Illinois farmers find raising heritage turkeys rewarding

BONDVILLE, Ill. -- As the bronze-colored turkeys strut about the farm yard, they fan their tail feathers and break into a simultaneous gobble, completely oblivious to their fate.

"They're annoying," said 9-year-old Esther Goija, who along with her siblings owns most of the animals on the family farm. "They're gobbling all day long."

But Esther's annoyance will soon provide her money to buy clothes, toys or anything else she wants. And the people that buy one of the Goija's Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys will end up with a bird that tastes quite different than the normal mass-produced version.

The Goijas, who live on a farm about 7 miles west of Champaign, are part of a growing group of Illinois farmers who raise heritage turkeys -- breeds that were common on holiday platters before the development of their mass-produced cousins.

More than 270 million turkeys were raised in the United States last year and 46 million were consumed for Thanksgiving dinner, according to the National Turkey Federation. A food stewardship organization called Slow Food USA estimates that all except 10,000 were the mass-produced Broad Breasted White.

Most heritage turkeys -- breeds such as the Bronze, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Blue Slate or Jersey Buff -- are raised in small-farm settings and marketed to customers who often reserve them even before they hatch.