Christmas is a big event and one that deserves the best, fresh Christmas turkey. Too often, though, we make do with low quality birds; stringy flesh that has no taste. Free range turkeys, on the other hand, taste just as a fresh Christmas turkey should.

Free range turkeys only come from the best quality chicks. There’s no cramming as many birds into a dark and dingy barn as possible here. Your fresh Christmas turkeys will have been raised in an environment that is both spacious and disease free. As soon as they are old enough, the turkeys are given access to an outside area in which they can roam freely. This means the farmers are able to raise fewer birds per year, but you are getting a far superior bird and one which know lived a happy life.

Only the fittest chicks are chosen to become your fresh Christmas turkey; some battery farmers are happy to use any old mangy chick, but they only grow up to become mangy turkeys. And no one wants to eat a mangy turkey.

The quality of the turkey is also ensured by only using slow growing strains. Again, some farmers are happy to use fast growing turkeys and while they are profitable and the end product cheaper, the flavour doesn’t even begin to compare. You get what you pay for. Slow growing strains allow the turkeys to develop at a natural rate while retaining their flavour. Typically, free range turkeys will have a 22 week growing period; a full month and a half longer than industrially farmed, fast growing birds.

Your low priced, supermarket turkey is also likely to have been fed on an array of growth additives and growth promoting chemicals. While there are various claims concerning the health implications of eating chemically promoted livestock, the key point to keep in mind is that it really affects the taste. Additives have their place in farming and livestock rearing, but it has to be done in moderation; to encourage growth, not force it. Do you really want to eat a turkey that in life was pumped full of steroids? Fresh Christmas turkeys are fed on 70% cereal.

Of course, there is an inevitable juncture between the careful raising of the turkey and their reaching you. When the time comes, the farmers hand pluck the turkeys on the farms on which they were raised, causing minimal stress to the bird.

Environmental Health and the Traditional Farmfresh Turkey Association regularly inspect farms to ensure they meet the high standards expected of free ranging farming. Their accreditation means you can be sure the fresh Christmas turkey you are buying was raised in the very best conditions.

Some non-meat eaters decry animal farming as cruel, but that’s just not true. Nobody has greater care and love for animals than free range farmers and they want the turkeys they raise to have the best quality of life. It’s best for the turkey and it’s best for the buyer . A happy turkey is a tasty turkey.

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Morton’s Traditional Taste have been raising fresh Christmas turkeys for three generations. For fresh Christmas turkeys raised to the highest welfare standards, get in touch with them now.Christmas turkeys