If you've decided to take the leap from conventional turkey this holiday season, you've probably considered free range organic bird from a local grower.Across the United States, the such wild turkeys have risen from near extinction due in part to the organic farmers who raise them. These wild birds range in size from down in the 12 pound range to over 21 pounds. The average is 15 1/2. Regarding the size variations, one owner says, When you're raising something in nature, you're not going to have the uniformity of a commercial operation where the birds are all the same size.These turkeys offer a superior quality to their conventional equivalents. The average Butterball you buy from the store has everything bred out of it. They don't know how to run. They don't know how to fly. They don't know how to reproduce.

They've genetically bred them for huge weight gain, not for quality of the meat. This free range organic turkey, on the other hand, has the quality, the flavor, the texture, but just doesn't grow as big or as fast. Free range turkeys enjoy plenty of room to act like normal turkeys"scrubbing for bugs, eating clover, roosting, and socializing. They enjoy a fresh grazing area every other day after consuming most of the vegetation in sight. Although the organic rules do permit some limited forms of inoculation, most free range birds are free of any chemical additives. With regard to the general appearance and taste differences of the free range breeds over conventional turkeys, there is a little bit more dark meat to white meat, which many people prefer. They also cook a lot faster than your white bird, because they haven't been injected with the oils and fats that they use to give you that mouth feel.' A 24 pound bird may take 4 and a half hours while a conventional would take 8-10 hours. They also need to cook them at lower temperature then conventional birds, around 325

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