Family’s farm provides Thanksgiving flavor

Often in life, the destination is not as important as the journey.

For the 300 or so turkeys each year that spend most of their lives at Full Quiver Farm on Suffolk’s Manning Road, it’s especially true. They will eventually wind up as a golden-brown centerpiece on Thanksgiving tables, just like millions of other turkeys.

But the difference between the Full Quiver turkeys and most of those other millions is the way they were raised.

While most turkeys in America are raised inside big metal buildings on factory farms with little space to move, pumped full of antibiotics and fed food of questionable quality, the Full Quiver turkeys have a much different experience.

They arrive as chicks through the U.S. Postal Service. They get plenty of room to roam outside in the sunshine. They get feed made with non-genetically modified ingredients and are able to supplement it with all the grass and bugs they want. And they never are given medications that will eventually wind up in humans’ bellies.

It all adds up to a turkey that’s not only healthier during its life and healthier for humans to consume but also better tasting, say Scott and Alison Wilson, who run Full Quiver Farm with the help of their nine children.

“What you have is a much more flavorful product,” Scott Wilson said. “It’s going to be a little firmer — not tough, but firmer — because there’s not as much fat because they’re getting exercise. It’s definitely a different experience.”

The Wilsons started on the journey toward their family business in 2003, when the youngest of their children — now ages 8 to 23 — was not yet born.

Scott was working in computers but looking for something different.

“I really felt led that I wanted to get a family business going,” he said. “I wanted to be more at home with my children.”

At the same time, the Wilsons started noticing their children were getting a lot of infections.

“We weren’t sickly people,” Alison said. “We started looking at why we were that sick. The more we found out, the more concerning it was to realize hat we were consuming.”

With no farming background, the Wilsons started researching the benefits of a family farm and looking for land. They bought the Manning Road property and moved to it from Chesapeake in 2003, and Scott was able to leave his “day job” in 2007.

“This is definitely a family affair,” Scott said. “The neat thing about farming is even the youngest ones can participate.”

The children are homeschooled, and the oldest, Morgan Wilson, has used her free time after graduating to become the office manager for the farm. But even the youngest ones can do things like collect eggs, Scott said.

The family eats all its own meat and gets its veggies from other vendors at the farmers’ markets where they sell their products, Alison said. Besides the turkeys, the farm also has broiler chickens, laying hens, pork, beef, rabbit and a “cowshare” program that provides customers with raw milk.

But the turkeys are in high demand this time of year. The family starts taking orders for Thanksgiving on July 1 and usually sells out by mid-September, Alison said.

The family slaughters the turkeys ahead of time and has a big event the Saturday before Thanksgiving, where families come to pick up their turkeys — sold at $5.49 a pound. Scott said the slightly higher price than what’s in the store is necessary, because the non-GMO feed is more expensive than regular feed, and the birds eat more feed than a factory-raised bird, because they’re getting more exercise.

“It’s a whole lot better for you and better for them,” Scott said.

Alison said it’s easier to cook a Full Quiver turkey, because it doesn’t need as much doctoring to bring out its true flavor. She prefers brining the bird before putting it in the oven, or just using some salt and pepper in a baking bag.

She said the farm’s customers prefer Full Quiver meat from store-bought meat, and many buy meat only from the Wilsons year-round, not just on Thanksgiving.

“There’s a big local food movement,” she said. “People are not trusting as much what’s in the store. They don’t know who raised it and what their standards are.”

Turkey brining

The secret to the best poultry you have ever eaten is proper brining before cooking, according to this Wilson family recipe. No matter what you do after, brine it first. Fried, grilled, baked, roasted, potted, smoked — it doesn’t matter. Brine it first.

Brining is the best way to ensure tender and juicy breast meat that doesn’t dry out from over cooking.

Brining works for two reasons: First, salt breaks down proteins in the meat and, by doing so, tenderizes. You will notice the difference. Second, the liquid that gets loaded into the meat by osmosis makes the meat juicy.

Formula for brine

• ¼ cup kosher salt per quart of cold water
• ¼ cup white sugar per quart of cold water

Stir until completely dissolved. Make enough to cover the poultry completely in a comfortable but not over-large container (plastic or stainless steel is best; we use a cooler). Brine is not marinade. It is a tenderizer. You can add all your spices before cooking using your favorite recipe.

Kosher salt is less dense than regular table salt. If all you have is table salt, halve the quantity (1/8 cup per quart of water) and buy kosher salt for next time.

Procedure for brining: Do not try to brine partially frozen poultry. It does not work. If you will cut your turkey up before cooking it, do it after brining.

Brine for an hour or so per pound to a maximum of 8 hours. Put the brining poultry in the refrigerator or a cooler with some ice floating. After brining, you can hold the drained bird in a plastic bag, marinate, cook immediately, whatever. Prepare for a radical difference!

The Wilsons got this recipe from Kip Glass at Autumn Olive Farm.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients

Casserole

• 3 cups sweet potatoes
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup melted butter

Topping

• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Directions

• Mash cooked sweet potatoes until smooth in mixer. Add and beat until smooth sugar, eggs, vanilla and melted butter.
• Mix four topping ingredients together and sprinkle crumbs on top of casserole. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.

Wilson Family Dressing Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix or your favorite cornbread recipe
• Several bread slices
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1 cup diced celery
• ½ tsp. sage
• ½ tsp. poultry seasoning
• 4 cups chicken broth
• Black pepper

Directions

• Prepare the cornbread according to recipe or directions on package. Let cool, then crumble. Set aside.
• Pull enough slices of bread apart into small cubes to make 3 cups. Set aside.
• In ½ c. butter, sauté diced onions and diced celery until tender.
• Mix together in large bowl cornbread crumbs, bread cubes and sautéed onions and celery.
• Add a sprinkling of black pepper, sage, poultry seasoning and chicken broth.
• Mix thoroughly and put in buttered pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
• Note: When you put finished mixture in the pan, it will seem too wet, but it firms up as it bakes.