One of our customers decided to take a few of our products and combine them for this beautiful looking main course on their Thanksgiving table this year.

If you’re looking to have a delicious Thanksgiving turkey on your table in a couple of months, you need to plan on reserving your bird from our farm today! We have limited quantities and rarely have any left for purchase after our pre-orders are taken care of for all of our customers. You can also plan in advance and get two turkeys now, one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas!

If you’d like to have one of these sitting our your table this holiday season, you’ve got to take action now and reserve your order. It’s easy and simple and can be done right online!

You don’t just have to take our word for it, here are some comments from previous customers:

Here are some other turkey topics that may get your mouth watering!

• Thanksgiving Turkey Brine Recipe
• Sun King Turkey Brine Recipe
• Our Tasty Turkey Contest Winning Recipe from Sue Mogel
• We’re Talking Turkey

I’ve had several people ask for this, so here goes. Now, this is based on another recipe I found but I only use the salt, sugar and spices portion of it since we deep fry our bird in 100% peanut oil. I leave out the aromatic stuff since we are after more of a true salt brine. Scale this up for a bird bigger, ours is only 12lbs.

• 2 TSP Ground Cinnamon
• 2 TSP Ground Mustard Seed
• 2 TSP Whole Black Peppercorn
• 2 Cups Redmond Mineral Salt
• 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar
• 6 Quarts of Water

In a stock pot, place cinnamon, mustard seed and peppercorns and toast over a low heat until you can smell them in the room (about 5 minutes). Then add half of the water, salt and sugar. Raise heat and dissolve sugar and salt completely and let seasonings meld together. Then remove from heat and add other half of water. Let cool at least 4 hours, but overnight is better. Then, brine your bird for 24 hours!

If you are roasting your bird, you might want to add the more traditional aromatic ingredients like sage, rosemary, thyme, onion, garlic, carrot, lemon, etc. But for a deep fried bird which is tradition in our house, the above is the only way to go!

If you didn’t get one of our turkeys this season then you’re not going to get to enjoy the flavor and benefits that were mentioned in a recent NUVO article that featured Darby and his pastured raised poultry.

“The taste and quality are absolutely amazing,” says Darby Simpson of Simpson Family Farm in Martinsville. Because the animals live and eat in natural conditions and eat grasses as well as grains, which are often organically grown or custom blended by the farmer, their meat has more flavor. And because the animals actually get to move around and use their muscles, the meat is tender but firm. Simpson says that the turkey, of all animals, demonstrates the starkest difference between “an industrially-raised animal and a pastured local animal.”

Be sure and put a reminder on your calendar to catch us next year when we start taking pre-orders again.

If you did grab one of our turkeys this season, we’d love to know what you thought. Come back and leave us a comment and share on our Facebook Page.

And, remember we’ve got more of where that came from! Check-out our other locally raised, authentic meats:

• Pastured Poultry
• Pastured Pork
• Pastured Beef

This year we held our first ever “Tasty Turkey Contest”.  Folks who purchased their Thanksgiving turkey from our farm had the opportunity to submit the recipe they used and have it graded by our good friend Chef Joseph Hewett at The Indigo Duck in Franklin, IN.  After careful review, our contest winners are:

• First Place – Sue Mogel – $40 Dinner Gift Certificate to The Indigo Duck in Franklin, IN
• Second Place – David Feinburg – $35 Gift Certificate to Simpson’s Farm Market
• Third Place – David Feinburg – $25 Gift Certificate to U-Relish in City Market
• Fourth Place – Despi Ross – One pound of locally roasted coffee beans from Harvest Cafe
• Fifth Place – Meaghen Nelson – One bottle of extra virgin aged olive oil from Artisanos Oils & Spices
• Honorable Mention –  Lynne Goodin – Breakfast box from Fermenti Artisan, local chefs using local foods

Be sure to check-out Sue’s winning recipe and photo of her finished Thanksgiving Turkey.