RESERVATIONS OPEN IN AUGUST

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Make your 2026 holiday gathering unforgettable with a slower-growth, humanely raised, truly free-range turkey! Our turkeys start out eating a high-protein corn and soy based feed; once they're old enough to leave the warmth of the brooder, they spend their days in our native species silvopasture foraging for fruits, nuts, insects, and plants to supplement their 20% protein grain feed.

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We will be offering one kind of turkey in 2026, known as the Mini-Classic. This turkey is has a meatier body and faster growth than the heritage turkeys we have previously raised, but is slower growing and with a smaller breast than the commercial broad breasted turkeys that most farmers produce. 

 

About Mini-Classic Turkeys​

• Smaller and slower growing than commercial broad breasted turkeys

• A Canadian line meant to recreate the growth of the Beltsville Small White turkey

• Raised for 4.5 months

• Meatier breast than heritage, but not as large as store-bought broad-breasted turkeys

  • Approximately 60% light meat and 40% dark meat (versus 70% breast meat/30% dark meat for commercial turkeys, or a roughly 50-50 split for heritage turkeys)​

• Expected butchered weights (based on 2025 results): Hens 12-16 lbs, Toms 16-20 lbs.

• We will be charging a flat fee of $90 for hens, and $120 for toms​

  • ​Hens $75 each plus $15 butchery fee, Toms $100 each plus $20 butchery fee​

  • This works out to about $7.50/lb (or less!)

• Plan for ~1.25 lbs per person

• Example: A 14-lb hen turkey will cost $90 and feed 10 people with leftovers

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Key Details

• IMPORTANT: Turkeys will be processed on-farm the weekend before Thanksgiving​​

  • We will be butchering the turkeys ourselves, on farm; this means that they can be used for home consumption, but not for retail or paying guests

  • For legal reasons, you technically will be purchasing a live turkey that we then butcher for you for a fee; you do not actually get a live turkey (unless you want one), but for the USDA processing exemption, this is how it is in a legal sense

  • Turkeys will be fresh for Thanksgiving (disclaimer: if my mother experiences any deterioration in her health status in early November, we may have to move the processing date up; we will let you know if this happens).

• Pickup: Weekend of November 21st​​

• Each turkey includes: whole bird (skin on), neck, and giblets, feet by request; extra cuts/breakdown by request for extra fee

• Optional: add a packet of koji rice for our signature recipe

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How to Reserve

1. Place a $50 deposit via our online store:  Click here

   • Deposits are refundable, if we can find someone else to take your reservation; we sell out every year, so if you need to cancel chances are you can get your money back!

   • Prefer to pay cash/check in person? You can place your reservation online via our checkout system, just select the "pay in person" option and then drop by during the weekend with your payment

2. Fill out the reservation form (we’ll email it to you)​​

   • Reservation form will include acknowledgement of on-farm processing​

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What to Expect

• Mini-Classic turkeys have a larger breast than heritage turkeys, but a smaller breast than commercial turkeys, with about 60% white meat and 40% dark meat (for comparison, heritage turkeys are about 50/50, and commercial broad breasted turkeys are about 70/30).

• They are slightly older than supermarket turkeys and far more active, and thus will have a firmer texture; however, they are not nearly as challenging to cook as heritage turkeys. The same recipes and techniques that you use for a standard turkey should work well for MiniClassic turkeys.

We’ll share cooking tips and recipes—including our signature heritage turkey recipe using koji rice powder—to help you get the best results. (Yes, we sell the koji powder!)

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FAQ

 

How big will they be?​

Based on our results from last year, we expect hens to be 12-16 lbs, and toms to be 16-20 lbs.

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What’s included?
Whole bird (skin on), neck, and giblets. Small hen turkeys (12-16 lbs) will be charged at a flat rate of $90; large tom turkeys (16-20 lbs) will be charged at a flat rate of $120.

 

Can I get one before Thanksgiving or save one for Christmas?
Depending on our workload and their growth rate, we might be able to process your turkey before Thanksgiving. We will process all turkeys by Thanksgiving, since the will be at the optimal size at that time (also, once it freezes, we can't use our outside processing space), so we cannot offer you a fresh processed turkey for Christmas. However, we can hold frozen turkeys for Christmas if freezer space is an issue.

 

Can you cut up or spatchcock my turkey?
Yes, since we are processing our turkeys on farm this year, we can offer custom cutting like spatchcocking for an extra fee.​

 

Why don't you have heritage turkeys this year?​

Due to a family medical emergency, I am spending significant amounts of time out of state. The Mini-Classics grow more quickly and are much more well behaved, which makes it easier for Paul to manage when I'm out of town, and means that there is a narrower window in which another parental medical event would collide with animal care. We also really, really liked the Mini-Classic turkey we ate last year, which had almost as much depth of flavor as a heritage turkey, but a meatier body. It was, quite literally, the best turkey I've ever had.

 

Why aren't you using a professional butcher this year?

I wanted to wait to commit to raising turkeys until I was confident that my mother's health had stabilized enough that I would be able to be mostly in Michigan for late summer/early fall. By the time we made the decision, the turkey poults were almost sold out, and the professional poultry butchers were already booked up for Thanksgiving. We processed a couple of the MiniClassic turkeys on farm last year, and found that they were a lot easier to butcher than the heritage birds, so I feel confident in our ability to deliver the same results as if we were to take them to a professional butcher. Since it will just be 26 turkeys, we figured we would just do it here rather than drive a total of 6 hours for a bunch of Amish ladies to do it.

 

What happens if your mom's health gets worse?

Since we have a smaller group of 26 turkeys that are well behaved and content to stay on the right side of the fence, we are confident that Paul can manage their growth if I am called out of town. If my mom's health deteriorates in early or mid November, we may choose to process our turkeys a week or two early, in which case your Thanksgiving turkey would be frozen; we will let you know if that happens and adjust pricing accordingly. If my mom's health takes a sudden nosedive in the week before Thanksgiving and I am called out of town, we will call in every favor from every local farmer we know for help to get them processed in my absence.​​​​​​​​​​