There’s a chance you won’t just be carving a turkey at Christmas dinner this year - you’ll be slicing into an old friend. For a Norfolk company now gives you the chance to choose your turkey, watch it strut its stuff in the open field on a special “TurkeyCam” and then have it slaughtered and delivered to your door in time for the all important meal.
“At the moment there’s a gap between the animal and what appears on your plate and we’re trying to lessen that,” said Jules Ugo, of Farm, Park and Wild which is based in North Norfolk. “Some people may find the idea a bit sqeamish but I think it’s important for people to know what they’re eating.”
In a similar plan a farmer from Rowhorne Farm near Exeter is encouraging customers to visit his farm, choose a pair of sheep, watch them mate and then return five months later to see the lamb — and their future dinner menu - being born.
Monthly visits are then encouraged before the lamb is slaughtered at six months old and delivered to the customer. The farmer behind the scheme, Brett Varker, says that different ewes and rams will produce different kinds of lamb and advice would be available on what to expect from a particular match.
Over in Norfolk, TurkeyCam is not on a par with the film 2012 for special effects or Paranormal Activity for spooky shocks. What you see is a lot of turkeys feeding, standing still or taking the odd turkey trot. But this hasn’t stopped if from being chosen as one of earthcam’s Top Ten webcams of the world.
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The 450 turkeys at Farm, Park & Wild — a mixture of Norfolk Bronze and Norfolk Black — are fed on grain, wheat and barley stubble and allowed to roam grass and woodland. The Norfolk Black isn’t seen on too many supermarket shelves as it’s a slow growing bird with less breast meat than other breeds. But its meat is recognised as having a fuller flavour than the hybrid varieties.
“Our whole business is based on working with small, independent producers who don’t subscribe to commercial farming practices or growth hormones and who are interested in good animal welfare,” said Ugo.
At the other extreme to TurkeyCam’s slow-bred transparency, the forthcoming food documentary Food, Inc. graphically highlights the woes of mass industrial processing plants for birds and animals in America. During production, the filmmakers were constantly coming up against corporate barriers when they tried to film inside these giant sheds where birds never see daylight. In many cases the birds’ internal organs cannot keep natural pace with the growth of fleshier parts of their bodies resulting in collapse and even premature death.
And because the EU rules that it isn’t necessary to give the country of origin for all meat and poultry, it can be hard to tell exactly where your meat comes from. Meat reared in another country but processed in the UK can still be labelled as British.
Consumers should get their bird or roast from a reputable butcher or farmers’ market and not be afraid to ask about the meat’s origin. This applies to dining in restaurants, too. When booking, don’t be afraid to ask where the restaurant sources its meat.
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The Good Food Guide champions restaurants and pubs which serve meat that has been reared in their own backyards. Places like The Mulberry Tree in Kent, which owns Middle White pigs; The Wellington Arms in Hampshire, which has hens in its paddocks; and the Nut Tree Inn in Oxfordshire, which rears Gloucester Old Spot-Tamworth pigs.
Prices for Farm, Park and Wild’s Norfolk Black turkeys are £74 for a 4.5kg bird which will feed eight and £86 for a 7.5kg bird. The Norfolk Bronze turkeys range in price from £68 for a 5.5kg bird to £93 for a 9.5kg one. Delivery dates are on December 19, 21 and 23. In addition the company also offers sauces and vegetables to accompany the turkey plus lobster and crab starters and Boxing Day staples such as free-range hams.