IS BIRD STILL THE WORD? The North's biggest purveyor of pasture-raised turkeys takes on the strangest Thanksgiving yet.
By Ross Boissoneau At Thanksgiving, thoughts always turn to the big bird. Not the yellow one from Sesame Street but the bronze and buttered breast-side-up one on a platter that’s the centerpiece of so many family gatherings each November. This year, the pandemic has altered so much of what’s been considered normal. Large crowds are out, and at many Thanksgiving celebrations, the number of guests gathered for the traditional feast is likely to be downsized across the nation — transforming from multiple tables of friends and extended family to, well … maybe a quarantine co-pod, an immediate nuclear clan or couple, or even an intimate table (or couch) for one. With less need for an easy-to-cook 12-pound entree that serves 24 eaters, does that mean the turkeys of Turkey Day 2020 have gone the way of the dodo? At Duerksen Turkey Farm in Mancelona this summer, owners Rick and Sue Duerksen initially feared the answer would be yes. “That was a concern of ours — would the wholesalers want smaller ones?” said Rick Duerksen. The couple, who have owned the farm
since 1979 — Rick grew up in the business, and he and Sue bought the farm together — raise several thousand birds each year. Rest assured, raising several thousand turkeys is not a business with a quick turnaround. The orders for fresh turkeys are set a year in advance, and those birds are raised until just before Thanksgiving, when they're slaughtered right before the holiday; come autumn, there is no way to change the size of the birds roaming their pastures, readying for T-day. And nope, bumping up the harvest date so the birds can't get any bigger isn't an option, said Rick: “We can’t harvest sooner, or we couldn’t sell them as fresh.” Likely, the Duerkson's commitment to quality is what saved their turkey day. Rather than cancel orders outright, buyers of Duerkson's birds simply stayed with the couple's freshly frozen birds, and those who required smaller portions simply opted for various cuts instead of a whole turkey. In fact, that was what a number of their wholesale accounts downstate specified, he said. “They wanted a lot of bone-in breasts, thighs, and legs.” While the pandemic has had a crushing impact on many businesses, and a few others
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have seen an increase in business, for the Duerksens, strangely, it’s been pretty much business as usual. Rick said sales spiked a bit in March and April before returning to more average levels. One difference is a modern change to how the farm does business. In addition to selling their turkeys at farm markets throughout the region in summer and at various retailers downstate and throughout the region (Grain Train in Petoskey, Oryana in Traverse City, Martin’s Market in Charlevoix, and Willow Meats in Cadillac), the couple began offering their turkey for sale on their website, with delivery available within 50 miles of the farm. “It’s the convenience of online shopping. People can stay home and shop,” said Sue Duerksen. That's a long way from the Duerksen family's tradition, which goes back to the mid-40s. That’s when Rick’s maternal grandmother began raising turkeys, starting with 100 birds — a far cry from Rick and Sue's thousands. But the couple has always evolved with the times. Their business actually centered for a time on sales of fertilized turkey eggs. The Duerksons would artificially inseminate
their hens and then sell the fertilized eggs to Janssen Farms Hatchery, in Zeeland, where the poults (young turkeys) were born before being sent to other facilities to grow and be processed. But then Janssen Farms was sold to a German company and soon closed, leaving the Duerksens at a crossroads. “For three or four years, there were no turkeys. I did construction,” said Rick. By 2007, the couple contemplated getting back into farming. They looked at which animals they could raise — goats, sheep, alpacas — before turning back to the animal they knew best. Rick ran the numbers and saw a growing demand for non-red meat, and soon they were back in the turkey business. They capitalized on another trend, too. Seeing the increasing awareness of how much better meat tastes and how much healthier animals are for humans when those animals are allowed to roam and eat wild food rather than a singular diet of chicken feed, the couple fenced in 16 of the farm’s 44 acres for pasture-raised turkeys. Rick noted the significant difference between pasture-raised and free-range: “Freerange means they have access to [the outdoors].
