NosH&Jumper
Turkey Farm Trip
Tuesday December 19th 2006
We had decided that our pre-Christmas farm trip should be suitably seasonal and so had arranged to visit James Graham’s free range turkey farm in Norfolk. However a few weeks before, we were contacted by the British Pig Executive who asked if we would be interested in visiting Jimmy Butler, an award winning pig farmer who breeds and raises his animals outdoors on the sandy soils of coastal Suffolk. It was too good an opportunity to pass up on.
To get ourselves into a porky frame of mind, we started the day with bacon butties and sausage baps as we travelled up to East Anglia on the H&J bus. On arriving at St. Margarets Farm Jimmy showed us around, starting with the fully-grown pigs that were ready for slaughter and ending up with the newly-born piglets romping around on their straw beds. It was easy to see why Jimmy won Pig Farmer of the Year last December when we saw how much space the pigs had and how happy they looked. Jimmy is passionate about his pigs and refuses to compromise on their welfare which is why they are given natural feeds that have been grown either on the farm on in the surrounding area, are not given hormones to speed growth and are not routinely fed antibiotics as a preventative to illness. He also grows his pigs on four to five weeks longer than most farmers which gives the meat a deeper flavour and a good covering of fat.
Continuing with the piggy theme, we stopped for a delicious lunch of roast pork at Number Twenty Four Restaurant which specialises in local and seasonal produce, including pork from Jimmy Butler and then headed up to Rookery Farm to meet our turkeys.
James Graham’s family has been farming turkeys in Norfolk since 1880 and he specialises in Norfolk Black, Cambridge Bronze and the more unusual Bourbon Red turkeys. These breeds have a high oil content which stops the breast drying out during roasting, a fine, white skin and a compact breast. The birds are reared naturally, fed on grains grown on the farm and are killed by hand which is a far more humane and stress-free method than the end that hapless mass-produced poultry face. The result is a much tastier turkey and this was proved to us when James took us into the kitchen for a tasting.
As at Jimmy’s farm, we could see for ourselves how relaxed and happy the turkeys were and we came away impressed by the welfare and general standards of both the farms. It was also a great opportunity for our chefs to see where their meat comes from and to strengthen the link between producer and consumer which fosters a more educated and interested approach to buying. The next step in this journey will take place after Christmas when our butcher, Kevin Lyons, will buy a whole pig from Jimmy Butler and talk our chefs through butchery and use of unusual cuts of meat.
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