Should you buy your Christmas turkey and pigs in blankets to freeze now?

If there’s a turkey heaven, it’s in Essex. Down at Springate Farm near Chelmsford to be precise, where in a wooded copse a thousand turkeys are gambolling through the trees towards me. Some are running, swaying from side to side like black speckled sedan chairs at full pelt, others stomping more sedately on flat grey feet. They eye us beadily, necks jutting and red wattles – the flap of skin that falls from their chin – swaying, as they chatter and squawk. No gobbling though: turkeys don’t gobble until they are mature, at around six months, and then only the males.

The farmer, Paul Kelly of KellyBronze Turkeys, surveys his woodland flock with evident satisfaction, then lets out the characteristic comical bubbling cry. A few of the birds reply hesitantly in kind. He nods, and says: “These birds are 22 weeks old. Another two weeks and they’ll be gobbling like crazy.”

Kelly also raises regular free-range birds for other retailers – turkeys who have large open-sided sheds. Good living conditions, too, although like most conventional free-range birds, they tend to cluster under cover despite ready access to the great outdoors. It turns out that age is everything: the conventional free-range turkeys, whether it’s the fast-growing Whites who make up the vast majority of turkeys we eat, or heritage breeds such as Bronze or Norfolk Black, are hatched later in the season and grown for a shorter period of time, so are younger when the weather starts to turn. This means they need the extra protection that the sheds provide as autumn progresses.

In contrast, the woodland birds are slower growing, meaning they can go outside at five weeks old, in June and July, when it is warm enough to live outdoors 24 hours a day. By the time the weather turns colder and wetter, they are old enough not to mind the drop in temperature, and they continue to roost in the trees at night, spending their days taking dust baths in dry hollows, and gathering in social gaggles pecking and scratching, much as their wild cousins do.

Does this bucolic lifestyle mean they taste better, I ask Kelly? No, he replies, although the extra age (the KellyBronze woodland birds are raised to 26 weeks, compared with around 16-22 for free range and as little as 12 for indoor-raised White turkeys) and breed are both important factors. “I just think it’s how turkeys ought to live,” he adds, clasping a bird firmly under one arm to show me the snood – the red droopy finger above the beak which grows and darkens as the bird reaches maturity.

What caused the turkey crisis

All this jolly turkey chatter is at odds with the current reports of a turkey crisis, as the nuclear combination of Brexit and Covid conspire to create staff shortages not just of farm pickers but in packing facilities and abattoirs. In a triple blow, there came the rising natural gas prices, themselves down to a cold end to last winter, followed by the least windy summer since 1961 meaning a drop in wind-farm production. Then there are supply chain issues, some (inevitably) pandemic-related, but compounded by a fire in Kent cutting a supply line from France.

This led to a halt in production at two American-owned fertiliser factories in Teeside and Cheshire, whose byproduct, crucially, is carbon dioxide, used in refrigeration but also to kill animals humanely. Production restarted after the Government intervened, with financial support for the fertiliser companies, but the food industry remains edgy. The British Poultry Council described the move as a “short-term arrangement” adding “we must now start thinking longer-term” to avoid a repeat in an industry that currently provides 20 million birds a week.

The same goes for the 5,500 extra work visas, which the Government recently announced it was offering for poultry workers. No figures are available for how many of these visas have been taken up, but given that the Prime Minister admitted on Tuesday October 5 that there had been only 127 applications for the 5,000 extra HGV driver visas available, it’s hard to be optimistic.

It’s not as simple as offering more money either: Europe-wide there are shortages in poultry processing, and in the US there are reports of a turkey shortage this Thanksgiving. According to the German green-focussed think tank Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, “the Covid crisis has shone a spotlight on the poor working conditions in the meat-processing industry around the world”. It seems the workforce has had time to reflect over the pandemic and turn to other, more congenial, work options.

But even supposing there is a last-minute rush of workers keen to gut and pluck for a brief few weeks in the UK, it will be too little too late. The problem is that the farmers had to make a decision on how many birds to raise back in April and, with the shortage already looming, very reasonably chose to raise only as many birds as they thought they could process. The result is there are simply fewer British turkeys available.

Even these may never reach our dinner tables. Processors are offering substantial sweeteners to new staff – one is handing over an extra £500 to those who complete the probationary period – but the worker shortage has led to fears we are heading for the same potential welfare crisis that has already emerged in pork, with animals being culled because of backlogs at abattoirs making it impossible to send them at the proper time. Recent reports say that already 600 pigs have been killed on farms, meaning they are not deemed fit for human consumption, and Kelly reckons that the problem may be even worse than it appears. “Lots of farmers just aren’t talking about it as they are so embarrassed about the fact that they have to kill their animals and they are going to waste.”

Kelly, whose KellyBronze turkeys are considered top flight, is at full production this year, thanks to a loyal eastern European staff who mostly have settled status and the relatively small size of the operation meaning less CO2 is needed than by the big turkey producers like TNP and Bernard Matthews. But even Kelly, who has done better than most, has been left four people short. It’s meant that £3,000 worth of turkey a week has “ended up in the skip”. But he has only 82 staff, while the big turkey producers might employ 2,000 or more, and are dependent on agencies to supply them.

Smaller farms have generally fared better, like Peach Croft Farm in Oxfordshire, which produces 7,000 turkeys a year compared with Kelly’s 35,000 KellyBronze (18,000 of which, and all of the birds sold direct to customers, are woodland raised). Peach Croft also grows vegetables, so can provide year-round employment to its local workforce. “We are very fortunate to that extent,” third-generation turkey farmer Bill Homewood tells me over the phone. He is far more phlegmatic. “I can’t see culling happening. That’s the road to ruin,” he adds, pointing out that birds are killed on farm, unlike pigs who will mostly have to travel to an abattoir. “These things have a way of working themselves out.”

He’s right. There’s no need to panic – there will be enough turkeys in the shops this Christmas. They just won’t all be British turkeys. The supermarkets are short by around half a million turkeys of the 9 million we usually consume, so rather than let their customers down, they will import them from France and Poland, where, says Kelly, “the same people will be packing them, but for lower wages, so we won’t be able to compete on price”. It’s a repeat of the fruit situation, when some of our fields were left unpicked, forcing retailers to source from abroad, largely Spain.

Nonetheless, the nation is taking no chances on their Christmas dinner. According to Iceland, the supermarket is shifting four times as many of its frozen turkeys as this time last year, while M&S sales for Christmas food are up 400 per cent, and 25,000 of its turkeys are already stashed in the nation’s home freezers.

There will be some big birds in there, too, as we gear up for a grand family celebration. Last Christmas, with numbers limited, the demand was for small turkeys – prompting farmers to slaughter their stock young, as for most standard white feathered birds it is age that determines size. In heritage turkeys it may be more to do with breed – Kelly has deliberately selected his birds into a range of breeding lines with 11 sizes from the small “Tiny” through “Roly Poly” up to the magnificent large “Plumpy Plus”.

Here is the tussle between profit and plate, what the cook can afford and the farmer’s bottom line. At around 18-19 weeks the size of turkeys plateau, so that is the most profitable time for farmers to slaughter, as after that any extra feed won’t translate into extra weight. But growing them on for another month or more allows the bones to strengthen (meaning better gravy and stock), flavour to develop and fat under the skin to build up (which makes for ultra crisp “crackling”).

So if you want a British bird this year, then order it now. Then gobble, gobble, gobble it up.

Where to get your Christmas turkey

KellyBronze

From £85.16 for a 4kg woodland-raised, free-range bird (kellybronze.co.uk; 01245 223581)

Copas Turkeys

Copas has already sold out of its organically raised Bronze turkeys, but the free-range Bronze (who roam in the farm’s Berkshire cherry orchards) are still available. The free-range turkeys are raised for up to seven months before being dry plucked and hung for two weeks. From £77 for a 4kg bird (copasturkeys.co.uk; 01628 499980)

Parson's Nose

Award-winning London butcher, Parson's Nose is offering nationwide delivery on its range of fine British-farmed, free-range meats and treats. All perfect for Christmas, everything can be pre-ordered - with the option to request delivery for nearer to Christmas or collection from one of the three shops in South Kensington, Fulham and Putney. There is also a Paron's Christmas Box, containing everything you need - from turkey to vegetables and, of course, all your favourite Christmas condiments and gravy. Available for feeding groups of four, six or eight people. From £90 for a 4-5kg turkey. (parsonsnose.co.uk; 0207 7364492, Fulham butchers)

Peele’s

The Peele family have been farming turkeys in Norfolk for over a century and are responsible for saving the Norfolk Black breed. Peele’s still has the best range of rare breeds around, including Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Cambridge Bronze and Lavender turkeys. From £81.50 for a 4kg free-range Norfolk Black turkey (peeles-blackturkeys.co.uk; 01362 850237)

Peach Croft Farm

An Oxfordshire farm run by the Homewood family who have been rearing Christmas turkeys for 80 years. From £82.50 for a 4kg free-range Bronze turkey raised to around 22 weeks and hung for two weeks (peachcroft.co.uk; 01235 520094)

Pipers Farm

Works with 25 small-scale farms around Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Cornwall to provide meat and cheese – and turkeys at Christmas, too. From £78.95 for a 4.5kg Bronze free-range turkey, hung for at least 12 days (pipersfarm.co.uk; 01392 881380)

South Powrie Farm

Free-range KellyBronze turkeys raised under licence in Scotland. You can pick up trimmings from other local suppliers on the website at the same time. From £93.86 for a 5kg turkey (southpowrie.co.uk; 01382 504637)

Buying direct

The NFU has a website to help you search for a turkey producer close to where you live. Visit nfuonline.com/back-british-farming/uk-turkeys/

How to roll a pig in a blanket 

Supermarkets are warning that a lack of meat production workers means that conveniences like ready rolled pigs in blankets may be hard to come by. Here’s how to roll your own:

1. Cut a rasher of rindless streaky bacon in half crossways. Lay it on a board and run the blunt edge of a knife over each half, stretching it out lengthways.
2. Lay a leaf of sage or a tender sprig of thyme on each if you are feeling fancy. Roll each half rasher around a chipolata sausage. Repeat until you have enough.
3. Freeze on trays, then pack into boxes and store in the freezer. To cook from frozen, place in a roasting tin and give them 30 minutes at 190C/170C fan/Gas 5.