I hope you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did!
This was the first year I raised turkeys myself. In early August, I was able to secure 4 young turkeys that were born in late July. (I need to be better about taking pictures, as the earliest I have pictures of the turkeys is late September, and they are already bigger then the chickens!)
I raised these turkeys until early November, when I harvested them here at the homestead. Unfortunately, they were too large for the chicken processing equipment that I have, and I had to rig a kill cone from an old feed bag and then pluck by hand because they were too large for my chicken plucker (which was a great buy for my meat chickens but is just a bit too small for the much larger turkeys).
I processed them a few weeks before Thanksgiving to minimize the stress leading up to that week, and because they were of sufficient size to process them. I processed them at about 16 weeks and they came in about 18# each. I had 3 males (Toms) and one female (Hen). The males were roughly 2 pounds heavier then the female.
Above you can see the progression of the turkey prep, from whole brined turkey to spatchcocked, to seasoned and injected with butter and herb butter placed under the skin, to placement on our pellet smoker, to the smoker in full action, and ultimately to the final bird, oozing juices from the temperature probe cavities… Just perfection.
Along with the turkeys, we also had a wonderful Squash soup, prepared by my beautiful wife. We raised Candy Roaster Squash this year in the garden. Here are the harvested squashes before being turned into that delightful soup.
Along with the Squash, we also raised sweet potatoes on the homestead this year for use through the fall and winter. Here is my daughter helping harvest some massive sweet potatoes and the bounty from just a few minutes of digging in the garden.
And finally, the family gathered together, enjoying the fruits of our labor, not only of the day, but of the year of preparing, tending, and caring for our animals and our plants. We had a wonderful day, great food, and even better fellowship. God has blessed our family so much, even through the many trials and challenges we have faced.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
May God bless you all through this holiday season.
we love smoked turkey, especially the soup Helen makes with the carcass and some of leftovers.
I never thought of spatchcocking for the smoker. How long did it take to smoke?
It took us about 4.5 hours @250°F. It was about 18# and turned out really delicious!