Do you want a turkey reared on kale, cabbage, apples and nettles this Christmas?
Gerry McEvoy has been rearing turkeys since 2001 and now rears several hundred turkeys on the diet.
Bronze Turkeys, based in Sallins, Co. Kildare supply a few butchers on a small scale, but its main trade is with individual customers who come to the farm to collect their turkeys in advance of Christmas day.
According to the farm’s website the turkeys are reared them slowly over the course of six months to achieve the best quality of meat.
As of today (December 15) the farm is still taking orders for Christmas 2015. Please order sooner rather than later to confirm your Bronze Turkey, it advises.
They spend everyday outside and are fed a diet of free range meal, wheat, grassherbs, kale, nettles, dandelions, clover, cabbage and apples.
“The environment and this diet make the meat very moist. The turkeys range in weight from 10lb up to 32lb.
“We have hen turkeys up to 24lb weight and our turkeys are oven ready. They are professionally cleaned and prepared for cooking. Giblets are included,” according to the website.
Gerry McEvoy said that they started to rear these turkeys on kale about five or six years ago and that it’s been very successful.
“We probably the only ones in Ireland that’s doing it at the moment.
“Also this year we introduced some forage rape into the crop this year and they seem to love that as well.
They just come out in the morning and they literally scatter the field, all over the field.
“They eat all the grassherbs, nettles, anything you can give them. They love this type of vegetation and they love exploring it in the morning when they’re let out.
Holding one of the hen turkeys on the farm in the video, McEvoy says that she’s about 18 or 19lb weight.
“When she’s all processed she’ll come in at about 15lb weight. Our turkeys are very moist and succulent and tasty,” he said.