Question:  How can you live, even briefly, like royalty, without a royal income?
Answer: For Thanksgiving, the meal that is the largest of the year for most Americans, enjoy a farm-fresh turkey from The Turkey Farm.
You may like it so well that you want to repeat the pleasure in December.
For both holidays, we have an ample supply of turkeys that will be dressed during the week before the holiday.
And, while Thanksgiving this year is the latest it can be (Nov. 28), don’t dither in placing your order.  A full month before the holiday, we had reserved 81 percent of our turkeys for Thanksgiving.  Since 1986, we have sold out every year but one.

The turkeys have had a generally favorable year of weather in which to grow,  although late October has been cold, Free-range turkeys eat more and grow faster when the weather is cool and dry.  They seek shelter rather than feed when it’s wet, and they get rather casual about bellying up to the feedbox when it’s warm.
When they do belly up to the feeders, though, they continue to find only feed that has not been genetically engineered.  We remain the only turkey grower in Northern New England that is using feed certified to be free of genetic engineering.    While the type of feed they eat is important to us, and we hope to you, our major selling point remains taste.  Taste.  Taste.  Taste.  Along with moistness and tenderness, taste is what our turkeys are all about. 
We know from our records that well over half of our Thanksgiving customers return year after year. Some years, it has been as high as 90 percent. 

We sell our turkeys by reservation at our farm store, at five “drops” around the state and through a network of 20 locally owned stores.

We are charging $2.05 a pound at our farm store and $2.20 a pound at the five drops, the same as last year, despite a 7 percent increase in the cost of feed.  Prices charged by stores are likely to be different.

So, if you want to live royally, even just for a few days while you and your family polish off the turkey and leftovers (if any), turn to the articles on Page 2 and make your reservations for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And here’s to great eating.

People in the Portland area now have three ways to get our farm-fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
They can order from the Food Works at 47 India St. (773-9741) or from Lois’ Natural Marketplace in Scarborough (885-0602). Now they can also meet our truck at our new “drop” at the Miss Portland Diner on Marginal Way.

Our truck will be there with turkeys for anyone who ordered them on Monday, Nov. 25, from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

These are the ONLY places in Portland where you can get farm-fresh turkeys raised outdoors on true free range with no genetically engineered feed. 

Portland is our fifth drop, to go along with our farm store in New Sharon and the network of 20 stores to which we sell holiday turkeys. 

Here are the five drops:

In any case, you need to order ahead, because we have sold out at Thanksgiving every year but one since we began in 1986.  We have also sold out at Christmas a few times.

To order, just mail the adjacent order form.   Or, e-mail us at turkeyfarm@gwi.net.  Or, phone the farm at 778-2889.  No matter how you order, we will confirm your order.

It’s easy to order a farm-fresh Turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It is never too late to sign up for a share in Community Supported Agriculture.  Last year, several people signed on at Thanksgiving.  You can, too.

If you’re new to Community Supported Agriculture, here’s how it works.  The sharer signs on with a specific farm(s) to obtain a significant proportion of the sharer’s food for the year.  The sharer makes payment in advance, then shares in the bounty of the year’s harvest.

The sharer benefits by securing a local food supply, by ensuring an adequate food supply, by knowing she can influence decisions at the farm on such issues as growing practices and products and by the satisfaction of helping farming to survive in Maine.
The farmer benefits by getting some cash ahead to pay expenses as they occur, rather than waiting for the harvest, and gets the satisfaction of knowing that local people believe in what he is doing.

At The Turkey Farm, we have both paid and work shares. 

Paid shares begin at $100 and rise in increments of $50.  We pay interest starting at 6 percent on the $100 share and rising 2 percent with each increment.  So, a $200 share draws interest at 10 percent, a $400 share at 18 percent.

The sharer may draw on the share for turkey and other items from our farm store until principal and interest have been spent or a calendar year has passed.  We also deliver to sharers year-round.

When a share has been used up, the sharer may purchase or work for another share and the year begins anew.

Work sharers work for the farm, two days for a $150 share, which pays $162 in products.  Work slots are available for November and December at the farm in New Sharon.  The workday at the farm is 8 hours, with an hour off for lunch.

Work sharers may start drawing on their share after working one day.

We are looking for several sharers to work at the farm before Thanksgiving.  Early in November, work will include helping to get our farm store ready for Thanksgiving, preparing some of the items that we put up for sale  and making minor repairs on our processing plant.

During the week that begins Nov. 20, the work will be primarily packaging turkeys filling wholesale orders and loading our trucks.  Several spots are open on both day and evening shifts during that week

We’ll have information in the next issue of The Turkey Times on working as a sharer at the Spring Flower Show in Scarborough.

To sign up for a share, either paid or work, just fill out the online form located here. 

The farm-fresh turkey is, of course, the centerpiece of any holiday dinner.  But the dinner needs other things as well, and The Turkey Farm can help you get them.

At our farm store, which we call The Thanksgiving Store, and at the Brunswick Farmers’ Market pickup on Nov. 26, we have a wide variety of other items to complement your turkey.  If you’re meeting us at another pickup point, you may order any of these items, as well.

For the palate, we have Maine-grown cranberries and cranberry sauce, bread for stuffing, our own stuffing mix, maple syrup and other maple products, mustards that complement turkey, Maine apples and (unpasteurized) cider, potatoes, onions and celery and extra supplies of turkey stock and turkey gravy.

For the chef, we have thermometers, roasting pans  and a free brochure of roasting recommendations for your turkey.

And, for after Thanksgiving, we have the full range of our other turkey items, as well.  These are: breast cutlets, ground turkey, ground breast, boneless breast roast, mild and spicy sausage in a solid pack, mild and spicy sausage in breakfast links, thighs, drumsticks, tenderloins, steaks, livers, hearts and necks.  Plus turkey pies and pot pies in two sizes.  And, turkey soup, turkey chili, turkey salad and marinated “turkeyaki.”

For that extra-special holiday treat, consider smoked turkey.

We take the turkeys to Luce’s Maine Grown Meats in North Anson for smoking.  Smokemaster Arnold Luce cures the turkeys in a brown-sugar brine.

After curing, the turkeys go into the smoker for 24 hours or so of slow cooking over a hickory or maple fire.  When the smokemaster takes the turkeys from the smoker, the birds are fully cooked.

This season at the Brunswick Farmers’ Market was easily our best of the four years we have sold in that market.  Sales at the Saturday market at Crystal Spring Farm were up more than 10 percent over last year, when we sold at both Crystal Spring on Saturdays and at the town mall on Tuesdays.  Twice this year, we set one-day records for sales at any market anywhere, the more recent being on Aug. 31, when we beat the previous record by 14 percent.

There is one area in which sales at Brunswick are running behind last year, and that is orders for farm-fresh holiday turkeys.  See our new online ordering page about ordering for pickup at Brunswick or any of our other “drops” around the state.

Customers who order turkeys for pickup at Brunswick will also be able to buy related items, such as bread, stuffing mix, cranberries and thermometers.

We plan to return next year to the Saturday market at Crystal Spring.