Turkey and Ham orders Due Oct 3

TURKEY TIME

Time to think about Thanksgiving plans so we can look over the turkey and  ham offerings. We have to finalize the order on October 3rd.  Which is sooner than it sounds. Three weeks. We only have 2 buying club meetings between now and then.

Since they come in cases of 2-4 turkeys, I may have to ask you for second choices and we may have to move things around a bit with emails back and forth and yada yada to get cases filled perfectly (these are too big and expensive for me to take any extras!)

Bell & Evans and Eberly generally get all the praise when I look up reviews and yearly taste tests of turkey brands.  Bell & Evans is the brand that Cook's Illustrated was all gaga about with the chickens and chicken breasts.  Apparently Eberly is the parent company that supplies the schmancy heritage birds for the White House every year (under the name of a particular heritage farm)

Here are our choices, from free range/organic, to organic, to "natural".
Each type/brand is available in different sizes.
Small 8-12 pounds (4 to a case)
Medium 12-16 (2-4 to a case, depending on brand)
Large 16-20 (2 to a case)
They actually come in sizes over 20 pounds, too. If that's what you're looking for, let me know and I'll add that size on for you, but I thought most of us would be staying at 20# or under.

WHOLE ORGANIC FREE RANGE TURKEYS 5.25 per pound (Eberly brand)
Eberly is the only brand available that's really free range.  And I think you'd have to treat this a little differently because of that.  It's been described as having a stronger taste, and when I look up Eberly reviews online, they tend to get great reviews in Thanksgiving taste tests, while some people consider them too "wild" tasting.

WHOLE ORGANIC TURKEYS 4.15 per pound (Grateful Harvest brand)
Grateful Harvest brand is substantially more affordable than the other two organic brands (like $1/lb less) so I'm listing that one.  We've gotten these the last two years, I think.

WHOLE "NATURAL" TURKEYS   2.95 per pound (Bell & Evans brand)
The cheapest per pound was Grateful Harvest brand, but Bell & Evans seems to get so much praise all over the internet, and it's only .20 more per pound, so I went with that for our non organic choice.

BONE IN TURKEY BREASTS  4.75 per pound (Bell & Evans)
They come 6 to a case, and each one is between 4 and 8 pounds (which is larger even than a whole chicken).  I chose the Bell&Evans natural brand, $4.75/lb. I'm just ordering these for the freezer for regular dinners, but it would be good for a small white-meat-loving family's Thanksgiving as well.  (The free range/organic version is $8.85/lb - let me know if I should add that option to the list as well.)

PUT YOUR ORDER IN HERE: http://www.editgrid.com/user/brendawells/TURKEYS_2012#
It's not set in stone yet, we'll move stuff around, and you can change your mind.  I'll give you notice before we solidify the order closer to the October 3rd deadline.

ALSO, LOCAL TURKEYS
The only information I have on locally raised turkeys is from Laughing Chicken farms (they go to the Haile and 441 farmer's markets)
You can't get these through the buying club. I offer the information, but if you want these, you have to contact the farm and arrange pickup. 
PASTURED TURKEYS:
Whole turkey (over 15 lbs.) $4.00/lb.
Whole turkey (under 15 lbs.)  $5.00/lb.