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["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Farm%20Scene<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Farm%20Scene>

Nearly extinct turkey breeds make comeback

By DAISY NGUYEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LOS ANGELES -- It's a turkey with a proud heritage, so much so that gourmet 
cooks seem to be flocking to poultry farms this Thanksgiving season to buy 
one.

Mary and Rick Pitman say the phone at their Fresno-area farm has hardly 
stopped ringing since summer. The question is always the same: Is there still 
time to reserve a heritage turkey for Thursday's feast?

"There's such a huge demand for these turkeys, I've never seen anything like 
it," said Mary Pitman. Even a heritage bird's price of $3 to $7 a pound - a 
factory farm-raised turkey costs $1.40 a pound - doesn't faze the callers.

Consumers with discerning palates say it's a small price to pay for a bird 
they find tastier and more flavorful than the modern, mass-produced turkeys 
found in supermarkets. People from as far away as Florida have been calling 
Sylvia Mavalwalla's farm in Petaluma to order one, and those who live nearby 
insist on driving straight to her ranch to pick up a fresh bird.

With word about heritages spreading, the Pitmans say they expect to sell 
6,000 birds this year, 5,000 more than last year when they first started 
raising them. Mavalwalla said she will sell 110, up from 45 last year.

About 274 million turkeys were raised in the United States in 2003, according 
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and most of them were mass-produced 
Broadbreasted White turkeys.

A census conducted in 1997 by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy found 
only 1,335 heritage turkeys in the country. This year, about 20,000 were 
raised, according to Slow Food USA, which launched a campaign in 2001 to 
reacquaint Americans with the birds.

Preservationists believe revived interest in eight varieties of turkeys such 
as the American Bronze, Bourbon Red and Narragansett will help keep the food 
supply diverse and save the breeds from extinction.

"When talking about certain animals being raised for food, if no one eats 
them then they become endangered," said Erika Lesser, executive director of 
Slow Food USA. "You ensure their survival by consuming and ensuring demands 
for them."

People who want to try a heritage bird may have missed out this year if they 
haven't already ordered, but Lesser says they can reserve early for next 
year. That way farmers can plan the year's stock.

Heritage turkeys take eight months to fully develop, while a commercial 
turkey has about a 3-month life span. The Broadbreasted White turkeys were 
developed in the 1950s to come to market faster and fatter, and they've lost 
the ability to run, fly and breed naturally.

The Pitmans say their turkeys are fed a high-protein grain diet and are given 
four times as much roaming space as factory-raised turkeys. As a result, 
their live weights range from 7 to 20 pounds, compared with 27 pounds for an 
average Broadbreasted White.

Heritage turkeys are also more "animated and social" than Broadbreasted 
Whites, says Mary Pitman, who raises both.

"When you go out there, they follow you whereas other birds would run away 
from you," she said. "When you get excited, they get excited. And they're 
beautiful, they have intense bronze, purple feathers."

Farmers say it is worth the added time and money it takes to raise them.

"I wouldn't do it if I wasn't making a profit," Mavalwalla said.

For Pitman, raising the birds is also part of a personal crusade. She 
switched to eating pure foods two decades ago after she began developing 
allergies and her body couldn't digest processed food.

"I feel strongly about the way my turkeys are raised because of my own 
health," she said.

For people like her, who need to pay close attention to what they eat, a 
company called Heritage Foods USA even offers a way to trace the origins of 
their turkey.

By ordering with the company's online service, a consumer can log on to a 
live Web cam and watch the birds being raised.

"It's hard to rely on labels in this day and age," said Patrick Martins, who 
created Slow Food's turkey campaign before founding Heritage Foods. "This 
offers a way to connect the consumer to the farmer."

For those who just want to go to the store and buy one, many upscale markets 
such as Bristol Farms in Southern California and Berkeley Bowl Marketplace in 
Berkeley have also picked up on heritage turkeys' surging popularity and are 
now selling them.

On the Net:       http://heritagefoodsusa.com/<http://heritagefoodsusa.com/>  
    http://www.slowfoodusa.org/<http://www.slowfoodusa.org/>