A Visit to the Turkey Farm

I found the Eastern Plains Natural Food Cooperative on the internet in late October, and signed up for a membership. This entitled me to a premium, from several choices, and I picked
"two small turkeys, 7-9 lbs". I heard from Dallas Gilbert, the turkey farmer, and he said we could come pick up our birds on November 17th. I also asked about chickens and eggs; he did not have chicken eggs, but he might have duck eggs available, he said.

Dallas lives south of Bennett, Colorado, which is 30 miles east of Denver on I-70. It's a long drive from Loveland, but within our 100-mile circle. The weather was calm, fortunately (I write today, looking at five inches of snow outside our windows).


After we left the Interstate, we drove another 12 miles south on washboard county roads, following his excellent directions, and finally found his driveway and drove up.

He was a pleasant and quiet man, obviously dedicated to the health and happiness of his flock. He raises heritage turkeys, the rare breeds that make up only 5% or less of the turkeys sold in this country. Most commercial turkeys are the broad-breasted type, which can't even breed normally and have a hard time walking as they grow up. The broad-breasted breeding males weigh upwards to 100 pounds.


The heritage turkeys that Dallas raises are mostly Blue Slates, with a few Black Spanish and Bourbon Reds thrown in. We got to meet the breeding stock: a tom and a little flock of hens in each spacious fenced enclosure. He incubates the eggs, and raises the young turkeys from the stock.

The young turkeys (who were all gone to be dinner) live in a large open field, with a tall hoop house with perches inside. The young turkeys go in at night. They are protected by his two guard donkeys. We got to meet the donkeys, and after a polite offering of my hand to be sniffed, I was allowed to pet their heads and long ears.


Dallas explained that donkeys just hate everything in the dog clan: dogs, coyotes, and foxes. In the previous year he lost fifty young birds one night; that's when he hired the donkeys as guards. Since then he hasn't lost any birds.



He also has a flock of Pilgrim geese, and a flock of Khaki Campbell ducks, both rare poultry breeds. He doesn't raise chickens himself, but sells chickens and eggs (in season) from Wisdom Farm in Sterling. He had reserved us three large chickens, at $9 each. Turns out that Sterling is just outside our 100-mile circle, but we took the birds anyway. We packed the two 8.5 pound turkeys, the three chickens, and two dozen duck eggs into the back of the Smart car, and drove back to Loveland.

The duck eggs were wonderful; I think some were goose eggs, as they were even bigger. This kept us in eggs for several weeks. We cooked one of the little turkeys for our Thanksgiving dinner, and it was tender and flavorful. Heritage turkeys don't have the big blocky breast meat; the bird is narrower and the breast meat runs along the side of the bird, but is hardly less in quantity for the difference in configuration. Their legs are longer in comparison to their body, and they certainly spend a lot more time running around on their legs out in their field than commercial turkeys crowded into small fenced yards.

We ate the turkey fresh, as leftovers, in salads, with rice. When most of the carcass was cleared, I made soup from what was left. I got a gallon of broth, enough for two batches of soup, picking the smaller bits of meat off the bones. We put local vegetables into the soup: leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, greens. Delicious. I didn't count the number of meals we had off the one bird, but it was a lot. Now I'm ready to NOT have turkey for a while; we will cook the other bird in February or March. We've eaten the eggs, and will be cooking one of the chickens next.

Dallas also delivers to Brighton when he gets enough orders; this is about half the distance for us, and even less for Denver residents. But we were glad that we had a chance to meet him and his handsome birds, and see his farm out in the Colorado plains.
I encourage Northern Colorado local eaters to contact him. See the link to the right of the blog page.