The Tale of a Free Turkey

The grocery stores in our area offer you a coupon for a free turkey based on your spending at their store. We took a slightly different route. My husband found eight turkeys for sale on Craig's List in our area. Apparently this family raised the turkeys to help keep ticks down and their children enjoyed the birds while they were young. But let me tell you a grown turkey can be a bit intimidating - not to mention eight of them!

We've bought organic pasture raised turkeys from a friend in the past but he's had trouble lately with predators killing off the young birds. There are not too many critters who would take on these rather large birds so my hubby bought the lot and brought them over to our friend's farm.

It was a joy to see them when we made our regular weekly visit to the farm. There were two hens and six grand toms who made quite a show for us. These Broad Breasted Bronze toms would fluff up all their feathers, spread their tails, and the blue of their faces would get even brighter. They all had a dear mother goose who watched over them. They would follow her everywhere.

This past Saturday my husband and our friend prepared them all for this coming Thanksgiving Day. It was a lot of work but my husband and our friend each had four turkeys to show for their efforts. We kept two and sold two which covered the original cost of the turkeys. This was a win/win situation for everyone. The person who raised the birds originally got something for his family's time and effort. We don't have the space to raise our own turkeys but we were able to put out the money to buy them. Our friend had the land but lacked the funds to purchase the turkeys. And we did qualify for a free turkey from the store - which we hope to be able to donate to a local food pantry.


I did have to kid my dear husband a little bit - while some husbands are wheeling and dealing stocks and bonds my dear hubby is already working on next year's turkey plans!

I like to take away all the Halloween decorations before the morning of All Saints Day - but what to do with our Jack O' Lanterns? Some years we ceremoniously present them to our chickens for a feast - other years they've barely made it to the compost due to warm weather.

This year the pumpkins were still in pretty good shape so we used some pictures that came in the mail to honor some of our favorite Saints.

We took our Jack-O'Lanterns and cut around the face to leave a large opening. We cut out our images and arranged them between wax paper and then I ironed it together. I trimmed and bent the wax papered image to fit in the pumpkin opening and lit our candles (a small votive in a glass jar). I think we found a new tradition!