Thanksgiving Turkeys – 2017 Edition
Here’s what I said last fall:
Every fall at about this time, our CSA members and farmers market customers ask us about holiday turkeys.
We HAVE grown turkeys for the holidays in the past, but due to a amount finite brooder space (where to put turkeys when we have a very full schedule of meat chickens?), scheduling issues (every grower wants to harvest their birds around Thanksgiving, but with one processor in the whole state?…), and STRESS (a messed up turkey order isn’t just a mistake, it’s a ruined holiday); we haven’t done it for a long time.
Still, you keep asking… So, this year we’ve decided to offer holiday turkeys once again.
How can we do this if we don’t grow them ourselves?
Our Meat CSA members and customers are very discerning – we like it that way. We take a lot of pride in what we do, how we do it, and the quality of our products. We commit to local, sustainable, delicious and appreciate that our customer make the same commitment when buying from Cedar Valley Farm. There is a lot of trust in our relationship.
Well, the holiday turkeys have to come from a farm with the same level of trust and commitment. This link will take you to the order form!
Enter Greg Gunthorp and Gunthorp Farms turkeys.
Know your food, know your farmer!
Jody has known Greg Gunthorp for a long time.
In 2011, Jody and Greg worked with the Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) to get the Healthy and Humane Farmers Fund program off the ground. Since then, dozens of farms have received help in moving to more humane (pasture access/outdoor rearing/expressing natural instincts) livestock practices.
Jody and Greg continue work together through their association with Slow Food Chicago/ Slow Food USA/ Slow Food International and their Slow Meat initiative to improve animal agriculture in the United States and around the world.
Gunthorp Farms were at the beginning of the ‘farm to table’ restaurant movement in Chicago and the operation has grown to do additional wholesale marketing with an on farm processing plant.
Gunthorp Farms Delivered!
Yes, we were confident that Greg’s turkeys would be good, but we (and our customers) were absolutely blown away by the taste and quality of these birds. It was the best turkey we’ve had that we didn’t raise ourselves! (Beth says it’s been 8 years since we raised turkeys, so… it’s quite possible they’re, actually, better.) The logisitics were manageable and the deliveries went very smoothly. We expect it to go even better this year. Turkeys will come the Saturday before Thanksgiving (November 18th) and will be delivered to several convenient locations.
Delivery Sites:
Evanston – Temperance Beer Company
Ravenswood – Begyle Brewing Company
Edgewater – Heartland Cafe
Logan Square – Revolution Brewing Tap Room
Oak Park – Kinslahger Brewing Company
Blue Island – Blue Island Beer Company
*Naperville – Solemn Oath Brewery
*Ottawa – On farm
Naperville turkey delivery will be in conjunction with our regular CSA delivery on November 21st. Ottawa will be pick up at the farm by appointment.