A prosperous turkey day for other local purveyors

Published by The Boston Globe

While some family-owned turkey purveyors are struggling this Thanksgiving season, others are still booming with business.

“We sell out every year,” said Don Owen, who runs Owen’s Poultry Farm in Needham. “We’ve actually done a little better because of the recession. People aren’t going out as much and are entertaining at home more.”

Owen’s, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, sells about 4,000 local turkeys strictly by order every Thanksgiving, he said. The company has two turkey farms in the state, and they expect to attract more customers next year with other nearby farms closing down.

“We’ll pick them up, too, because they’re used to the same type of quality,” said Owen. “During the holidays, people tend to splurge on food.”

Owen said his turkeys taste better than store-bought birds because they are killed the week before they’re delivered, and Owen’s local poultry carries more fat for the cold New England climate than Southern birds sold at grocery stores.

A couple of towns over, Natick Organic Community Farm raises its own turkeys from spring to October and has so far sold about 180 birds, said Trish Wesley Umbrell, farm administrator. Most customers ordered their turkeys in October, which are transported to another site to be slaughtered and frozen, but the farm had a little over a dozen left for sale last week.

Local meat is more expensive—the Natick farm sells turkeys for $4.50 a pound—but customers are happy to pay the price because they taste better and they know where the food is coming from, said Umbrell.

“They see the birds in June and the care and love that go into them,” she said. “It makes you appreciate every bite.”

The farm is certified to sell organic vegetables, but the turkeys aren’t officially organic, said Umbrell. The birds are, however, raised humanely, roam free and are fed organic grain, she said.

“It’s a better flavor because of the meatier texture. They’re naturally moist; our birds don’t have to be brined to be delicious,” said Umbrell.

Lynda Simkins, the farm’s executive director, said she knows families may find local meat expensive in the current economy, but she is encouraging customers to put at least one local product on their Thanksgiving table this year.

“We’re a cranberry state—you don’t have to import those,” she said. “But farms are shutting their doors.”

Indeed, this Thanksgiving season has been a long, tearful goodbye for Gerard Farms Kitchen and Deli as the 80-year-old Framingham institution prepares to close for good.

Though the restaurant’s owner, Michael Gerard, said financial woes have forced him to close the kitchen, customers expressed sadness to hear they can no longer get their Thanksgiving turkeys and favorite sandwiches at Gerard’s.