FRESH FROM THE FARM
Jo and Ed Cartwright raise free-range, organic turkeys on their West Yorkshire plot
n masse, the turkeys look like a sci-fi invasion – 200 blue, pink and red heads with furrowed brows and snooded beaks. They make alien sounds, too: soft yodels as they chat among themselves, punctuated by outraged communal gobbling rising into the frozen air when they are surprised – or spot visitors bearing windfall apples.
“They’re very nosy,” says farmer Jo Cartwright, as she leads a group of ten adults and children from the Swillington Organic Farm shop through the Victorian walled kitchen garden. This is the beginning of Meat The Christmas Dinner – one of the farm’s most popular free tours, and a behind-the-scenes introduction to the ‘gang’ (not gobble) of free-range, organic turkeys that Jo and her son Ed raise and sell each year.
The walled garden, like the farm itself, was once part of the Swillington Estate; today it’s full of volunteers taking part in the farm’s Community Gardening Scheme, brimming with dogged endeavour as they thump spades into the iron-hard earth. Passing through the garden, visitors find themselves in a bucolic world where white ducks waddle around a pond amid the bustle of a traditional mixed farm.
A second-generation farmer, Jo inherited Swillington from her mother in the 1980s, adding acreage and organic certification in 2001. Of her three children, only Ed has followed her into farming, returning here in 2010 after graduating with a history degree. Energetic and enterprising, he set up the farm’s successful Meat Box delivery scheme – one of the sustainable strands that make up the business. Others include a shop, a forest school on the grounds and, of course, the Christmas turkeys. Once settled in, these have the run of the woods behind the farm to scratch and strut as nature intended, in a gang made up of males (stags) and females (hens), who arrive as poults in July. “A few break out, but they naturally flock together, so they don’t go very far. And they’re better at flying vertically than horizontally,” says Jo, pointing out a tall tree nearby. This, it turns out, was the refuge of a Swillington turkey that escaped in 2012 and made the national papers – being spared from the plate by a social media ‘referendum’ drummed up by Ed. “We called her Jessica and kept her for years,” Jo says.
It’s a mixed crowd; different breeds here include Bronzes, Blacks, Bourbon Reds and Lavenders. All are slow growing, but at different rates, so the farm can sell a variety of weights. In the enclosure, the big Bronzes puff up iridescent feathers and fix visitors with bold stares, and smaller mottled Lavenders weave in and out fretfully, wattles wobbling, as children push fruit through the fence and try to talk turkey at eye level. “What flavours are they?” asks a little boy. “They all come in turkey flavour,” deadpans Jo, though Ed mentions that some say the windfall apples affect the taste – along with the high-quality organic cereal they are fed each day. “Organic is more expensive,” he adds, “but events like this help you understand why it’s worth the premium. Plus, if you buy your turkey from Swillington – especially if you come and visit them here – you can trust where your food is coming from. If you buy meat in a packet from a supermarket, you can never be sure. Companies market it with a picture of a farmer in a field and say this is the story, but very often it’s not.”
LESS IS MORE
“Part of the battle is that people no longer view meat as a luxury item,” points out Ed. “Christmas dinner has to be special,” agrees Jo, “but so many aren’t interested in quality meat for the rest of the year… Unless it’s the cost? We’re not too expensive; everything else is too cheap.” At Swillington, this means turkeys start at about £48, with an average price of £80 to £90. “We actually encourage people to eat less meat,” Ed says, “by explaining how it’s better
Wildlife such as water voles, harvest mice, bitterns and waders find refuge here
for the environment, the animals and you.” His mantra is ‘eat less, eat better and eat it all’. Swillington produces beef, lamb and pork year-round, and customers praise the flavour and the farm’s nose-to-tail, no-waste ethos – something that’s also impressed Raymond Blanc and Jamie Oliver.
Continuing with the tour, visitors pass fields and marshland, leased from the RSPB as part of the government’s Higher Level Stewardship initiative to encourage farmers to work with the environment. Native wildlife such as water voles, harvest mice, bitterns and waders finds refuge here, while the farm’s rare-breed British White cattle and Hebridean sheep enjoy the rough grazing. Some 40 cows amble over and gaze at us with limpid eyes; in an adjoining field, a calf stands alone – her mum died of old age recently at 19. “According to the vet, that’s nearly 100 in human years,” Jo laughs. “So she shouldn’t really have been having calves anyway. She was going to retire...” A farm animal being allowed to retire is an idea that stays with you.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
For the turkeys, though, Christmas is the final destination. Jo dispatches them as humanely as possible over a two-week period. “It’s a quick process for the bird, but not for us,” she says. By the first week in December they are dry plucked by hand and hung for three weeks for greater flavour, then dressed and delivered or collected by Christmas Eve. It’s a winning formula: the Cartwrights have sold out every year since they began rearing turkeys.
“We enjoy how intricate the butchery demonstration is,” says a repeat visitor. With a cleaver, Simon the butcher removes the head of a turkey that has been plucked and hung before dressing it. “If you’re going to do your own, we’ll supply bands,” he says, with a twinkle. Intricate is one word for it but for others it may feel more like a stark reminder of the realities of food production.
“I don’t think children are that bothered,” Jo says, over a cup of tea later. “Kids want to know the reality. Parents and teachers can be too protective.” Ed disagrees: “Usually when we do these events, we say this is what is going to happen, and if you want to play in the garden and plant some seeds instead, that’s fine, but a lot of parents want their kids to see it and understand.”
It’s all part of the Swillington ethos – to educate both adults and children not only about where their meat comes from, but also how a responsible approach can benefit us, the animals and the environment – as well as the Christmas dinner table, of course.