Robin Kofford says she has a sure-fire secret for pleasing her family’s Thanksgiving tummies.

Kofford, who works at Kroeger’s Country Meats in Lecompton, always buys a locally raised turkey to go with her trimmings.

“Absolutely everything is better – the color, the texture, the juiciness, the flavor, the smell,” she says. “The gravy is what sums it up. When you get gravy from a fresh turkey, it’s hard to go back to other turkeys.”

Kroeger’s carries turkeys from Clark Family Farm west of Baldwin, one of at least two local poultry producers whose work will to pay off in the next week.

The Clarks – Fred, Margaret and their children – have 160 white broad-breasted turkeys they’ve been raising from hatchlings for nearly four months.

The turkeys, both hens and toms, are in pens in a pasture, so they can graze on grass in addition to the soybean mix they’re fed. The Clarks move the pens daily to give the birds fresh grass and keep them cleaner.

‘Healthy’ option

The stereotypes of turkeys being stupid birds are at least partly true, Margaret Clark reports. She says her family sometimes has to watch the turkeys to make sure they don’t hurt themselves. The birds often respond to a noise by stampeding to the opposite corner of the pen.

“The first six weeks, I say they look for ways to die,” Clark says.

She says many of her family’s turkeys already have been sold by word of mouth, or by contacts made at the Lawrence Farmers Market.

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“We have a lot of customers who are repeat customers,” Margaret Clark says. “They appreciate that we use no antibiotics in the feed. It’s a natural product.”

The turkeys will be between 15 and 25 pounds when they’re taken to a butcher in Bronson, which is near Iola. They will sell for $2.60 a pound through the farm, or $3.09 at Kroeger’s Country Meats. That’s higher than those sold at most supermarkets. But Clark says the price is worth it for some customers.

“We feel like we have an alternative that is, perhaps, a little more healthy,” she says.

Heritage breeds

The Vesecky family, who lives near Vinland, is working toward filling an even more specialized niche.

In addition to the 30 white broad-breasted turkeys they have, they’re raising heritage turkeys – the breeds similar to those that would have been around when our founding fathers considered the turkey to be the national bird.

The Veseckys, who own the Buckets of Berries farm, have bronze, bourbon red and black varieties of turkeys for the first time this year.

White broad-breasted turkeys have been genetically tweaked over time to produce a maximum amount of desirable white meat. The heritage breeds have more dark meat than the white turkeys.

“There is supposed to be a difference” in taste, John Vesecky says. “They say the white meat is a lot juicier and has a lot more flavor.”

‘Specialty’ product

Vesecky says he started raising the turkeys in April and paid $6 apiece for them. He’ll sell them for $3 a pound.

He says he expects more farmers to opt for heritage varieties in the future. But he figures nothing will ever beat out the turkeys sold at supermarkets because the price is right.

“They’re making a comeback,” he says. “But I don’t think they’ll replace the others. They’ll be a specialty item.”

Even so, Kofford, of Kroeger’s Country Meats, says she recommends anyone give the locally grown turkeys a chance.

“People will pay the higher price,” she says. “Anybody who wants them doesn’t care because they know how good they are. They’re raised smaller, and they’re not pumped with hormones and steroids. They are the freshest produce you can get, and you can really tell.”