A trip to the turkey farm, deals on wild shrimp and wine at Whole Foods

The Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff calls itself the only live market in Bergen County.

The market, established in 1948, sells naturally raised capons up to 12 pounds and turkeys up to 40 pounds.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There is something special about getting your Thanksgiving turkey at the only live market in Bergen County.

Today, on a beautiful fall afternoon, we drove the 10 miles out to the farm on Goffle Road in Wyckoff, even though I no longer eat turkey, and my wife and other members of the family prefer drumsticks, thighs and other parts.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, the small farm store was crowded with workers taking phone orders or waiting on a steady stream of customers.

Turkeys are free range, fresh killed and raised without antibiotics -- or "approximately one level down from organic," according to the farm's website.

We called ahead for large turkey drumsticks ($1.69 a pound), large turkey thighs ($2.69 a pound) and turkey necks ($1.99 a pound).

At the store, we also picked up 3 pounds of cleaned chicken feet ($1.99 a pound).

A flier in the store advertises a 3-course Thanksgiving Dinner at Chakra Restaurant in Paramus on Nov. 24, when one of the entrees will be Brandy-Maple Brined Goffle Farm Turkey with cornbread stuffing ($49 per person).

Besides turkeys (stuffed and unstuffed) and chickens, Goffle Road Poultry Farm sells fresh-killed quail, rabbit, goose, and duck, plus chicken and duck eggs (the latter are $1.25 each). 

The retail store stocks Uncle Dougie's barbecue and wing sauces from Chicago ($5.95 for an 18-ounce bottle). The Sweet Luv'n Small Batch Barbecue Sauce we bought is made with honey and dark-brown sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.

The poultry houses and live processing shed appear to have more solar panels than I saw in previous years.

Details

Goffle Road Poultry Farm, 549 Goffle Road, Wyckoff; 201-444-3238. Closed Sundays. 

Website: Live Poultry Market

On Tuesday, wild-caught Gulf Shrimp were on sale for $12.99 a pound at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. Thanks to a tip from a reader, I found a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase on the store's app, which I downloaded to my smartphone. That worked out to about $10.80 a pound on a purchase of 2.05 pounds.

The shrimp are previously frozen, but that doesn't affect the taste. At 16 to 20 per pound, 2 pounds of shrimp provide generous servings for three people with leftovers. A fish-counter employee gladly deveined them for me.

Shrimp with pasta

Wild shrimp deserve a great pasta and sauce, so when I brought home more than 2 pounds of them on Tuesday, I went into the cupboard for a package of Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Capellini from ShopRite and a bottle of Trader Giotto's robust Puttanesca Sauce. 

I usually use bottled marinara, adding red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, anchovies, dried herbs and seasonings, including garlic powder, black pepper and red-pepper flakes.

But Trader Joe's mildly spicy Puttanesca can stand on its own. Ingredients include anchovy paste, capers, black and kalamata olives; garlic and red-wine vinegar.

I used about 12 ounces of the 16 ounces of whole-wheat capellini, which take only 3 minutes to cook, so I prepared the shrimp first as I brought the unsalted pasta water to a boil.

I sliced unpeeled garlic, sauteed the slices in olive oil until they were fragrant, and added a few ounces of leftover Victoria Marinara to the non-stick pan.

The 2 pounds of deveined shrimp, marinated in fresh lime juice and a little sea salt, filled the 12-inch pan in one layer, and after a few minutes in the simmering sauce, I flipped them over and cooked them until they curled up and turned pink. 

I drained the pasta, added it to the bubbling sauce, and dinner was served.

At Whole Foods in Paramus, inexpensive bottles of red wine have been moved out of the main wine section and now are displayed inside the Bergen Town Center mall entrance, above and below.

I bought six bottles of cabernet, tempranillo, shiraz and carmenere priced from $3.99 to $6.99, and got a 10% discount at the register. Whole Foods gives you a 20% discount on the purchase of 12 bottles.

Checking out the price of turkey

Why microwave a sweet potato in plastic wrap?

Editor's note: Today, I discuss turkey prices, shrink-wrapped sweet potatoes, clementines from Morocco and reusable-bag credits.

In the week before Thanksgiving, I've started to think of a holiday menu for the meat eaters in my family and for the non-meat eater -- me.


On Monday, I saw fresh Washington State organic turkeys at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for $2.69 a pound.


At Whole Foods Market in Parmaus on Tuesday, free-range turkeys were $2.29 a pound and free-range organic turkeys were $3.99 a pound.


There were no organic turkeys out at Fairway Market in Paramus, but Murray's all-natural turkeys were $3.99 a pound.


All of the turkeys at the three stores were raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics. Federal law prohibits the use of hormones in poultry.


At ShopRite in Englewood on Tuesday, frozen turkeys were $1.29 a pound and fresh turkeys were $1.99 a pound. I didn't see any organic turkeys.


Live turkeys


At Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff, the price of a live turkey was $2.39 a pound. By today, the fresh-killed poultry operation had sold out all of its live wild turkeys.


The farm says fresh-killed poultry results in a "juicier, moister, more succulent and tastier bird, with no residual sour fats."


All of the turkeys are allowed to roam. They are raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics, according to the farm. Here's a link to the Web site: Live poultry farm


My wife and son have asked for a turkey and a small ham for Thanksgiving. I've decided to make a spicy, Korean-style soft-tofu stew with shrimp and kimchi for my holiday dinner.


I saw a recipe for thinly sliced sweet potatoes and prunes I might try, but will substitute extra-virgin olive oil for the butter listed. I also might try making a cranberry salsa with tequila, plus steam a bunch of fresh green beans or broccoli florets.


Plastic potatoes


On Tuesday, I was looking for sweet potatoes at the ShopRite in Englewood. I saw a sign for them at $1.29 a pound, but the only ones I found were shrink wrapped in plastic.


Odd, I thought. When I took them to the register, they rang up as "Microwave Yam" at two for $3. The three I had weighed about a half-pound each, so that works out to $3 a pound.


At home, I read the small print on the wrapper: "Chef's Pride, microwave in the wrapper, triple washed, flavor-seal wrap, microwave on high 6-8 minutes."


That's ridiculous. Microwaving a sweet potato in plastic surely would result in the transfer of chemicals to the potato. 


That's why it's never a good idea to microwave food in a plastic container. Transfer it first to a glass plate or bowl and cover it with a paper towel, not plastic wrap.


I also have a microwave with a quick-cook setting that bakes potatoes in 8 to 10 minutes, without plastic wrap.


Today, I took the shrink-wrapped potatoes back for a refund, but couldn't find any loose sweet potatoes in the produce section.



On Tuesday, I did pick up a 5-pound box of clementines from Morocco for $4.99 that I passed up on Monday. They are bigger than the Spanish clementines from Spain I found at Costco for $5.99.


No credit for bag


Today and last week, a cashier at the Englewood ShopRite failed to give me a 5-cent credit for a reusable bag and said I would have to go to the customer service counter to get it.


Both times, I did so just to get my nickle. Is this a new, deliberate policy that hopes many customers simply won't bother?


Whole Foods Market and H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, give customers a 10-cent credit for each reusable bag. Trader Joe's and New York-based Fairway Market give nothing.


Until recently, H Mart gave a credit of 20 cents a bag.