You know you want him... on a plate

You'll hear from me later in the week on what to look for when handing over your hard earned dosh for a Christmas turkey; there are some shocking rip-offs and ropey options out there. But for the moment, here's a list of farms selling direct and small producers of free-range and bronze turkeys this Christmas. Remember, instead of making your usual trawl through the supermarket you can buy turkeys and hams at farm gate, it makes for a lovely trip if you've got kids. And if you're short on time, many farms sell online with delivery. It's good value, cuts out the middleman and I've outlined the options below.

Bronze turkeys are the old fashioned black-coloured bird once common on Irish farms. They take longer to grow - about six months as opposed to the commercial white turkey which matures in a speedy 16 weeks or less. Bronze birds are more tender - I can vouch for this, and generally beat the conventional bird on flavour.

Prices:

The big supermarkets this year will have mass produced white turkeys at about €7 a kilo
Superquinn have an organic bronze at €15.99/kg which is a whopping mark up on the birds below - if you buy them from a farmer they should come in around €9 or €10 a kilo
Tesco, Aldi and Lidl are not yet releasing prices for Christmas turkeys

Free range bronze options:
Ronan Byrne’s farm in Athenry: €9.90/kg; a 12 pound bird will cost about €54 euro http://www.thefriendlyfarmer.blogspot.com/ He's a lovely fella and knows his poultry

David McEvoy in Louth €8.80/kg, order via http://www.fruitandvine.com/ and at Dun Laoghaire and Temple Bar markets

Co. Clare; Phillip Monks, Ballyvaughan www.monksfarm.wordpress.com ph. 086 8735565

Co. Kildare; Gerry McEvoy Sallins, Co.Kildare, about €9/kg http://www.bronzeturkeys.iewicklow/

Co. Louth; McEvoys’ farm Termonfeckin – http://www.termonfeckindelicious.ie/
Co. Fermanagh; http://www.macneanfarm.com/
Co. Offaly; Ger and Paula Lalor, Rhode, http://www.ballybryanturkeys.com/

Co. Roscommon; Brendan Allen http://www.castleminefarm.ie/

Co. Tipperary; TJ Crowe; http://www.crowefarm.ie/
Co. Wicklow; Colin Hadden in Tinahely http://ballyshonogfarm.ie/
Online - James Whelan butchers - will deliver http://www.jameswhelanbutchers.com/

Organic
Organic Bronze turkeys €75 each average weight 12-15 lbs from
Drumeen Farm, Kilkenny and Mary Regan, Wexford available at http://www.organicmeat.ie/

If you're up my direction in Wicklow, you can order local free range turkeys at Michael Keegans new farm shop on the road to Enniskerry Waterfall. He's a lovely fella, a full time farmer and it's great to support a local business if you live in this neck of the woods. He's also supplying hams from Ed Hick and all sorts of other goodies.

For video junkies there's a little video here on Ronan Byrne's website of his 600 strong flock of bronze turkeys making their unique turkey gobble sound and generally out having a great time in the sunny fields. Just don't mention Christmas... www.thefriendlyfarmer.blogspot.com

Happy eating x