Not all locations for all stores will carry Heritage Turkeys, so please be sure to call and reserve your turkey as early as possible. (Also, we do sometimes make mistakes in listings. But so do meat departments of some retailers--they may tell you they don't carry these turkeys when they do have them--to be sure, talk with the meat manager.)
Vitamin Cottage
www.VitaminCottage.com. Stores in
Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Englewood, Evergreen, Fort
Collins, Grand Junction, Highlands Ranch and Lakewood.
Krehbiels Meat
Market & Deli
www.krehbielsnaturalmeats.com.2212
East Kansas Avenue, McPherson, KS 67460. (877) 240-0103, (620) 241-6565
KC Local Harvest
www.kclocalharvest.com. 3 locations in Kansas City,
MO.
We don’t like to be negative, but watch out for turkeys advertised as Heritage breeds which aren’t. Diestel Turkey ranch has been raising an older breed called the Orlop strain of Broad-Breasted Bronze turkey. This is the predecessor of the Broad Breasted White. It’s essentially a white, but with brown feathers. These turkeys were developed by Orlop Turkeys and others in the 1930’s. They can’t mate naturally. They do not mature like true Heritage Turkeys and they don’t taste as good. Diestel is by far the largest independent turkey producer in Northern California. The Director of Slow Food USA and I approached them in 2002 to raise real Heritage Turkeys but they went in their own direction instead. Diestel is now marketing these turkeys as heirloom turkeys. The fact remains that they can be raised faster, with less feed, and they can therefore be sold cheaper, to drive genuine heritage turkeys out of the marketplace.