Published: November 11, 2009 09:13 am      

Turkey talk, 2009

It’s that time of year again, when serious cooks begin planning their Thanksgiving meal. We’ll be scanning November issues of cooking magazines for new dishes to try, dusting off the recipe cards for the family favorites that appear on our table each year, and DVRing hours and hours of the Food Network. Thanksgiving is chief among food holidays. This time of year I usually encourage readers to consider bypassing grocery store turkeys for farm-fresh birds. Sure, a frozen Butterball will work just fine, but a fresh turkey, one that was roaming free just a few days before the big day, seems so much more ceremonial.

In years past, our family has made selecting our Thanksgiving turkey a tradition on par with cutting a Christmas tree. When we get one from a farm, we make an afternoon of it, visiting with the farm family and catching up our lives over the past year. Sometimes we don’t make the trek to the country, but opt for buying a farm-fresh bird from one of a few locally-owned butcher shops where we learn about the breed of turkey we’re selecting and the farm family who raised it. This year there are more choices than ever for farm-fresh turkeys in and around central Indiana and here are a few of those options.

Promised Land Farms (9781 W. 275N, Thorntown) offers free-range birds that can be ordered and picked up a couple of days before Thanksgiving. You can arrange a pre-Thanksgiving visit to see the turkeys in action and meet Jim and Nancy Whelan. It is a fun trip for the whole family. They can be reached by phone at (765) 483-9268. Their Web site is www.promisedlandfarm.us.

Goose The Market (2503 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis) is a trendy retail shop in Indy’s Fall Creek Place specializing in top-rate foods from both near and far. They have a terrific year-round selection of meats, cheeses and all sorts of delicious foods. For Thanksgiving, they are offering turkeys raised by Gunthorp Farms in LaPorte. Guntrop raises these birds specifically for Gooses’ Chef/Owner Christopher Eley’s specifications. Orders for turkeys are being taken online at www.goosethemarket.com or they can be reached by phone at 924-4944. Goose The Market is where I’ll be getting our bird this year.

Moody Meats (11145 N. Michigan St., Zionsville) is a new shop specializing in beef, pork and chicken they raise themselves. Although the Zionsville location is new, it has been supplying customers with quality meats for years from its stores in Avon and Ladoga. Moody is getting its turkeys this year from a farm in Ohio. You can learn more about Moody at www.moodymeats.com or give them a call at 873-1800.

The original Thanksgiving was a time to give thanks for the harvest. You can certainly be thankful for the food you purchase at the local supermarket; but having on your table a few foods of more local origin can add a special dimension to your gratitude. Of course we don’t grow cranberries here in Indiana, and I’ll certainly have those on my table; but I’ll also have our locally-raised turkey, cornbread stuffing made from Indiana cornmeal and some great cheeses from a local dairy.

As we give thanks around our table, we’ll be especially thankful for our farmer and shopkeeper friends.

Scott Hutcheson is a food writer based in Lebanon. Visit the Hungry Hoosier Web site at www.hungryhoosier.com.