Thanksgiving is upon us and I was hired to prepare a feast for one of my client’s family this year. The first thing I decided was I’d prefer a local bird to a Whole Foods bird. As I’ve never purchased a local bird here in Boulder, I asked Lynne Eppel of Edible Front Range for her thoughts. She suggested I ask Eric Skokan of Black Cat Farm, which I did at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. Eric told me that he didn’t sell his turkeys, but across from his farm stand was Jodar Farms, and they sold turkeys. Easy.
I asked at Jodar Farms and they sell free range turkeys at $4 per pound. They anticipate all of their birds being between 18-30 pounds. Jodar is apparently one of the only farms selling turkeys as many farmers have given up raising them because the profit margin is very low. I found this very surprising. Also surprising is the following info I received from Jodar: They feed their birds conventional feed, so they’re likely fed GMO feed. Also, being located in Fort Collins, they work closely with breweries and feed their birds a lot of spent grain, so their diet is not just corn by any means, but again, possibly contains a lot of GMO feed. Finally, the birds will have to be frozen as their facility is too small to store the birds in refrigeration. I had expected a local bird to be one I could pick up a day or two before Thanksgiving and not have to defrost it, but that is not the case.
So, I’m on the fence about this one… I need to ask my clients what they prefer, but being that they eat a 100% organic diet, I have a feeling the Whole Foods bird is going to on the table this year.