Stalking the local turkey

Last week, in my post about the 100-mile Thanksgiving Challenge, I wrote I’m sure we can find a local turkey. And then I set out to do so. Scratch that. I asked Paul to find us a local bird.

Since moving to Seattle, we’ve bought our Thanksgiving birds from a few different grocery stores, all of which sell free-range / natural / organic turkeys. Some regularly carry beef, pork and chicken raised in Washington. Certainly at least one of them would sell birds from around here. Paul inquired about local turkey at our neighborhood grocery store. They had no birds they knew to be local. He asked about turkey point-of-origin at the big local food co-op. Their turkeys are from northern California. The national natural foods market? From California, or farther afield.

When Paul’s search proved unsucessful, I looked online. Puget Sound Fresh’s product search engine returned only three sources for turkey, all farther from Seattle than I would’ve been willing to travel to pick up a bird. I walked from my office down to the meat market in Pike Place Market, next to the place where the guys throw fish for tourists. They had only California turkeys. I visited the smaller co-op market and the natural food store on Capitol Hill. I figured smaller stores would be more likely to source their turkeys from local farms. The staff at both stores could tell me exactly where their turkeys were raised… in California.

At this point, I gave up. I asked Paul to order us a fresh turkey from our neighborhood grocer. The turkey is branded Northwest Natural, and distributed by a Seattle company. Where were the turkeys raised? I didn’t know. At least our turkey would be coming from a local company.

As I walked past the Skagit River Ranch stand at the farmers market yesterday, I noticed a small sign that read Turkey Pick-Up Today. Skagit River Ranch produces wonderful meat, chicken and eggs, but I’d never seen any information about turkeys at their stand, and hadn’t thought to inquire. Might they still have some turkeys available? It couldn’t hurt to ask.

Eiko didn’t have any unreserved turkeys at the market yesterday, but she said that I could order one to pick up at the West Seattle market today. She thought that the turkeys they had remaining were about 20 pounds. Paul had ordered us a 12-pounder, which would have been plenty big, but I really wanted a local turkey. I filled out an order form, adding a couple dozen eggs, and went to inform Paul that we’d have to start roasting the turkey just a little earlier than planned.

Paul really likes turkey. He eats turkey regularly, even out of season. Yet even Paul seemed a bit daunted by the prospect of a 20-pound turkey to serve Thanksgiving dinner for us and my parents. But he knew that I wanted a local turkey, and he didn’t tease me too much.

This morning, we set off in heavy rain to pick up our fresh, local turkey. The rain slowed just as we reached the West Seattle market. At the Skagit River stand, I gave Eiko my name, and she went to pull our turkey from the small field of blue coolers in which their meats come to market. She returned holding a large, plastic-wrapped turkey by its drumsticks. My name was printed in large black letters on its red tag. Eiko pointed to the processing label, to the very small print that read - what was that? - 23.58.

23 and a half pounds, she said. It’s the perfect size. We nodded our heads; what else could we do? I pulled out my credit card. Eiko put the turkey and some ice in a box, we got our eggs, and we brought that turkey home.

This evening, our friends Janeen and Phil agreed to join us for Thanksgiving dinner. Janeen will be bringing her son; Phil will just have to bring a good appetite. Seven people and a 23.58 pound bird.

Did I mention that Paul really likes turkey?