From egg to plate: The Turkey Story

At Redborne School farm your Christmas Turkey undergoes quite a Journey. They arrive in July as day old chicks. And are counted into their brood pen. The brood pen has deep warm bedding and lots of warm lamps to keep them toasty. At first they are fed on chick crumbs specially designed for easy digestion.

The Turkeys are injected to prevent a range of common illnesses to give them a happy active life free to enjoy the large outdoor pen they roam in the day time.

The Turkey's are secured at night in a warm barn heated during the worst weather. Students feed and care for the animals throughout the summer and all the way through until December. Our turkeys, being free range and slow growing traditional breeds take at least 6 months to grow to maturity. This differs from mass produced birds taking just 3 months. The length of time a bird takes will affect the overall taste, the longer they live the more depth of flavour.   

The Turkeys are plucked by the Farm students. Plucking by hand is a very laborious process and takes a considerable amount of skill. Students start with limited or no experience and tend to leave us with a new skill few people in the UKcurrently posess.

The Turkey is finally finished and prepped for the oven by Redborne Staff ensuring a high quality product for Christmas Day. In order to produce these turkeys it takes hundreds of hours of labour over months at a time to ensure that one meal is picture perfect.