Over the years of enjoying raising birds, one of the most pleasurable has been seeing the turkeys go about their business on the farm. Being larger birds they have a majestic way of moving around with the males (Known as Toms) strutting their stuff proudly puffing up their feathers and scraping their wings along the ground or a fence to further increase their menacing sound as they expand their wings to create a louder beating sound.
A male turkey is called a tom or a gobbler, a female turkey a hen, and a baby turkey a poult or chick. A young male turkey is called a jake and a young female is called a jenny. A group of wild turkeys is called a flock, a group of domesticated turkeys is commonly referred to as a rafter.
Depending on the year, we have had mixed success with breeding the turkeys however at one point we had six hens and three toms needless to say that there was a lot of infighting going on about who was going to be with who. To solve this we decided to eat all but 1 hen and 1 tom who are now getting along just fine.
It is worth mentioning that the reason we breed the turkeys is for the purpose of meat production which has been a real journey that we have been on, to make the change from ‘city folk’ to ‘country folk’ responsible for the raising, culling and culinary preparation of the birds we raise.
It has been a real learning experience to develop the confidence and skill to successfully manage the job of being involved in all parts of the food cycle however it is also a real pleasure that we will never tire of to prepare and lovingly cook a meal with all of the ingredients coming from our farm.