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We were having so much fun talking about “turkeys of the 1970s” – a time when real Heritage turkeys were having a tough time fighting against the influx of industrial farming and a trend towards growing everything cheaper and faster, no matter what the ultimate cost — that we thought we’d go back and look at some of favorite TELEVISION TURKEYS of the 1970s!
Oh, those wacky 1970s, when it seemed that just everyone was wearing white bellbottoms and dancing to the Hustle. That may have worked if you were eighteen-years-old and could get around on platform shoes, but when it was your uncle Murray trying to act hip, pretending to be younger than he was (by a lot!), we had an expression for him: Jive turkey!
Frank is a true hero of the Heritage food movement — he is the first and only sustainable commercial farmer to receive certification by the American Poultry Association for his birds as purebreds, standards that were set in 1873 — and he has been featured in publications ranging from the New York Times to National Geographic. His story is the Rosetta Stone of sustainable farming, and the reason why when it comes to meat, the word “heritage” is synonymous with “heirloom.” Good Shepherd turkeys are the oldest line of turkey in America, 100 percent antibiotic free, and pasture raised on the Kansas prairie.
At the heart of Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch is Frank Reese, a fourth-generation farmer on a 100-year-old farm in central Kansas with more than 60 years of experience in breeding and farming heritage poultry. This year we are proud to announce the development of The Good Shepherd Institute, a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to supporting the health of our national food system by educating agricultural experts, farmers, and students about techniques for preserving rare and heritage livestock. Course content will include both hands-on and lecture-style training. The curriculum is being developed in conjunction with Kansas Wesleyan University as an extension of their Environmental Studies Bachelor’s degree program.
Every morning it’s the same routine for poultry farmer Frank Reese. Frank walks several thousand turkeys from their barn out to pasture, where they spend the day foraging in the rolling Kansas plains. In the evening he opens the large barn doors, cuing the flock to head indoors where they can roost safely for the night.
What really separates Heritage Breeds of chicken from the rest of the pack, and why is it so important to help preserve breed diversity? What is most remarkable about the chicken is that every one of the approximately 12 billion that populate the planet earth are all descended from the Red junglefowl (gallus gallus) of southern Asia.
Last summer we launched our Rare Breed Heritage Chicken Tour – an effort to revive 24 rare, heritage chicken lines and create an alternative market for non-industrially bred chicken. We partnered with Frank Reese, the country’s preeminent poultry farmer, to show our customers what real chicken tastes like.
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