Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Vintage Damn Arbor: On heritage turkeys

I was digging through the Damn Arbor archives yesterday and I came across this temporally appropriate article from November 2010. Hope you enjoy it.

Nic Harnois holds a heritage turkey as conventional turkeys look on. Photo by John Harnois, via: Washtenaw Voice

Just in time for Thanksgiving, our intrepid Quinn Davis has a great article about Whitmore Lake Turkey Farmer, John Harnois. He and his son, Nic, raise both traditional and heritage breeds. From the article:

Harnois has a few hundred conventional turkeys this year compared to only a few dozen heritage turkeys. He says he likes raising both kinds, but prefers to eat the heritage breed. These turkeys come with more dark meat, and are generally more flavorful than their conventional cousin.
“The only complaint I’ve ever had was that my turkeys were too moist and too flavorful,” laughed Harnois. “She was expecting a dry-tasting Butterball, and that’s not what I raise.”

Harnois went on gobbling with the turkeys as he explained the way his business works. There wasn’t any hurry to get the turkeys back in the cage.

“I might as well just hang out here and wait. I won’t be able to get them back in the cage until my business partner gets home from school,” he said.

His business partner is his 13-year-old son, Nic Harnois. And Nic’s partnership isn’t just an endearing title; both of their names are listed on the Harnois Farm business cards

Just then, Nic came walking past the chicken coop, introduced himself and got to herding the flock back into their cage.

You can read the rest of Quinn's article here.

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