The organic butcher: Christmas turkey tips

This Christmas, our organic free-range Norfolk Bronze turkeys have been reared on a local organic farm in Wiltshire.

For half-a-year, they foraged in woodlands during the day and sheltered at night in a large airy barn. In mid-December, we shut the pop-holes overnight and gently transport the turkeys to the local abattoir. They are killed and hung in the traditional way ensuring deep-flavoured, succulent meat.

The turkeys mature naturally – organic farming does not promote growth to suit the market. When the plucked turkeys arrive back to Sheepdrove Organic Farm, we group them according to their natural weight: standard (4.5 – 6 kilos); large (6 – 8 kilos); and extra large (over 8 kilos).

Part of my job as an organic butcher is explaining to customers how to eat organic meat on a budget. We encourage people to think about making tasty, nutritious, and economical meals.

If you cook a turkey in one go, you would have to eat it within five days. (Although you can freeze it cooked, once roasted and off-the-bone).

The other method is to butcher a whole turkey to a customer’s requirements, so some can be frozen for future meals. We can dice the skinless and boneless thigh-meat for tender curries, slow-cook stews and risottos. We can chop the excess carcass for a rich stock. Nothing is wasted.

This leaves the remaining part, the breast-meat on the bone – or crown roast – for the main Christmas dinner.

It works out cheaper to buy the whole turkey. Take a standard organic turkey. It costs about £80 but it makes about 25 portions. That works out at £3.20 a head.

Because non-organic meat is now cheap and widely available, people have become desensitised to how special it is. They chuck meat away, they don’t pick at the carcass, or use it for stock.

Organic meat may cost a bit more but it is changing attitudes to meat. You think twice about wasting it. Organic meat encourages people to think about how the animal lived and died, to cook it carefully and to respect it.

As well as organic turkeys, Sheepdrove organic butcher’s shop also sells duck, geese, pork and beef, and can butcher to customer requirements including medieval-style pyes. Order now for collection from the butcher’s in Bristol and London after 17 December. Mail order is available online.

One Response to The organic butcher: Christmas turkey tips

1. Pingback: Sheepdrove organic goose | Real Food Lover

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