Thanksgiving scavenging stories and tips

[korina]

So today was sitting here thinking of the holiday next week, thinking of my kitties training to gnaw on some chicken necks I ordered them.

In between posts on chicken wing feeding by Laurie, and thoughts of how turkey necks are "too big" for cats, and chicken necks or too small for dogs, I realized I would rather the babies be challenged with a big neck they cant easily defeat.

Then my obsessive fresh to freezer to my freezer mode came on as I thought of ways to get my cats the best and freshest.

I thought, "Well maybe if I can find a high end small farm that will be slaughtering this week I can invite myself there and snag a bunch of necks or other bits and rush them to my freezer."

(I know my freezer might not be safe as it only goes as low as -6)

So I googled "maryland turkey farms" and found this site that compiles grass fed free range farms for the country:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/maryland.html

I contacted the first farm in the list, asking about the necks and here was their response:

"Have plenty for your cat.... Not necks but back and wings. Also make great soup stock"

That was it, sounds free.

My sister told me she thinks necks come on holiday turkey's and not to get my hopes up.

So any thoughts on Turkey wings or backs (still not sure what a back is in the poultry and beef business).

Anyone else working this angle this holiday season?

Please update if you get a huge free score, or pennies on the dollar, or snobby farms that turn their nose up to you......

 

[Willowy]

A lot of commercial turkeys are "enhanced" (soaked in a salt solution). I don't know if they soak the neck, too, but the rest of the meat is really high in sodium . So no cheap turkeys for my bunch. But if you have a local turkey farm, that's a great way to get natural meat!

 

[korina]

Hehe, no flavored turkey's for my guys.

It appears in thanksgiving land, people keep the necks.

I might go down to this farm to get the turkey wings, and chop em up in some pieces with shears (trying to train these guys for frankenpray once their adult teeth are in)

They sell ground beef there, hopefull they grind to order, and hopefully they will grind me pork.

If you see my other post, I am trying to find out if melted lard might be  a good additive to raw ground mix.

One more thing, this place sells Duck Eggs!,  was about to start mixing chicken egg yolks.

So maybe I should widen the scope of this post, anyone have stories of artisanal or family butchers/farms where you can get some of our coveted product slaughterhouse fresh or frozen either free or very very cheap?