We 'did' the Christmas Turkeys

[CoraxAurata]

If you want to grow 2 get at least 3 - they are born with the innate ability to die at will. If you manage to raise all 3 then you have one to pop in the freezer for easter!!!

Bren - its is actually quicker and easier to do a turkey than a pheasant, they are lose featehred so they come out quick and easy and don't tear the skin, no where near as fidly. Also much easier to dress out as you make 2 quick slits and get you hand inside.

LOL the sheep of the domestic bird world!

re:the plucking not convinced its easier! but then we were doing norfolk blacks the wrong week they had quills full of black ink! it was awful, I still have visions of black ink under my nails urggh!! NB about 15 years ago!

[Bramble-Poultry]

ours were bronze and slate so they were quite easy to pluck. the wing tips can either be plucked with a pair of pliers to get the stubborn feathers out, or just snip the tips off with poultry shears so you dont have to pluck at all.

how did you find getting the tendons out of the drumsticks? we ended up using a rather handy nail in the wall and a large pair of pliers. Yo udo need to get them out otherwise as they cook they shrink back, pulling the meat up the drumstick towards the "knee" resulting in a bare bone when cooked! not pretty, so best pulled out - fiddly but stress relieving shall we say??

[lettucegrow!]

Ok, I was really impressed with all your hard work ,OWG, and was finding it really interesting until you said about talking to them and stroking them- I got all teary then!!
But it only lasted a second - I bet they will taste really good. Does sound very hard,physical work. It's something when your dinner might injure you!!

[OverWyreGrower]

We dressed 2 of them last night... first one took a while... Turkey Anatomy 101!!

Once we'd worked out what/where everything was, the second was hardly any time.

Worst bit was snapping legs off - ended up using tree loppers... have left tendons in, cos they were so difficult. Have warned the buyers though!

[Bramble-Poultry]

well, it was with some guilt we tucked into the turkey today. but my god, what a difference. best turkey i have had in years, finally a turkey that actually tastes of turkey!

other people who have had them from me, (the in-laws and mum) have all commented on how nice they tasted. I even had a call from the bloke at work who bought one from me - rang me up at 4pm today to say what a wonderful bird it was.

so i will have no more worreis about doing the deed.

How was yours OWG?

[Nicos]

Was thinking about you yesterday munching on your oown birds...my OH wants to give them a go next year now!!

[OverWyreGrower]

Absolutely wonderful! Weighed in at 24lbs stuffed - 6.5hrs to cook.

Fed 10 on Christmas day, 5 yesterday, and the rest is frozen with gravy into another 6 single portions. 8 litres of stock in the freezer as well!!

Was honestly gorgeous! Defintitely doing it again next year, but would like smaller birds, possibly bronze/blacks.

[miffy]

I am in total awe of the time and effort you have gone into rearing your own birds for christmas.
I have so much respect for you. I am a vegetarian and one of the reasons i am is that i am totally against the inhumane rearing and slaughter of animals for meat.
Your turkeys were obviously very well cared for and respected and you treated them humanely at the end.
Good to see folk are prepared to do this as it is all to easy to buy mass produced battery farmed meat off the shelf without paying any mind to the life and death of the animal involved.
Wish there were more folk like you out there.

[Bramble-Poultry]

miffy - thanks for your kind words. I myself was (until 2000) a vegetarian, and had been for some 10 years.

i went vegetarian when i lived in Reading. I had a job on a 290 acre private estate and the owner was fond of venison. Not a problem i thought. He has a big deer park where they are allowed to roam so whats the harm?

The harm came when i saw how the deer were culled. Did the game keeper use a .22 or a .303? no, he used a 110 - as in a 110 landrover. he would wing them with a gun and then run them down.

from that day forth i vowed that unless i could raise it, care for it, dispatch it humanely then i had no right to eat it.

as you can tell, i have managed that goal. My wife did a countryside degree at university and part of the course was agricultural systems. She had to work in their on site battery egg farm and broiler house, and then in the equivalent free range system to learn the difference. she also had to experience a commercial indoor pig unit (very populr in Denmark) and a free range system.

Needless to say, all chicken here is from a much better welfare system than the broiler (however i havent yet produced my own chicken for the table so we buy the better welfare ones) and our eggs come from our own hens.

I cure my own bacon from local pigs that i can watch daily grow up as i can assure you, knowing how Danish pigs are raised there is no way on earth Danish Bacon is crossing my threshold.

[RichmondHens]

.............. (however i havent yet produced my own chicken for the table so we buy the better welfare ones) and our eggs come from our own hens.

Mike, can't believe you haven't eaten your own chickens! What do you do with all your surplus cocks?

I really want to raise turkeys next year so have been reading this thread with interest.

[Bramble-Poultry]

Sally - haven't had a surplus cock yet, we have people ask us for cockerels and the rest we had hens to pair off with and sell at a profit at the market!! We even purchased some hatching eggs to hatch and grow for the table (dorkings) then sold the lot at 7 weeks old so didn't even get to eat them either. quite depressing actually cos we had every intention of eating them throughout the year, still i suppose we are half way there no need to buy turkey for the rest of the year the rest are going in the freezer.

This year we have an indan game cockerel and a light sussex hen and a dorking hen to make a trio with the sole purpose of eating their babies. We also have orders for turkey eggs and poults from both the bronzes and the slates and we haven't even hatched any yet!!

[moola]

I have been reading this with real interest. I've done plenty of chickens for the table and was umming and ahhing about turkeys. The main thing that has always worried me was depatch as I usually use the broomstick method. OWG and Bramble - sorry I couldn't quite work it out - how did you slaughter? Is it a big blokes kinda job then?
I can manage the other aspects but find the actual despatch bit quite daunting.....

[ladylottie]

I have been reading this with real interest. I've done plenty of chickens for the table and was umming and ahhing about turkeys. The main thing that has always worried me was depatch as I usually use the broomstick method. OWG and Bramble - sorry I couldn't quite work it out - how did you slaughter? Is it a big blokes kinda job then?
I can manage the other aspects but find the actual despatch bit quite daunting.....

This thread has taken me right back to when I was a little girl of about 4 years old. Every year just before Christmas my grandfather used to take me to a friend of his who kept turkeys. I was put into the pen with them (they were as tall as me) and I chose the Christmas bird by putting my arms round its neck! It was pulled out of the pen and quickly dispatched by the broomstick method (didn't think anyone used this way anymore). We brought it home and my dad and grandfather would pluck it and my gran would "dress" it later. My mom couldn't face any of it if I remember right!

I have never eaten any poultry - not because of what happened, I just don't like the taste. I used to keep chickens so am not squeamish about killing them and will eat game birds given half a chance.

[OverWyreGrower]

I have been reading this with real interest. I've done plenty of chickens for the table and was umming and ahhing about turkeys. The main thing that has always worried me was depatch as I usually use the broomstick method. OWG and Bramble - sorry I couldn't quite work it out - how did you slaughter? Is it a big blokes kinda job then?
I can manage the other aspects but find the actual despatch bit quite daunting.....

Well, neither me nor Mr OWG is over 5ft 8ins!

It's more the weight of the bird and the size of the wings etc. A chicken flaps, but they're fairly small. When a large turkey flaps, the wingspan can be a metre, wing tip to tip


***GRAPHIC***




We used a t-shirt to restrain the wings a little, laid the bird on the floor, head and neck over a shallow tray. I used my entire body to fully restrain them. Pretty much leant on them, hugging them. Mr OWG cut their throats and they bled out mostly into the tray. I'd say they had 3 or 4 large spasms/flaps (the first one of which nearly dislocated my knee as I wasn't doing it right). Took maybe a whole 5 mins per bird before they were dead.

[Bramble-Poultry]

broomstick is the safest way for the home rearer to do, unless you have a humane dispatcher