Hi all! Farmer Jeff here with a report from the pastures of Hawkins Farm. Our flock of Thanksgiving turkeys is here!
When the weather changes so that it feels unmistakably like autumn, Hawkins Family Farm starts getting orders for Thanksgiving turkeys. In past years, to get a Hawkins Farm turkey, CSA and non-CSA members placed orders through our online store (rather than Harvie) on a first-come, first-served basis, and were required to pick up their order on the farm.
This year, we would like to make our Thanksgiving turkeys available for regular delivery to our CSA members, a nod to our gratitude for your ongoing support.
The logistics of this are a bit tricky, which has been a disincentive to make this offer in the past. But we think we have worked it out reasonably well this year to give it a try.
We raise a single flock of turkeys, including both toms (males) and hens (females). They grow at different rates. We take our best guess at how the birds will grow so that we can time their harvest to make different size birds available.
What this means is that when you choose the size bird you want, you will need to take delivery when it is ready.
We are happy to send your Thanksgiving turkey order to you as part of a regular Thursday share delivery. Your turkey will be frozen, which is a requirement to maintain food safety. The benefit of receiving delivery of a frozen bird is that you will have the convenience of your turkey available to you when you are ready for it. The provision is that you will need freezer space to store it. (If you want a larger fresh bird, you can order from our website for on-farm pick up close to Thanksgiving. Smaller birds will always be frozen--because if we keep feeding them until Thanksgiving, they keep growing!)
We butcher about 50 birds each Saturday morning from October 21 through November 18, and need to move each week’s birds out of the freezer to make room for the next batch. So be on the lookout for “Thanksgiving Turkey” option in your Harvie email beginning Saturday, October 21!
Here’s our best guess at what will be available for your order:
Order October 21 / Deliver October 26 - Very Small (10-11 lbs)
Order October 28 / Deliver November 2 - Small (12-14 lbs)
Order November 4 / Deliver November 9 - Medium (15-17 lbs)
Order November 11 / Deliver November 16 - Large (18-20 lbs) and XL (21-24 lbs)
Gobble, gobble!
-Jeff
