Some 'Heritage' Turkeys Trace Lineage to the 1890s; Roots of the Standard Bronze
At the Thanksgiving table some Americans will trace their family trees back to the Mayflower. Others will discuss the heritage of their main dish.
Mishel Fletcher will be serving a Thanksgiving turkey that has roots in the 19th century. "It's a great conversation piece at the table when we tell people the turkey's lineage goes back 150 years or so," saysthe San Diego marketing executive. (click below to read more)
Ms. Fletcher's bird is a "heritage" turkey with bloodlines back to a time before gobblers were bred for modern tastes and mass production.
It cost aboutthreetimes what she would have paid for an organic supermarket breed, but it's her fourth year cooking one of these birds "as nature intended them to be," she says.
Proponents say heritage turkeys taste better than supermarket turkeys. And the birds lead better lives: Commercial white turkeys have such big breasts they can't walk straight and, without the help of a farmer, they can't accomplish the physical union required to reproduce.
The legacy fowl come from places like Frank Reese Jr.'s fourth-generation poultry farm in Lindsborg, Kan. Mr. Reese raises 10,000 turkeys drawn from a flock that includes Standard Bronze fowl that he has traced back to at least 1890. That's when records show the Bird Brothers ofMeyersdale, Pa., began selling their prize-winning Bronzes, known for the coppery sheen of their feathers.
Among the characteristics of Mr. Reese's heritage turkeys that most supermarket birds don't share: They can actually fly and run around. "A turkey should not waddle—that's a deformity," says the 63-year-old Mr. Reese, who has been raising these blue bloods since he was five.
The turkeys enjoyed by our forefathers, he says, have long legs for strutting, unlike the stumpy-legged variety that commercial farms breed. His mobile birds produce much darker and juicier meat, he says.
The latest turkey census shows heritage turkeys have grown so popular that the number raised for breeding in the U.S. increased nearly 700% between 1997 and 2006, says the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which held the census.
Heritage turkeys, which include eight breeds certified by the American Poultry Association, take about twice as long to grow as commercial turkeys and cost about three times as much to raise.
At retail, a 14-pound heritage bird can cost $100 or more.Says Mr. Reese: "It is the difference between feeding an athlete and feeding a couch potato."
Breeders can't trace their turkeys to Plymouth Rock, and historians don't know if the Pilgrims ate turkey at the first Thanksgiving. At some point, early colonists crossbred smaller European-bred stock with American wild turkeys to produce hearty but tame breeds such as the Standard Bronze.
Heritage turkeys were common through the 1950s but are now making a comeback from near extinction. Just 15 years ago, there were less than 100 Narragansett-breed turkeys left in the U.S., according to Slow Food U.S.A., a sustainable-eating nonprofit.
In 2001, that group put the Standard Bronze, Narragansett, Bourbon Red and several other heritage breeds on its "Ark of Taste" list to draw attention to their imminent disappearance.
Before the slow-food push, Mr. Reese had raised his flock largely as a passion project, and he won numerous awards at bird-fancier competitions. "Turkeys have been my life," he says.
Mr. Reese's Bronze turkeys have a family tree. They arrived in Kansas by railroad in 1917, he says, when the mother of his mentor,Norman Kardosh, received 10 Bird Brothers eggs as a wedding gift and had them shipped out fromPennsylvania. Over time, Mr. Reese collected more breeds, such as the Bourbon Red, whose lineage he can trace back to 1928.
Mr. Reese doesn't enjoy slaughtering his birds, which he sells under the label Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch. "When we load the turkeys for processing, I call it the day from Hell." But, he says, "The only way to save them is to eat them, and get them back into the market."
He has allowed his flock to spread. Bill Niman, a renownedBolinas, Calif., sustainable rancher, approached Mr. Reese in 2007 about buying young heritage turkeys to set up a California flock. "Having blood lines that produce healthy animals is why we got into this," says Mr. Niman.
That spring, he and his wife collected 225 one-day-old chicks from Mr. Reese in Kansas and drove cross-country in a Ford Fusion with the turkeys chirping in the back seat. Stopping to rest, they brought the turkeys into their hotel room but hit the road again after listening to the birds chirp for three hours.
The Nimans had to consult 60-year-old poultry guides for best practices. They were pleased by the temperament of their turkeys, some of which they keep near their house along the Pacific coast. The birds like to fly and perch on rooftops, but none have flown away.
"They're happy turkeys with an ocean view," says Mr. Niman. When Mr. Niman approaches and calls "come on, turkeys," the flock at his BN Ranch runs to him like dogs.
Some diners are turned off by the heritage turkey's slightly gamy flavor. But most sing its praises. Sam Perryman, a 26-year-old health-care administrator in Oakland, Calif., is a vegetarian for environmental reasons, but last year made an exception for a heritage turkey. "Thanksgiving is an important holiday for us, and we wanted to maintain the traditional approach" for nonvegetarian family, he says.
After doing some research, he settled on a 23-pound Bourbon Red raised nearby that cost nearly $200. The grocer "knew everything about this bird—they probably even knew when its birthday was," he says.
After brining it in a bucket that he kept on his apartment balcony, he and his girlfriend, Hannah Birnbaum, spent an hour with pliers yanking out dark pinfeathers.
Then he had to explain turkey heritage to his extended family. "I was telling my girlfriend's parents about what made the bird so special. They said, 'Oh, you Californians,'" he says.
"Then they tasted it, and agreed it was the best turkey they had ever had."
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