WITH Christmas only five weeks away, time is running out for the 10 million turkeys that are raised each year for the purpose of fulfilling our festive appetites.


There has been so much flapping around in the news about what qualifies as "organic" or "factory farmed", so I caught up with local agricultural estate manager Simon Diss about what it really means to rear free-range livestock.

He said: “Here at the Cowran Estate everything is as hands-off as it can be. The birds are living as naturally as possible and when we see them on the farm they are often foraging and pecking about in the earth for their own food.”

There have been countless revelations concerning factory-farmed conditions in the last few years, causing a serious slide towards free-range farming. However, in reality, a sticker on your turkey in the supermarket should not offer reassurances about how the bird was raised.

There are loopholes in the “Red Tractor” farming standards scheme which still enable farmers to keep thousands of turkeys indoors. This is not the case at the Cowran Estate in Pennington.

Simon is passionate about animal welfare and believes in rearing his animals and poultry in a happy, stress-free environment, producing food that is additive-free, GM-free and contains absolutely no antibiotics or growth promoters.

He said: “The World Health Organization have recently come out and told us how bad bacon is for you and I think the revelations about meat and how bad it is for you will keep coming out. At least on this estate the animals and poultry are living life as they would in the wild so clients can be sure there are no chemicals in the meat.

“Turkeys actually think about things a lot more than you would imagine, that’s why we try to make their lives as stress free as possible. Stress is such a negative thing, it can create chemicals and toxins.” 

Simon also rears geese for Christmas. Although not as popular as turkeys these days, geese were always the most traditionally English Christmas bird in Dickensian times. They are starting to come back in to fashion now with 250,000 now raised for Christmas dinner.

Simon said: “Turkeys and Geese are completely different creatures and have different mentalities. Turkeys are quite similar to chickens and geese are part of the water fowl family, like ducks.

“One of the most important things to know about turkeys is that they are constantly thinking about predators.

“In the wild they would normally nest in a tree to be out of the reach of prey animals. If they can’t find anywhere then they can become quite stressed, that’s why we make sure they have their own place to sleep each night that is lifted above the ground.”

Visitors to the Cowran Estate in Pennington are free to wander among the animals and see how much space they have to explore.

One of Simon’s top tips this festive season includes a slightly unorthodox way of cooking Christmas lunch.

He said: “For a bit of a different flavour try roasting your Christmas bird on a spit. Everyone has tried a hog roast but it works with poultry too. Just stuff the bird and leave it to grill for hours.”

Cowran Estate will be open for Christmas orders until December 15th.

<u>Tips for the perfect roast turkey this Christmas...</u>

Turkey can be quite a dry meat if not cooked correctly, so here are a few pointers for a moist and flavoursome turkey this year.

  • Take your turkey out of the fridge a little early and let it stand until it reaches room temperature. A chilly turkey should never enter the oven.
  • Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and roast the turkey for 40 minutes at this temperature. After this time turn the oven down to 180 degrees and continue to cook for roughly three and a half hours. Turkeys can vary in size so always make sure you check the weight of your bird and consult the recommended cooking time for that weight.
  • For the last hour cover your turkey with an aluminium foil tent to hold in the moisture.

<u> Trust in turkey tech </u>

Don't panic, you can also turn to technology to ensure your turkey is up to scratch. Consult the experts whilst you're cooking...

  • Call the Turkey Hotline on: 0800 783 9994 to ask anything from how to fit your bird in the oven to if you can defrost your turkey in a bath. The Christmas hotline will be available until 5pm on Christmas day to deal with any last minute kitchen nightmares.
  • Download the Spotify 'Time for Turkey' app on your phone. This app is genius! You simply enter the weight of your turkey, select a musical genre and the app will calculate your cooking time and blast out music until it has cooked through. You can choose from options like 'Club Kitchen' or 'Freshly Baked'.
  • If you're looking for a more straightforward cooking app go for 'Turkey Timer' which offers useful advice on how long to defrost your turkey for as well as calculating the cooking time for the weight of your roast and alerting you with a handy alarm when it's ready to carve.