Back to the Wyckoff turkey farm

It took two phone calls and an 18-mile round trip to exchange the bird that was standing in for the heritage turkey I had reserved for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

The Narragansett turkey I brought home today from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff  (a cooked one is shown in the photo)  weighs 13 pounds and cost $90.50 -- about $40 less than if  I had mail-ordered it from Heritage Foods USA, but its bigger than the 8-10 pound bird I asked for in a conversation with the owner yesterday afternoon.

It turns out the original order taker didn't hear me say "heritage turkey" and put me down in the computer for one of the farm's broad-breasted white turkeys, which are raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics. That's the one I picked up Tuesday.

I heard an employee refer to the heritage turkey as a "wild turkey" with a gamier taste, and in fact, my turkey is labeled "wild turkey," but it's farm raised and not one of the really wild turkeys I have seen near the Palisades. The label also says it's free range and raised without steroids, antibiotics or animal by-products.

Still, that's a lot of turkey for our family of three. Just this week, we argued over why my wife wanted to prepare another dinner, rather than eat leftover whole fried whiting and parts from a 5.6 pound chicken we roasted with fingerling potatoes and dried apricots. Stay tuned.

See earlier post, "Thanksgiving food and wine run."