FARM HAPPENINGS
As I was exiting the Dundee farm yesterday I could not help but appreciate the beautiful fall colors from the wooded hillside on the west side of IL Route 31 (pictured behind the turkeys above). The vibrant red, yellow, and orange canopy helped me truly appreciate the fall season here in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. For the rest of my drive back to the Wisconsin farm I was paying particular attention to the peak fall foliage, knowing that most of the leaves will be on the ground in another week or two as winter approaches.
As I was exiting the Dundee farm yesterday I could not help but appreciate the beautiful fall colors from the wooded hillside on the west side of IL Route 31 (pictured behind the turkeys above). The vibrant red, yellow, and orange canopy helped me truly appreciate the fall season here in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. For the rest of my drive back to the Wisconsin farm I was paying particular attention to the peak fall foliage, knowing that most of the leaves will be on the ground in another week or two as winter approaches.
As we get the farm ready for winter, we are also preparing for our busiest month of the year with Thanksgiving turkey pickups starting next week, as well as peak harvest season for grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork. Read on for more details about turkeys, beef, and produce availability below.
THANKSGIVING TURKEY ORDERING AND PICKUPS
Our first fall turkey processing date is next Wednesday, November 5th. We will pick those birds up on the morning of the 6th and have them back in the farm store by noon ready for customers. The crew will try to round up the largest turkeys we see for this first processing date but I expect there to be fewer jumbo turkeys in this group relative to the later processing dates, where they have an extra week or two of grow out time. Most will likely be in the 12 - 20 lb. range.
If you haven't already reserved a turkey from us, there are three options to purchase one:
- Wait until Thursday 6th, stop by the farm store any time after 12:00 noon and pick out from our selection of frozen turkeys, there will likely be about 100 or so to choose from most days until we sell out.
- Pre-Order a frozen turkey from our online store now, you can choose your preferred size for either in-store pickup or home delivery. We will set aside turkeys for these online orders and begin fulfilling them the week of November 10th (shipping or email notification your turkey is ready for pickup). No waiting in line for your turkey.
- Reserve a FRESH turkey for pickup on Saturday, November 22nd only with a $40 deposit. We had a processing date change which gave us an additional date for fresh turkeys. Pickups will likely begin at 10 AM and you may have to wait in line for up to two hours with no guarantee of a certain size.
For those that have already reserved a fresh turkey for one of pickup days the week of Thanksgiving, we will send out an email notification with pickup instructions a few days prior.
If you have purchased a turkey for home delivery, we will start shipping those the week of the 10th but may send some the week of the 17th as well. All shipped turkeys should be delivered by Wednesday, November 19th.
If you have purchased a turkey for store pickup, please make sure to include your email address in the order. We will start reaching out via email when your turkey is ready for pickup, just stop in at the farm store once you receive the notification and we will have it ready for you. Pickup notifications will likely start on Tuesday, November 11th and you can pickup anytime during store hours until the day before Thanksgiving.
FARM STORE UPDATE
We picked up eight beef from our processor yesterday so we are restocking the store today with all the favorites - grass-fed premium steaks, roasts, stew meat, flank steak, organ meats, steak burgers, tallow…pretty much anything that comes from a cow we should have in stock. Might even be a few tomahawk steaks in there.
We also received a truck load of fresh organic local Michigan apples and apple cider this past week, so we have a great selection of varieties now…including Macintosh, Spy, Gala, Liberty, Golden, and Cortland in stock.
Other local, organic produce in the farm store this week includes kale, cilantro, swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, Bok Choy, many varieties of potatoes, mushrooms, and microgreens. Plus organic avocadoes, limes, lemons, pears, fennel, celery, cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, and squash.
Please bring any extra plastic or paper shopping bags as well as egg cartons to the farm store so we can reuse those and keep them out of the landfills and oceans. Farm Store hours are 10 AM - 6 PM weekdays, and 9 AM - 5 PM weekends.
We just have a few Saturday farm tours left, only until Thanksgiving. The tours start at 1:00 PM. Weather forecast now looks very fall-like for the next 10 days - purchase tour tickets online or in the farm store.
Happy Fall,
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team