Growing Christmas Dinner –
Nikki & Gordon
We didn’t think when we bought our plot of land to grow wood for our fire, that we would end up feeding ourselves with such wondrous bounty. Christmas Dinner being one. Nor could we imagine the support and help from such a great group of people, East Essex Smallholders.
With some electric fencing, bales of straw and five 6wk old chicks, we endeavoured to grow some bronze turkeys.
They were in the safety of our brick built shed until 12wks and big enough to go out in their open enclosure up the land.
We fed them on turkey starter crumb until 12wks old then onto grower’s pellets and finally finishing food for the final month of their lives. The turkeys enjoyed fresh fruit and salad leaves grown on our veg patch.
The first week of December was soon upon us. Time to take them to be slaughtered. We cheat and pay a fee for them to be slaughtered, hung, gutted and plucked and we pick them up just before Christmas all ready to go in the oven.
We had always bought free range turkey for Christmas but the taste of our own were second to none, we are now in our third year of keeping Kelly bronze turkeys this year we grew 12, five hens and 7 stags all spoken for as Christmas feasts.
Gordon and Nikki
Furzeland Farm
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