Tasty Turkeys proudly produce to our Quality Assurance standard

We became TFTA members and accredited Golden Turkey farmers in Spring 2022. We’re family farmers and have been producing turkeys for 50 years but this is our first as a Golden Turkey farmer.

Do you produce anything else on your farm?
No we don’t.

What do you do in the first 6 months of the year, when not producing turkeys?

We run an agricultural and amenity contracting business, we have a green waste site that recycles wood, logs, brash, etc for biomass power stations, we have 12 commercial units let on the farm and we undertake gritting work in the winter months. We run 5 gritters covering 160 private industrial sites and supermarkets within London, Essex & Herts.

In total we have 4 full time staff and 3 part time.  We also take on 20 seasonal staff for Christmas and another 12 self-employed for the winter gritting season.

Have you won any Awards for farming, food or your business?
We have not won any awards yet, but I was nominated and became a finalist for the Young Farmer of the Year in the National Arable & Grassland Awards this year.

Apart from selling direct to customers direct – who else do you normally supply Golden Turkeys to?
We only sell approximately 200 turkeys wholesale to two outlets. The remaining turkeys are either sold direct from the farm gate, or to companies as Christmas bonuses for their staff. We do supply a few turkeys to local charities, raffles etc.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

What or who, inspires you?
People who build their businesses up from scratch (like we have) and can take all the stress that comes with it and come out the other side smiling.

What was your first job?
Peter:
Aside from helping my dad on the farm when I was younger, it was as a harvest student for a local farmer>
Lizzie:
I have been in childcare for most of my career and also ran my own tearoom business. I’ve since
come back to work on the farm part time predominantly on the turkey side, whilst looking after
our young daughter.

What would you be doing, if you weren’t a farmer?

Peter – I’d have quite liked to have been a fireman.
Lizzie – I’d love to be a midwife.

Favourite Book or Film?
Peter: Any James Bond or Fast & Furious films
Lizzie: Not really any favourites I’m afraid!

Supporting your local community;
We provide free turkeys to a local homeless charity at Christmas, plus also provide turkeys as raffle prizes in local fete’s and charity events. We currently offer collection for farm gate orders and delivery for the bulk company orders.

Do you offer nationwide delivery?
We don’t currently but we are looking to provide this for this season, as we feel it will open up our market further.

What do you believe has been the most effective way for you, to gain new customers?
Our trailer signs we put out – they’re 12’ x 8’, mounted high on the trailers and only cost us one turkey per month to the farmer whose land they are displayed on. Cheap advertising!

How have you found the sourcing and management of the seasonal workers, for the processing of the turkeys for Christmas?
Very hard and getting harder every year. The trouble is there is only so much mechanisation you can do to make this work efficiently and to best standards. The rest is down to labour.

Are you looking making any changes to your turkey rearing, production and presentation, above and beyond our Golden Turkey Standard?
We already present our turkeys in our own branded boxes, with greaseproof, our own cooking booklet, a pop rite turkey timer and a sprig of herbs.  We have done this for many years now and it’s very popular.  The main change we’re making this year is to build a brand new processing area, which is right next door to the rearing sheds.  It will make it much less stressful for the birds and much more efficient for us, which in turn we hope will reduce our production costs and make a not-so-pleasant job just that little bit more pleasant!