Our choice of turkey breed is the Bronze – the name of which refers to its attractive bronze, almost black plumage.
The Birds
Our day-old bronze chicks, or poults arrive in July and are housed in small groups under heat lamps which are reduced in intensity as they grow until they reach the four-week milestone when they are not needed. At this point they are moved outside in to our purpose-built poly tunnels to enjoy the great British Summer!
Around about the eight-week mark, the birds can take to the surrounding twenty-five acres of fields for them to bask in the sun, dust bathing and forage.
It’s then, that we feed the birds their uniquely varied and nutritious diet of seasonal herb off-cuts from our own-design hay racks in the fields, together with a cereal based diet from a local mill.
Our contented turkeys relish their mealtimes and similarly to our chickens, reap the benefits of this rich and broad variety of meal.
Come November, the poults have grown into healthy, happy turkeys thanks to their high consumption of fresh herbs – around a tonne per week!
We’re always delighted to demonstrate how turkeys can, through this approach of rearing, be moist and succulent! Not one dry, tasteless turkey leaves Shires Farm, we can assure you of that!
The turkeys are processed and game hung onsite to reach the best flavour – and voila, a bird of taste for your festive feast!
The Herbs
Our bundles of around ten different fresh herbs arrive twice weekly from Edward’s aunt and cousin’s farm in the nearby village of Sand Hutton.
Sustainable and utterly unique, our herbs are all waste product and can range from chillies to mint, thyme, oregano, tarragon, fennel, marjoram, parsley, coriander and chives. The one herb not included is sage as it appears, they won’t touch that! We choose to supplement their diet with fresh herbs not just for its nutritional value, but also to encourage and stimulate our turkeys, as they enjoy pecking through individually finding the ones they particularly like.
The Taste
Along with our chickens and roosters, our turkeys also demonstrate the same advantages of the herb supplement.
Whilst they don’t taste of herbs, the addition of herbs to their additive free cereal-based diet, encourages and enhances the natural flavours of the bird, bringing depth, dimension and a distinguished flavour too.
The Farm to Fork Journey
From day old poults our turkeys feed, housing and lifestyle has been carefully considered to adhere to the highest levels of animal welfare standards. They spend the first 4 weeks under heats lamps.
Gradually the heat lamps are turned down and at 4 weeks they move to their outdoor poly-tunnels in the field. They enjoy time in the poly tunnels, getting used to the temperature outside and fully feathering before beginning to enjoy roaming the fine Yorkshire countryside.
Herb Fed Poultry are advocates of excellent animal husbandry which results in happy and healthy birds, and this combined with a unique and nutritious diet and the right to follow their natural instincts – dust bathing, grazing and foraging day in day out, makes this possible. Once they come of age, to minimise stress, our turkeys are slaughtered in our approved state of the art on-site processing facility.
They are then waxed and dry-plucked by hand to give the finest finish. Our process to dry pluck and hang our birds “long-legged” for at least 10 days to allow the meat to tenderize and develop even more flavour. After being hung they are eviscerated and trussed before being weighed ready for the customer. Each of our birds are individually boxed and come with a packet of fresh herbs, giblets for the best gravy and a recipe for the ‘perfect Christmas stuffing’ in which the herbs are used. The result? A fine, well-proportioned bird of award-winning quality.
Whilst we have grown as a business, we still hand rear our small flock of birds in the very same way, allowing for the best care and attention to their welfare. We maintain the highest possible animal welfare standards, and enhance our turkey’s diets with fresh herbs, which makes our Christmas bird’s flavour hard to beat.
What people are saying about our birds...
Guild of Fine Food Great Taste judges - Herb Fed Bronze Turkey
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"A beautiful bronzed bird, well defined meat. The leg meat is tender and rich."
Guild of Fine Food Great Taste judges - Herb Fed Bronze Turkey
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"A beautiful bronzed bird, well defined meat. The leg meat is tender and rich."
Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Award judges - Herb Fed ChickenGuild of Fine Food Great Taste Award judges - Herb Fed Chicken
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"A good honest bird. Well reared and well prepared.
The flavour is also remarkable – the white and dark meat both carry a flavour of a old fashioned chicken."
Happy customer, London
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"Chicken delivered well! Gave it to a friend & declared the best chicken ever tasted so I’ll be buying it from you every month from now on!!"
John Skilton
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"The jury was unanimous in their verdict using vocabulary like:- succulent, tasty, moist, WOW, same thing next year, Edward and Emma are the best, product of Gods’ own country."
Gizzi Erskine, Chef & food critic visiting the Hawksmoor, Manchester.
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"I was curious to see if the Herb Fed chicken lived up to the same standards. Cooked sous-vide (that’s in a sealed bag in a water bath for those of us that don’t know the fancy lingo!) and then finished in the Josper grill, this chicken was so moist and so tasty and right up there with the steak."
Mrs Peggy Flannagan
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"I was very, very pleased with my Christmas turkey. I am so happy with all of my items. I made stock with bones and turn that into a hearty vegetable soup with bits of the turkey meat. Thank you for all your hard work."
Mark Frain
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"The bronze turkey arrived on time, chilled, clean and in great condition, cooking instructions were perfect and by far the best tastiest and juiciest turkey we have ever had, huge thanks and well done on producing a fantastic bird."
M.F Seth
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"The Christmas rooster was delicious. I made a lovely soup with the left overs."
John Doe
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"Thank you, no other turkeys are anywhere close to yours for flavour and succulence, I order larger than I need so as to put away 2-3 portions in the freezer. My leftover turkey makes very tasty risottos which are enjoyed by all the family."
Mrs Lynne Ellis, Middlesbrough
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"I thought I should let you know how pleased myself and my family were with our Xmas meat. The bird was so tender and juicy and just as you described very tasty. It was the best we have ever had. I will be ordering the same again for next year. Thank you so much."
Loretta
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"Happy New Year to you both! Our Herb Fed bird was amazing and we had enough left to freeze, hence #christmasdinnertake2 this Sunday!
Best turkey we have ever had, followed your cooking instructions to the letter."
Loretta
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"Happy New Year to you both! Our Herb Fed bird was amazing and we had enough left to freeze, hence #christmasdinnertake2 this Sunday!
Best turkey we have ever had, followed your cooking instructions to the letter."
Tommy Banks, Michelin Star chef, The Black Swan at Oldstead
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"I cook a lot of Herb Fed Chickens, they are a fantastic bird with a wonderful flavour"
Jane Dexter Smith, York
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"Many thanks for the turkey; it was fresh, firm and beautifully presented. I followed the cooking instructions and it tasted moist and remained fresh over several days. I would recommend your birds to anyone who wanted a quality product."
