you snap the green beans

then you prep the green beans for the canner

Ta Da!

Fresh-canned green beans for this winter.

Thanks to my photographer Rosty who took the first two pictures!

Canning Workshop

2011-07-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested in learning to can here is a great opportunity.

Canning Workshop is July 12

Cooperative Extension will host a canning workshop for anyone interested in learning the basics of home canning.
Canning high-acid foods will be covered from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Participants will learn the principles of home canning and how to safely home can summer produce for use all year long. The class is hands-on, and each participant will leave with a jar of canned food prepared during the workshop. A $10 charge will cover handouts, Ball Blue Book and all canning supplies. Space is limited so pre-registration is required. Pre-register by 5 p.m., Monday by calling 704-216-8970.

Toi Degree, Family and Consumer Education Agent will be the instructor.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Lifestyle/070611-canning-workshop-qcd

From the garden

2011-07-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

I always start out with good intentions.......

If you are a regular visitor you may remember that I was trying to post a recipe every week of something that was in the CSA basket. We started out with some things that were not so common to everyone.....Swiss chard, kale, Bok Choy. I thought it would help our CSA customers to know what to do with some of the vegetables & it woul help me with alternate ideas.

The first few weeks I did alright and then we got busy at the farm & the Farmer's Markets started and well you kow life just happens.

So, I have decided to share a favorite family recipe for Zucchini Bread.

I have no story behing this recipe. It wasn't passed down to me from anyone. In fact, I had never heard of Zucchini Bread until I was married and we had our first garden together. The running joke with zucchini is that you have so much that you can't give it away to your neighbors. So I was trying to find ANYTHING to do with zucchini.

Some of my favorite cookbooks that I have are from church groups or civic groups. The cookbook that I got my Zucchini Bread recipe from is named Open Your Heart For Closed Eyes Cooking With Friends of Pilot Dogs.

For more information about Pilot Dogs, Inc.

I started with zucchini

I waited too late to get a picture of all the bread!

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease bottoms only of two 9x5 or 8x4 loaf pans (I normally make 1 large loaf & 2 mini loaves).In large bowl beat eggs until foamy. Stir in sugar, zucchini, oil and vanilla. Blend in the remaining ingredients by hand: flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & nuts. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Cool completely. Makes 2 loaves.

*****

When we have zucchini in the garden I make this recipe at least once a week. Charlie LOVES it! If you notice the note I made in the recipe I usually make 2 mini loaves that way you can share the Zucchini bread with someone.

ENJOY!!

Wild Turkey Farms News

2011-07-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- July 1- Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!!

Treat your grill right and celebrate your independence from industrially raised meats this weekend with delicious, local, antibiotic & steroid free WTF meats.

Our 4th Of July grilling special is back again this year- 1 pack of our delicious grass-fed hamburger + 1 pack of American Brats for $9.00

We tried really hard to get our hotdogs back for this weekend but it just didn't happen. Sorry for the inconvenience but it makes for a good chance to try our German, apple, or beer brats instead.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

We do have turkeys at Wild Turkeys Farms

2011-06-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Many times at the Farmer's Market I'll get the comment "Wild Turkey Farms- the kind you drink or eat?" (insert laugh). Just in case you are unfamiliar there is a Wild Turkey Bourbon.

I also will have at least one person every Farmer's Market ask if our meat is turkey meat. Even though on my sign it says pasture-raised pork & grass-fed beef.

I also occasionally have people ask if we sell wild turkey meat.

So the answers to the questions are as follows:

laugh..."No, not the kind you drink."

"No, we don't sell turkey except at Thanksgiving."

"No, we don't sell wild turkey but we do sell turkeys at Thanksgiving."

Just a reminder we do sell turkeys at Thanksgiving. But in order to sign up for a turkey purchase you must be on our email newsletter list. That is how we release all the details for our Thanksgiving turkeys!

See if you can find the hen in this picture?

She has a nest of eggs she is protecting

She was not happy that I was taking pictures of her.

You can see in this picture that her feathers were ruffled!
I assured her that I was going to make her an Internet sensation!!

More pictures from WTF

2011-06-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Laying hens

Broilers- meat birds

This is Phineus

As you all know every year we have a few lambs that must be bottle-fed . This was Bottle-Fed Baby #3 this year.

Do these sheep have it made or what?

Just relaxing in a nice, cool part of the pasture.

Llama Bean- defender of the farm

Annie- defender of the farm

2011-06-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

This was going to be my Happy Father's Day post from Wild Turkey Farms with pictures of all the animals but time got away from me and now it's after Father's Day. So you'll just have to settle for some pictures of the animals for the next couple of days.

Aren't they precious?

Pigs don't sweat so we make them wallows to lay in and cool off on these hot days.

Notice Marty (the goose) in the background.

Baby pigs

Arnold

WTF News- June 10

2011-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- June 10

Hot and humid are the words of the week. It's been a scorcher around the farm this week but we did manage to get several good showers since yesterday evening. Rosty and I were feeding after the first hard rain came through and it's amazing how within 30 minutes of getting rain everything greens up and looks much better. The hot weather still has our chickens feeling the egg laying blues so we'll be short on eggs again this week- come early!!!

Come by and check out this week's grilling special- The WTF/ Red Barn K-Bob Pack!!! We've teamed up with our friends at Correll Farms to offer a quick and ready kabob kit. Kit includes a basket of kabob sized veggies (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and onions) from Correll Farms teamed up with your choice of a pasture raised WTF boneless chicken breast, a pack of our 100% grassfed beef kabobs, or a delicious WTF pork shoulder steak.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

Garden Peas & New Toys

2011-06-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

One of Lee's favorite vegetables are garden peas. Me not so much but we decided this year to plant some garden peas. If you haven't picked peas in awhile my suggestion is to take 2- 5 gallon buckets- one to put the peas in & one to sit on! It is definitely back-breaking work.

We also enlisted the help of the boys. Charlie ate 95% of what he picked & Rosty was more interested in digging in the dirt than helping to pick garden peas. I told them no pick no eat. Of course, they know that is not true;-)

I really do not mind shelling peas or beans of any kind. I have a lot of memories of shelling butter beans as a little girl. For those of you not familiar with butter beans they are similar to Lima beans. I was surprised when I moved here not to find butter beans......but the past 2 years they have been showing up at the Farmer's Market in the fall.

Here are some of the peas .

They had already been blanched & were waiting to be bagged up & vacuumed packed.

This is Lee's latest toy.

If you have purchased chicken from us in the past 2 weeks, I hope you have noticed our fancy new packaging. We have really enjoyed the vacuum packer for not only chicken but......

vegetables also.

We froze 30 bags of broccoli & 20 bags of peas. The Menius family will have a couple of other green vegetables to eat this winter.....I think the family got tired of collards & green beans every week last year.

Crowder Aggies

2011-06-06T07:04:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about the farm is when we have people who are truly interested in what we do & want to learn more about us and our farm.

Throughout the years we have gone to preschools, elementary schools & colleges to speak about the farm & our sustainable agriculture practices. I have a standing date at a preschool in Kannapolis every November to talk to the kids about turkeys & show them a PowerPoint presentation of farm animals. We have gone to our kids schools with bees (in an observation hive), our scrapbook with pictures of the animals (no live animals allowed in school) & this year Lee talked to Rosty's class on Earth Day about composting.

We had a group from Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri come to visit the farm a few weeks back. They were a group of Instructors & Students who were on a 2 week Agricultural Travel Seminar. Every year they choose a part of the U.S to travel to and visit various kinds of agriculture. Their majors varied from pre-vet, animal science & ag-business (I'm sure there were other too) . They made stops in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina & North Carolina. They saw wineries, horse farms, a grist mill, Farmer's Markets and more.

We got to spend about 2 hours talking to them and answering questions. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures and really did not get to spend a lot of time talking to them personally. They were headed to another local farm Mary L Farm, which is an organic dairy in rowan County. We were able to pass out our famous WTF stickers......which I heard ended up on the back of one of the Crowder College vans they were driving & we even had "farm prizes" of some WTF t-shirts.

We hope that the Crowder College group enjoyed visiting with us as much as we enjoyed having them. Like I told them before they left they are always welcome back to visit if they are ever in North Carolina again!

WTF News- June 3

2011-06-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- June 3
Been a hot busy week & it's near midnight so please forgive me for the short newsletter.

If everything continues as planned we'll pick up our order of smoked pork and have it Saturday at the markets. Suburban hams, smoked chops, smoked bacon, breakfast links, smoked polish, and New Smoked Andouillee.

Come by and stock up.

Pepperoni chubs are back!!!! We've got a batch of Sweet Sopressata Salami chubs to go with them. If you like the pepperoni then you'll love the salami.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

We will Not be at the Mecklenburg Farmers Market

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

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

Bread & Butter Pickles

2011-06-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite vegetables...cucumbers.

Lee does not really care for cucumbers so I can usually have all the cucumbers I want. In the summer I usually cut them up & bring them to work as a snack. I love to slice cucumbers & soak them in vinegar, eat them with hummus or as a snack this week-end I crumbled Feta Cheese (from the Davidson Farmer's Market) over sliced cucumbers.

A couple of years ago I decided to try my hand at dill pickles because I also LOVE dill pickles. My first time making pickles actually went really good, the pickles were really "dilly" the problem was that they were not crisp they were mushy. After talking to some "old-time" canners & reading the troubleshooting tips in my Ball Canning Book I think I figured out my problem.

I wasn't going to let that experience stop me!

Since I had cucumbers but no fresh dill I decided to try Bread & Butter Pickles.

I searched through my pickling book and found Bread & Butters My Way.

I had all the ingredients that I needed.

Vinegar, Pickling Salt, Red Pepper Flakes, Yellow Mustard Sees, Celery Seed & Turmeric

I sliced the cucumbers & tossed them with the pickling salt then let them sit for 3 hours.

The pickles are processed in a water bath canner. So I had to prepare the jars, bands, & lids. One very important thing that I did not do was to inspect my canning jars. I reuse my jars so after I empty a jar out I wash it in the dishwasher & store them in plastic Rubbermaid containers.

While getting all the ingredients (pictured above) boiling on the stove, I was also getting the water bath canner water boiling & sterilized the jars again and placed them in a warm oven until I am ready to put the pickles in them.

I get the first jar ready & place it in the canner. I heard a "clink" but just thought the jar had shifted in the wire basket. I prepare the next 2 jars and place them in the canner when I realize that there are mustard seeds floating in the canner. At first, I think that I probably did not wipe the jars off but then I realize that there are several mustard seeds floating. You guessed it....my first jar had broke. It was a very clean break the top separated from the bottom. No shards, not really a lot of mess to clean up.

I got the 2 pieces of glass out, then I fished out all the cucumber slices (which I had to throw away), & drained the water, then I had to start all over again. I did FINALLY complete the process but the pickles have to sit for 3 weeks before we can try them.

The finished product

My Adventures in Pickling

2011-06-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

The Joy of Pickling

If you keep up with the blog you know for Mother's Day I got a Pickling Cookbook. You also know that I don't like things to go to waste (which unfortunately does happen sometimes). So, whenever I get a chance to preserve vegetables & fruits whether it be canning, freezing or dehydrating I'm all for it.

I'm very fortunate to have a husband who likes to have a garden every year. He starts getting seed catalogs in the winter & is in the greenhouse planting seeds in February. We also have some friends who are willing to share their bounty too.

Over the next few days I'm going to share some recipes that I have tried the past few weeks. Pickled Kohlrabi, Pink Pickled Turnips, Sweet Pickled Daikon, Bread & Butters My Way......is your mouth watering?

Most of the recipes require storing the jars in a cool, dry, dark place for several days to several weeks. So far we have eaten some of the Pickled Kohlrabi & it was pretty tasty. Tonight we can have some of the Pickled Sweet Daikon so look for an update on that tomorrow.

I was able to get several bundles of Daikon at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, WTF did not grow Daikon this year. Daikon is a Japanese white radish, it looks like a big white carrot. Daikon is not something I have cooked with but it is used in a lot of oriental type recipes & if I don't know how to use a vegetable I always put in in stir-fry!

Daikon

I chose the Sweet Pickled Daikon recipe (Page 123 in The Joy Of Pickling). I love the description in the cookbook, "The strong, rather foul odor of this Japanese pickle makes it especially fun to serve to friends. It taste much, much better than it smells."

Pickling Ingredients- rice vinegar, sugar & pickling salt

The recipe calls for the Daikon to be dried in the sun until limp (3-4 days) but it was noted by the author that this step can be skipped. Sun-drying is suppose to preserve the Daikon longer. I opted to skip this step.

Soon-to-Be Pickled Daikon

This recipe went good...no mishaps. But stay-tuned........

*****UPDATE******

We tried the Sweet Pickled Daikon...there is nothing sweet about it! There was a foul odor & it definitely left an aftertaste. To quote Lee, "yuck!"

It's definitely a conversation food........

Did you hear there was a Riot in the Pasture?

2011-05-31T07:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.salisburypost.com/Lifestyle/052811-Riot-in-pasture-qcd

By Glenn Hudson
For The Salisbury Post

A glass of sweet ice tea does taste better when sipped beneath a mammoth pin oak on a warm spring afternoon. In fact, in the shade of three of these magnificent trees, approximately 200 fans of local food enjoyed some of the best vegetables, meats and other produce that Rowan County farms have to offer. It tasted better because it was farm fresh from our own backyard.
The “Riot in the Pasture,” held at beautiful Correll Farms on the outskirts of Salisbury near Woodleaf Road, included live bluegrass music, hayrides and sheep-shearing. But quite frankly, the collard greens and sweet onion casserole, prepared by The Sweetest Thing, demanded as much attention as the surroundings. The pulled pork was prepared by Wild Turkey Farms and Bame Farms, and T & D Charolais prepared the beef brisket. “What was most exciting to us was to see so many people come out in support of local food,” said Christine Wilson, president of the board of directors for the Bread Riot. “We had a lot of people here that are just learning about the Winter Harvest program. That is exciting for our local farmers.”

The band No. 9 Coal brought the children onto the dance floor for some improvised dancing lessons while adults enjoyed whole-wheat strawberry shortcake that the bakers from The Sweetest Thing created using locally ground flour from Hoffner Organic Farms. It made for an impressive culinary feast fit for a celebration.

“I liked hanging out with all my friends and listening to the music,” said Ian Walser, 9, who enjoyed the expansive setting of Correll Farms. “It’s not like your own backyard where you are crowded by neighbors. It is unlimited space. You have a lot more room to play around.”

Regardless, a tree close to the stage attracted a lot of attention from the children despite the fact they had acres of room to roam and explore. It gave the event the feel of a huge family picnic.

“I climbed this magnolia tree. And there were a lot of other kids climbing it also,” said Autumn Walser, 7, Ian’s sister. “There were six long branches. And we could walk to the end of them and peer out of the tree and spy on the other kids. Everybody was chasing each other around.”

While the children played, the parents enjoyed the food and the fellowship. “The setting, to me, it felt like a homecoming,” said Tracy Walser, Ian and Autumn’s mother. “There were so many different people from around town. And everyone was gathering around the tables for a home-grown meal. Everything was just comfortable. It was fun to see as many people from the community get together and support our farmers. And the food was outstanding.”

The Bread Riot hosted the event to educate citizens about the benefits of local food and local farms and to celebrate the fact that the group recently obtained its non-profit status. The Bread Riot facilitates the supply of locally produced food through the Winter Harvest program, which fills the gap during the time when the farmer’s market is closed.

Some of the benefits of local food include low transportation costs for the farmer, which means a better price for the consumer and lower impact on the environment. Moreover, the Bread Riot teams with farms that use organic farming methods that are free from hormones, medications and pesticides.

Interesting reads

2011-05-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

USDA lowers minimum safe cooking temperature for pork

USDA Lowers Minimum Safe Cooking Temperature For Pork

A bit of pre-Memorial Day culinary news from the United States Department of Agriculture's website - the federal agency is dropping their baseline metric for safe pork cooking from 160°F to 145°F.

USDA is lowering the recommended safe cooking temperature for whole cuts of pork from 160°F to 145°F and adding a three-minute rest time. The safe temperature for cuts of beef, veal, and lamb remains unchanged at 145°F, but the department is adding a three-minute rest time as part of its cooking recommendations.

Cooking raw pork, steaks, roasts, and chops to 145°F with the addition of a three-minute rest time will result in a product that is both microbiologically safe and at its best quality.

Check out these links too:

Check out the minimum cooking temperatures on FoodSafety.gov.

Using a meat thermometer

Holy Smoke!

2011-05-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Holy Smoke Team!

Wild Turkey Farms is proud to say that our pork was used by the Holy Smoke Team at the 2011 Salisbury Rowan BBQ Festival in Spencer (see below story).

Holy Smoke Facebook Page

Wrong names announced at NC BBQ Festival

http://www.salisburypost.com/News/052111-Winners-for-BBQ-festival-qcd

SPENCER — The wrong winners were inadvertently announced last weekend at the 2011 Salisbury Rowan BBQ Festival in Spencer.

The correct winners are:
First place — Patterson Porkery, Chase Overcash

Second place — Team Smoky Lane, Keith Lane

Third place — Holy Smoke Team, Jeff Swicegood

People’s Choice — Blowin’ Smoke, Jack Moore (first) and Holy Smoke, Jeff Swicegood (second)

Pitmaster’s Award — Holy Smoke, Jeff Swicegood

“It is to the embarrassment of the SCA Foundation, the sponsors and the competitors that it happened,” said George Busby, coordinator for the festival and director of the Salisbury Cultural Arts Foundation.

Busby said it’s taken him all week to find, correlate and correct the paper trail to determine the exact winners.

“I must personally take ultimate responsibility for the error and promise to put in effect proper safeguards for 2012,” he said in a press release.

All competitors have been notified by phone or email, and the winners are

posted on the BBQ Festival website, he said.

“Although there is no cash prize attached to any award, the integrity of the competition awards is paramount in importance to all,” Busby said.

Next year, the event will be even better, he said.

WTF News- May 20

2011-05-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- May 20

Pepperoni chubs are back!!!! We've got a batch of Sweet Sopressata Salami chubs to go with them. If you like the pepperoni then you'll love the salami. We'll be sampling some at the markets this weekend so come give them a try.

Mecklenburg Farmers Market (Sat 10-noon) WTF will be back at the Mecklenburg Farmers Market at CMC this Saturday. Many of you have met our newest helper, Joe Andry at the Davidson Farmers Market and this weekend he'll be handling this market for us. Email us to place an order and Joe will have it ready to pick up.

( http://mecklenburgcountymarket.com )

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

Eating seasonally

2011-05-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

This is a bird's eye view of 1 of our gardens (taken from the top of the grain bin) & that is my husbands lovely finger in the picture!
We try every year to have a nice plentiful garden. Not only do we want to have fresh fruits & vegetables available for ourselves & family but we want to preserve for the fall & winter also.

As much as eating local is important to us eating seasonally is also. As mentioned in past posts my kids are getting tired of kohlrabi. Last weeks kohlrabi adventures were adding shredded kohlrabi to slaw (used for hot dogs and which I later used on fish tacos) & pickled kohlrabi. The pickled kohlrabi needed to sit a few days but hopefully we will try it tonight.

I have also made weekly batched of kale chips. I even brought some to work & made the guys I work with try them. They either liked them or just humored me by saying they were good.

We've also had lots of lettuce but I like a salad loaded with things like tomatoes & cucumbers and we all know the grocery store tomatoes aren't the best this time of year.

One of Lee's favorites is broccoli. We have had raw broccoli with homemade dip & added to stir fry. We will definitely have broccoli later this fall & winter because we put 30 bags (approx. 1-lb. bags) in the freezer this week.

So what's next you may ask ask? What fruit & vegetables can we expect to see in our gardens or at Farmer's Markets in the next few weeks.

Check out this link to find out What's in Season? in North Carolina.

Farm Visitor

2011-05-17T04:42:00.001-07:00

For several years this fellow has been a resident of WTF. I don't remember exactly when we first saw him but he has been around the farm for awhile.

My first encounter with him I was walking into the garage and I saw him slithering into the flower bed. I went to find Lee and he decided that the snake needed to be relocated to the pasture- which I agreed with.

The part I did not agree with was that he needed my help to relocate him. Let me take just a moment to say that I am not a snake fan- enough said!

Lee got a feed sack to put the snake in & my job was to hold the sack open. If you can imagine me trying to hold the sack open while standing just as far away as I could from the sack, the whole time saying "quick, quick, get him in there."

The snake was in the bag & ready to be relocated. We put the sack down for about 5 minutes while we rounded the kids back up to head down to the creek. When Lee picked up the sack it felt light. Guess what! There was a hole in the feed sack........

But he never went far.

We would find him in the barn eating eggs & he would be relocated. We would find him in the garden & he would be relocated.

There are a couple reasons that it has been nice to have the snake around. He eats mice in the barn (since our barn cat hasn't gotten lazy) & it has given Lee the opportunity to teach the boys about good snakes versus venomous snakes and how to properly handle snakes.

Wild Turkey Farms News- May 13

2011-05-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- May 13

Better late than never. Come find us at the markets this weekend.

WTF at the Salisbury BBQ Festival being cooked up by Team Holy Smoke BBQ Pit Masters- Jeff & Kevin Swicegood- of Salisbury. Go by and check them out and vote for them in the people's choice award. http://bbqfest2011.eventbrite.com/

Pepperoni chubs are back!!!! We've got a batch of Sweet Sopressata Salami chubs to go with them. If you like the pepperoni then you'll love the salami.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Salisbury Farmers Market (7am-noon ) To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

We will NOT be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market this weekend.

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

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 Mother's Day from Wild Turkey Farms

2011-05-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related..

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?

1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom.. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends..

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Happy Mother's Day from Wild Turkey Farms.

Lee, Domisty, Rosty & Charlie

Wild Turkey Farms News- May 6

2011-05-10T06:02:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- May 6

Have you ever felt like you've been caught up in a whirlwind? That's the way the week started out but quickly ended up being more like Pacos Bill riding a tornado.

Tuesday I spent some quality time with Charlie (age 4) (about 14 hours worth, in the truck delivering animals to the processors). For those of you that have met Charlie you know that he has a love for the art of continuous verbal communication. It doesn't matter how loud you turn up the radio he still will be heard. He did manage to sleep about an hour & half down & the same back so I did get a little quality time with the radio. Both he & Rosty love to go with me to take animals to the processors. It's hard to believe that the same younguns that won't wake up for school at 7am will bounce out of bed at 5am to get in a truck to ride 14 hours. We have alot of fun filling the time with games of I Spy, punch-bug, and looking at farms. If all else fails to entertain I can just give them my cell phone and let them listen to music and play Angry Birds.

Give your mother a Happy Mother's Day breakfast of WTF sausage & eggs. Not up for cooking? Make here the envy of the neighbor hood with a cool WTF t-shirt or a WTF sticker for her car. Available exclusively from Wild Turkey Farms- "The Original WTF"

Pepperoni chubs are back!!!! We've got a batch of Sweet Sopressata Salami chubs to go with them. If you like the pepperoni then you'll love the salami. We'll be sampling some at the markets this weekend so come give them a try.

China Grove Farmers Market at the Mill (Friday 4-7pm) The market at the mill starts up today. We won't be able to make it but stay tuned for our schedule there. We'll be around the farm Friday evening & we're only a couple miles from the CGFM so come see us if you need to stock up.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

We will NOT be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market this weekend.

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

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

CSA Week 3

2011-05-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Another week at WTF & another tasty CSA box!

This weeks box includes:

Spinach

Kale

Swiss Chard

Kohlrabi

Broccoli

Onion

One of my favorite parts of the CSA has been how excited everyone is pick up their boxes & see what is in them. And like I have stated in the other posts sometimes you have NO CLUE what the vegetable is or what to do with it. So that is why I am trying to offer small tidbits of info every week.

I know you can do the same thing that I have done which is to Google whatever the vegetable is & find your own info but it's been fun for me to broaden my culinary experience as well.

One of my favorite recipe finds has been kale chips.

I have found various recipes with different cooking temps & cooking times. This is what has worked for me though.

Rinse & pat dry kale. Line baking sheet with parchment paper & lay kale in a single layer. Then drizzle olive oil & salt over the kale. Like a lot of cooks I don't really measure.....but do remember that the kale will shrink up so don't over salt. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Can you say yummy!!

Fun Link

2011-05-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

Bacon Flavored envelopes

WTF News- April 29

2011-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 29

Well another week has come & gone. Fortunately we were spared the harsh weather that many others got. It's been quite a spring so far with all of these bad storms. Phinious the lamb finally got evicted from the bathroom and moved out to the trailer in the backyard so the bathroom is back to normal and no more 4am wake up calls for a bottle. Yeah. See you all at the markets.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

We will NOT be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market ( http://mecklenburgcountymarket.com ) this weekend.

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

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

CSA Week 2

2011-04-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Another tasty week at Wild Turkey Farms.

This weeks basket includes:

Spinach

Turnips with greens

Kohlrabi

Bok Choy

White Radishes

Not sure if I missed anything because the baskets were already prepared by the time I got to the farm & everyone was picking them up.......but I think I am close on the contents.

Hopefully, next week I will take a picture of all the bounty.

******

I got to see a lot of of our CSA customers last week at the pick-up & I think they were all thrilled with their baskets. this week everyone got there at the same time so there was no time to visit but there's always next week.

**********

Until we started selling at the Farmer's Market there were a lot of vegetables I had never heard of much less cooked them. So it has definitely been a learning experience for me what to do with some of them.

While at the Farmer's Market last Saturday I heard over & over again customers ask "How do you cook this?" when they saw the bok choy. The response was usually "stir fry." While I have MANY times used bok choy in stir fry we also discovered last week that it's pretty good on the grill. We also grilled some kohlrabi & radishes. The kohlrabi we peeled and sliced then grilled...it was yummy! I'm going to try it on my George Foreman grill tonight.

I cooked last weeks recipe for Braised Bok Choy last night. It was YUMMY!!!! If you haven't tried it you'll definitely want to this go around. I used low-sodium organic chicken broth because I had just enough left but next time I'll use the chicken stock that we made ourselves.

This weeks recipe is for kohlrabi. I was hoping to try it out first but I did not have any Parmesan Cheese at home. I find that my kids will eat about anything if they know there is cheese included.

I also got an early Mother's Day present (HINT: Mother's Day is May 8th), it was a pickling cookbook with over 250 recipes. There was a recipe for pickled kohlrabi, so I hope to try that over the week-end!

Check out this link for more recipes using kohlrabi & Emily's Green Kitchen for lots of recipes & healthy living ideas.

Kohlrabi with Parmesan

2 large or 3 medium kohlrabi, stalks and leaves removed
2 T unsalted butter or olive oil, or combination
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 T minced parsley

Peel kohlrabi to remove fibrous outer layer. Shred with grater or food processor. Heat a medium skillet to medium heat. Add butter and/or oil. When fat is hot, add kohlrabi. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetable is tender, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Toss with cheese. Cook until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Garnish with parsley. Serve hot. Serves 4.

WTF News- April 22

2011-04-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 22

Hope everyone has had a good week. Just when you think your out of the "keeping a lamb in the bathroom" season, well you can probably see where this is heading.... Let me introduce Phineous - and don't ask me where the name is from, Domsity and Rosty have this knack for picking obscure names. As I was walking up to the barn the other day, I heard a lamb bawling and I just assumed that it was one of the other bottle babies we've raised wanting attention. Upon a second look I realized that this lamb had just been born but there was no mother around. I grabbed him up and we proceeded to walk through the sheep until we found a new moma nursing his brother. I placed him near his moma but she only pushed him away when he would get near. Lord only knows why some sheep are like that but they occasionally decide that twins are too much trouble and pick one that they like to take care of. Anyhow, Pineous is the newest resident in our bathroom but I've got to say he's a pretty good one to have bunking in the guest lamb suite. He gets his bottle about 10pm and he's content to snooze until 6:30am or so he's a pretty good boarder. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the rest of the sheep and lil Phineous won't get a roommate.

We hate that we missed out on the markets last week due to the weather but this weekend is looking great so come on out and see us. If you want some good tasting eggs to dye for Easter we'll have our white eggs separated out for you but better hurry as supplies are limited.
Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

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

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

CSA Week 1

2011-04-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today is our first pick-up day for the2011 CSA. It's been a couple of years since we have done a CSA so we thought would try it again.

I will be using the blog to list the items in the CSA each week & give you some ideas and recipes on how to use some of the vegetables.

I did check out other blogs to get some ideas, not only for the CSA customers but for myself. I think the only way I have prepared Bok-Choi is in stir-fry and I know there has got to be many other ways to use it.

Please feel free to comment here, on Facebook or email us any ideas you may have too!

Week 1 consists of:

Kohlrabi

Bok Choi

Radishes

Kale

Swiss Chard

Arugula

Romaine Lettuce

This week I searched for ideas for Bok Choi

Stir Fry- Chop the stems & the leaves. Stir fry the stems for about 2 minutes before adding the leaves. Some of the suggestions for what to use in the stir fry were soy sauce, sesame oil, butter and/or balsamic vinegar.

Substitute Bok Choi in any recipe that calls for cabbage.

Grilled

Steamed

Cut in chunks and use in salads (you'll have lettuce)

RECIPE

Braised Bok Choi

Use about a cup of chicken broth and 2 tbs of butter. Bring to boil and set the bok choi in the pan. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until tender.

You can also add some garlic if you choose.

Easter Eggs

2011-04-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Since Easter is right around the corner I have seen a lot of articles that mention eggs. Whether it is talking about how to dye, decorate or decoupage eggs or how to cook them.

We are never without eggs at our house....which is a good thing!

Lately, Lee has been making spinach omelets...yummy!

If I have a real abundance of eggs I start making quiches and freezing them. They come in handy on days when I come home & don't want to cook.

We experimented with pickled eggs......you'll have to ask Lee about that one. He said the pickled eggs made a "mean" egg salad.

Anybody have some egg recipes they want to share?

I'll post the sausage quiche recipe that my family loves.

In the spirit of Easter we will have a limited amount of all white eggs for sale at both the Davidson & Salisbury Farmer's Markets on Saturday.

Easter Fact:

61,000,000 dozen eggs (732 million individual eggs) are sold during the week leading up to Easter, a 45% increase above average sales, according to the Nielsen Company.

Now that's a lot of eggs!

WTF News- Tax Day Edition

2011-04-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Tax Day Edition

Happy tax day everyone!!! We processed chickens this week and will have them available this weekend. We also picked up lamb today so come by & stock up.

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow- We'll be there unless it's just plain nasty & stormy tomorrow.

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market ) from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend. Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats. Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up tomorrow. Sorry to disappoint you all but we will NOT be able to make it this week but will be there next Saturday.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie

Wild Turkey Farms

Grove, NC

Bacteria Seen In Nearly Half of U.S. Meat (taken frm health.com)

2011-04-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

I saw this article on cnn.com & thought it was interesting.

(Health.com)

-- Almost half of the meat and poultry sold at U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores contains a type of bacteria that is potentially harmful to humans, a new study estimates. Researchers tested 136 packages of chicken, turkey, pork, and ground beef purchased at 26 grocery stores in five cities around the country, and found that 47 percent contained Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a common cause of infection in people. What's more, roughly half of the contaminated samples contained strains of the bacteria that were resistant to at least three antibiotics, such as penicillin and tetracycline. Some strains were resistant to a half dozen or more.

Although the high contamination rates may sound alarming, the threat these bacteria pose to humans is still unclear. "We know that nearly half of our food supply's meat and poultry are contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those are multidrug resistant," says Lance B. Price, Ph.D., the senior author of the study, which was published Friday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. "What we don't know [is] how often these transfer to people. We need more studies to quantify the public health impact."

S. aureus, and drug-resistant strains in particular, can cause serious infections and even death in humans. However, simple precautions including cooking meat thoroughly, washing hands after handling meat, and keeping raw meat separate from other foods to prevent cross-contamination are believed to neutralize the risk of infection, according to experts not involved in the research.

"Numerous studies of this type done in other countries...have generally come up with the same findings, that multidrug-resistant S. aureus are present in a variety of animal meats," says Pascal James Imperato, M.D., the dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY--Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn. "But, so far, no one has been able to draw a connection between the presence of those bacteria in meats and human illness."

Multidrug-resistant bacteria strains are "always a concern for humans," says M. Gabriela Bowden, Ph.D., a bacteria expert and assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, in Houston. "But if you follow the hygiene rules that you would follow for Salmonella or E. coli, there shouldn't be a problem."

The meat, which was sold under 80 different brands, was purchased in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Fort Lauderdale; and Flagstaff, Ariz. The variety and number of S. aureus strains found on the samples suggest that the livestock themselves -- rather than contamination during processing and packaging -- are the source of the bacteria, the study notes.

Each year farmers and ranchers give millions of pounds of antibiotics to farm animals, most of them healthy, to make them grow faster and to prevent -- rather than treat -- diseases, says Price, the director of the Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit organization in Flagstaff. The combination of bacteria, antibiotics, and livestock living in close quarters creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive and mutate, which may explain the high levels of drug-resistant S. aureus seen in the study, he adds.

Virtually all (96 percent) of the S. aureus strains Price and his colleagues isolated had developed resistance to at least one antibiotic. Strains resistant to three or more antibiotics were found in 79 percent of turkey, 64 percent of pork, 35 percent of beef, and 26 percent of chicken samples. "It's four different meats from four different animals in different geographical areas," Bowden says. "[S. aureus] may be more prevalent than we think."

Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), which has been a particular menace to humans in hospitals and communities alike, was found in one package each of beef, turkey, and pork, though not chicken. This sample size wasn't large enough to arrive at an accurate estimate of its prevalence in meat nationwide, according to the study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture currently monitor the country's meat supply for evidence of four major types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including Salmonella and E. coli). The study findings suggest that S. aureus should be screened for regularly as well, the researchers say.

WTF News- Friday Morning Prankless Edition

2011-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- Friday Morning Prankless Edition

Another week of winter & summer weather has come & gone, hopefully the winter part is gone for a while. I've got to thank everyone for the responses to the Paula Dean email last week. I can't begin to tell you how much we enjoyed the comments and every one's sense of humor & sportsmanship once the joke was revealed.

For the past couple emails we've told you about our goose eggs that are hatching off. We're now up to 4 geese and 2 chickens that have hatched with another 12+ goose eggs and 8+ turkey eggs to go yet. Rosty and Charlie have had a blast watching the eggs develop and then to see the final product once the goose/ chicken has started breaking the egg and entering the world. Eggs are such a wonderful life lesson for young kids. I'm now starting to dread the day that they actually see some pigs, lambs, or calves being born cause I know the question of "why did they come out of there, and just how did they get in there to begin with" is not far behind.

We're planning to process some chickens next week so we should have chicken for the April 16 market. We should also have lamb back in stock by then also.

This week's farm gate specials

Fresh Polish and Cajun Sausages 10% off

Bulk breakfast sausages 10%

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow- . An end to the winter blues is in sight- Davidson FM starts back to every week and summer hours (8-noon)!!! We'll be back in town hall parking lot so take advantage of the nice weather and come see us in the morning. We'll have plenty of eggs so come stock up.

***New Market in Charlotte***-

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market

from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend.

Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats.

Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up April 16 & we're looking for some help/ volunteer(s). What better way to spend a Saturday than socializing with friends, enjoying the outdoors in downtown Salisbury, and getting good WTF food for your efforts. We're running short on man & woman power this summer so we're looking for help to cover the SFM. If you or someone you know would be interested in working SFM on Saturdays please contact us and we'll go from there.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

Best April Fool's Joke Ever

2011-04-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 1 Edition

Thanks for making the Paula Dean the best April Fools Joke ever at WTF. The response has been tremendous so I'll have to start emailing and see if we can get her to come.

On a more serious note we will not be at the farm for purchases until 2pm.

Thanks & we'll see you at the market (that is- if you're still speaking to us) Lee

*********

WTF News- Friday Morning Edition (April 1, 2011)

2011-04-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

********************************************************************************

UPDATE:

In case you didn't read all of our newsletter - Happy April 1 everybody!!!! Have a great weekend!!!

Thanks to everyone that emailed & called us about our exciting opportunity. Happy April's Fool's Day!!!!!

This was our first successful attempt at an April's Fool joke...please don't be mad at us! But thank you for thinking we could get Paula Deen to the farm. Hope to see you tomorrow at the Mecklenburg Farmer's Market.

*********************************************************************************

Wild Turkey Farms News- Friday Morning Edition

Marty is a big brother!!! Our incubator has been full and the eggs have finally started hatching. We got our first baby goose the other day and in checking the other eggs you can hear and feel the babies moving around & getting ready for their grand entrance.

Don't forget to sign up for our once in a lifetime cooking class with Paula Dean. Domisty & I are huge Paula Dean Fans and we've been emailing her for over a year now to try & get her to support local foods. This week we finally got a response & she has agreed to do a cooking class, filmed for her show at that, on location at our farm on Friday July 8!!! Evidently her contract with Smithfields Foods is running out at the end of this month and she is making a push to do more to support local farms like us. This is going to be awesome, I can't wait!!!! We'll have room for up to 40 people to be in the audience for the taping of the show and then everyone will get to break into groups for more individual cooking lessons with her and her staff. If you are interested in participating let us know and we'll put you on the list. It's first come, first serve so reply fast.

This week's farm gate specials

Fresh Polish and Cajun Sausages 10% off Bulk breakfast sausages 10%

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back April 9. An end to the winter blues is in sight- Davidson FM starts back to every week and summer hours (8-noon)!!!!

***New Market in Charlotte***

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend. Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats. Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up. Come see us at the farm.

While Domisty is at the Mecklenburg Market I'll be around at the farm so come by and stock up this Saturday 10am-2pm.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up April 16 & we're looking for some help/ volunteer(s)/ part time employee. What better way to spend a Saturday than socializing with friends, enjoying the outdoors in downtown Salisbury, and getting good WTF food for your efforts. We're running short on man & woman power this summer so we're looking for help to cover the SFM. If you or someone you know would be interested in working SFM on Saturdays please contact us and we'll go from there.

In Case I forgot to mention it in the second paragraph .... Happy April Fool's Day......

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

The eggs are hatching

2011-03-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Well, Marty is a big brother.

The first egg has hatched. We think another should hatch today. As we gathered the eggs we marked the date they were found on them. This way we would know when the eggs were ready to hatch.

Here are some pictures of the baby goose along with 2 proud big brothers!!

Carolina Meat Conference

2011-03-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

This past week-end was the first Carolina Meat Conference held in Concord, North Carolina.

While we were unable to be there all week-end Lee was a participant on Sunday in the Session on Setting Up an Outdoor, Pasture-Based Hog Operation (see below):

Setting Up an Outdoor, Pasture-Based Hog Operation Demand for pasture-raised pork continues to increase. This workshop is intended for farmers new to raising hogs outdoors. A panel of experts will share critical information about start-up and maintenance costs, equipment needs, labor requirements and marketing strategies.

Lee Menius, Wild Turkey Farms, China Grove, NC Dr. Niki Whitley, NC A&T University, Department of Animal Science & CEFS Swine Unit Coordinator Renee Parker, Parker Farms, Hurdle Mills, NC Bailey Newton, Triple B Farm, Bullock, NC Jeremiah Jones, President, NC Natural Hog Growers Association, Grassroots Pork Co, Beulaville, NC Moderator: Chris Bordeaux, CEFS’ Conservation Innovation Project

and the Pastured Poultry Genetics & Mobile Processing Demonstration (see below):

Pastured Poultry Genetics and Mobile Processing Demonstration This workshop is for new and experienced poultry producers. Local pastured poultry experts present findings on the impact of outdoor access and genotype on pastured broiler performance, meat quality, and sensory attributes, including a recent carcass evaluation comparing fast-growing Cornish Cross to a slower-growing hybrid “Freedom Ranger.” Representatives from NC’s two inspected poultry processing facilities will be available for questions about their facilities and services.

This will be followed by a demonstration of best management practices for on-farm slaughter of poultry, including small-scale humane stunning and a discussion of enterprise budgets for building your own rentable Mobile Processing Unit for exempt, on-farm poultry processing in North Carolina.

The Wild Turkey Farms Mobile Processing Unit will be on-site.

Dr. Doug Smith, Associate Professor, NC State University Dr. Anne Fanatico, Assistant Professor, Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Program, Appalachian State University,Boone, NC Lee Menius, Wild Turkey Farms, China Grove, NC Renee Elkins, Chaudhry Halal Meat Processing, Siler City, NC Smithson Mills, McDowell Foothills Pilot Plant, Marion, NC

First, let me say that the Conference was great! It was very informative, I saw a lot of old friends & met some new friends. The food was delicious! On Sunday lunch was provided by the Farmhand Foods Sausage Wagon. If your in the Durham area you must find them!! I had the polish sausage with pimento cheese...yummy!

The MPU demonstration went well. It had been raining & it was cold so we only "dispatched" two birds but thanks to all who braved the conditions & were out there for the demo.

WTF News- March 25, 2011

2011-03-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkey Farms News- March 25, 2011

We picked up beef last week so stop by and load up on our 100% Grass Fed Angus Beef while it last.

Davidson Farmers Market This Weekend 9-noon
We'll be at Davidson this weekend so come by & stock up. The warm weather has perked up the chickens and we have eggs out the wazoo so come by & get your fresh eggs from us. An end to the winter blues is in sight- Davidson FM will start back to everyweek and summer hours starting April 9!!!!

***New Market in Charlotte***- We're planning to expand our market this weekend and we'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market ( http://mecklenburgcountymarket.com ) from 9:30-12. Domisty will be there with eggs and a limited selection of meats so if you'd like to place an order to pick up there please email it to us by this evening.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up April 16 & we're looking for some help/ volunteer(s)/ part time employee. What better way to spend a Saturday than socializing with friends, enjoying the outdoors in downtown Salisbury, and getting good WTF food for your efforts. We're running short on man & woman power this summer so we're looking for help to cover the SFM. If you or someone you know would be interested in working SFM on saturdays please contact us and we'll go from there.

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

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

Honoring the Food Animals On Your Plate (Dan Imhoff)

2011-03-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

Honoring The Food Animals On Your Plate

Dan Imhoff
Author, "CAFO"
Posted: February 21, 2011 04:03 PM

From the cream in our Monday morning coffee to the roast chicken at Sunday night dinner, we accrue an incalculable debt to food animals. We depend on them for nourishment. We gather festively around the cooking of a turkey or ham during holidays. Yet many people do not realize that most of the animals that grace our tables are the victims of harsh suffering long before slaughter.

Consider the modern turkey. It is far removed from the wild, native bird that the pilgrims roasted for those original Thanksgiving gatherings. Today's conventional turkey, the Broad Breasted White, is an entirely industrial creature. It is bred to grow freakishly quickly and raised on grain inside massive buildings. Most male turkeys, or Toms, become so breast heavy, they can barely stand up -- and certainly can't reproduce. Artificial insemination is the only way this man-made species survives.

As CAFOs take over the food system, it is clear that there is already plenty of animal protein in our diets. Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese each year, for example, largely because of the flood of cheap milk coming from dairy CAFOs. This is three times the per capita consumption of the 1970s. Cheese is the largest source of saturated fats in our diets, which tend to raise cholesterol levels and are linked to heart disease. Dairy products, meat, poultry, and eggs don't have to be nearly so cheap or abundant -- and yet we are raising 10 billion food animals in the United States every year.

The high costs of factory-farmed foods are being paid for by the animals, rural communities, taxpayers, and the environment. Large-scale animal operations generate the sewage output comparable to a small metropolis. The waste oozing from these highly concentrated production systems fouls the air, land, and water. Sadly, if you purchase animal products from fast food restaurants, supermarkets, big box stores, or other mainstream outlets, there is a strong chance that you are eating at the expense of someone else's community well-being.

You don't have to become a vegan or vegetarian to opt out of this system that might best be described as "organized irresponsibility." (Those are certainly viable options, however.) Some of the country's best small farmers are demonstrating that traditional methods of livestock production are practical and economically viable. They are raising locally adapted breeds of livestock on pastures where the animals eat a more natural diet, grow more slowly, and naturally socialize. These animals are also raised without routine doses of antibiotics and growth hormones, essential tools in industrial CAFO production. Third-party certification organizations such as Animal Welfare Approved have established standards combined with regular audits to encourage such humane production practices.

Still, labels can be confusing, and some like "natural" and "healthy" are misleading. The best way to know where your food comes from and how it was produced is to know your farmer.

The other way to reduce the role of CAFOs is to scale back the amount of meat we consume. Many individuals are simply orienting their meals around more grains and vegetables with smaller portions of higher quality, sustainably sourced meats, dairy, and eggs. Another groundswell is the Meatless Monday campaign, which has already been embraced by chefs, restaurants, food services, k-12 schools, and college campuses.

Attending to the conditions under which your food is raised is a profound way of giving thanks to the animals that nourish you daily. It can also lead to some of the most satisfying meals you've ever shared or tasted.

Resources:
CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories

Grass Pastured Meats: eatwild.com, americangrassfed.org

Meatless Mondays

Daniel Imhoff is an author, independent publisher, and homestead farmer and the editor of CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories (Earth Aware Press, 2010). His other books include Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill (2007) and Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches (2003).

Follow Dan Imhoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/watershedmedia

Link to story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-imhoff/honoring-food-animals-cafos_b_826016.html#243731

Day of the Pig 2011 (Charcuterie Class)

2011-03-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

On March 5, WTF teamed up with Chef Charles once again for a one-of-a-kind Charcuterie Workshop. Participants learned where various cuts of meat came from, the fine-art of butchering & also got to make sausages and pates.

Here are a few pictures from The Day of the Pig.

Salt-cured ham

Tools of the trade

Ingredients to make sausage

Always a comedian!

Our job was to do dishes...and there was a lot of them!

Twisting sausages

Pate

Two of our participants

Stuffing sausage

Ham Steaks...the finished product

The gourmet lunch

The take home trays!!

I think that I can speak for all the participants & say that we had a great time! We learned a lot and ate a lot.

Check out Chef Charles website:

http://www.chefcharlescatering.com