Suburban farms provide options for fresh, local holiday meals
Though it's weeks past the conclusion of local farmers markets, those seeking to create farm-to-table holiday dinners don't need to leave the friendly confines of the suburbs to stock their cupboards.
Farmers in McHenry and DeKalb counties are on hand to provide locally raised poultry, beef, pork and vegetables, as well as share some best practices they've learned in preparing their own meals from harvests over the years. While it may not be possible to do a whole Thanksgiving meal or Christmas locally sourced, you can do quite a bit, surveying the nearest options available through the EatWild.com website, an organization dedicated to providing state-by-state information about where to find naturally-raised meat, dairy and produce.
Out in DeKalb County, Robert Kauffman is the second generation owner of Hoka Turkey Farms in Waterman, which raises roughly 70,000 turkeys in any given year and draws thousands from the area to purchase Thanksgiving birds.
Kaufmann says the turkeys are brought to the farm from hatcheries all over the country as soon as they're born, before being raised on the farm for between 16 and 24 weeks, when they are determined fit enough to eat.
A portion of those birds, Kauffman says, are free range, while others stay in specially heated poultry houses.
All birds are fed on a diet consisting of a corn and soy mixture.
This year, Hoka turkeys cost $2.99 a pound, about $1.50 more than a typical frozen bird found at a grocery store.
“We're not going to raise a turkey that's going to be sold next to a Butterball (brand bird),” Kaufmann said. “We're going to be charging you considerably more because our costs are high out here. ... I've got to justify it somehow. The flavor is proof we know what we're doing.”
For his own Thanksgiving dinners, Kauffman says he's moved away from complicated glazes and techniques, preferring to place a bird in a black anodized aluminum pan and roast it in an open pan method.
“I like to keep it real simple, real pure,” he said, adding that when he makes the gravy, he makes a roux with a base of turkey fat.
While he's cooked a turkey as large as 40 pounds — just, he says, to see what it tasted like — Kauffman considers an 18-pounder to be a perfect size for his 12 guests this year, with plenty of room for leftovers.
“The nice thing about a turkey is you can feed a lot of people,” he said.
In Woodstock, Gennifer and Scott Johnson established Brookdale Road Farm seven years ago on family property after they decided they needed more income to support their church work and their growing family of six children.
The couple originally farmed vegetables only, but in recent years added cattle, hogs and chickens, selling fresh eggs and grass-fed beef year round. The beef, Gennifer Johnson says, is sold in bulk; the smallest portion, a quarter steer, produces roughly 60 to 80 pounds of beef.
“People love that it's humanely raised, outdoors and local,” she said. “In grocery stores, you don't know where that meat came from. Ours goes right from the farm, to the butcher. They cut it up and it's frozen immediately.”
Beyond the local and environmental draw, Johnson also describes the Brookdale Farms' beef as fuller and more robust than the packaged variety.
“It's just different, almost like you feel about fresh vegetables versus frozen,” she says. “They just have more flavor to me.”
Johnson, for the first time in years, says she plans to host her family at the farm, taking flash-frozen vegetables harvested in the summer and fall from the freezer to accompany the family's turkey and beef or pork roast.
“We're just slowing down long enough (from our work) to decide what to serve,” she said.
Within reach
<b>Brookdale Road Farm</b>
612 Brookdale Road, Woodstock, (815) 529-2471, genniferjohnson@gmail.com
<b>Hoka Turkeys</b>
<b>Kauffman Turkey Farms</b>
8519 Leland Road, Waterman, IL, (815) 264-3470, <a href="http://www.hokaturkeys.com">hokaturkeys.com</a>