It's Turkey Fest time at Ferndale Market

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Third-generation turkey farmer John Peterson, owner and general manager of Ferndale Market, expects his business to market 45,000 to 50,000 turkeys in November.

The turkey farm began in 1939 with Dale Peterson and his wife, Fern, and is now managed by second and third generations of the family. Dick, and his wife, Jane, returned to the farm in the 1970s to continue the family's tradition. In 2008, John, and his wife, Erica, joined them and began direct marketing the family's turkey under the Ferndale Market label, along with opening a retail store.

This is a special time of year for the family, and the busiest time for the business.

"We never know exactly how many we're going to sell until the dust actually settles, but a lot of those are already committed to Thanksgiving wholesale customers," John Peterson said of the 45,000-50,000 turkeys. "Across the upper Midwest, retailers, natural food co-ops, grocers, butcher shops pre-reserve frozen turkeys from us that we are in the process of delivering right now, and then fresh turkeys that we'll deliver over the next couple of weeks."

In a calendar year, Ferndale Market, along with its handful of partner farms, raise around 150,000 turkeys. Most of that production is not sold as whole turkeys, Peterson said.

"Most of that would be turkey meat, whether it's ground turkey or smoked turkey breast or another value-added turkey item that we are making," he said. "This is the time of year that people consume whole turkeys, and then the rest of it would be other various turkey cuts and products that we're producing out of whole turkeys."

Ferndale Market is always working on ways they can make turkey more of a year-round staple for folks.

"Just this year, we launched a brand new turkey burger patty to make turkey more conducive for the grill," Peterson said. "We launched a turkey summer sausage — that is a terrific summer sausage — and then we also added a turkey broth."

The retail store is constantly looking for new partners and products, said Amanda Carlson, retail manager at Ferndale Market. She said the position, which she's worked for the last seven years, gets to be a lot of fun in the fall.

"Especially this time of year, it's fun to be part of a small business, and it's fun to have such a great team here," Carlson said. "I love the team that we have working in the store. We just jive really well, and have a lot of fun."

There's a handful of differences between the lives of the free-range turkeys raised at Ferndale Market and the majority of turkeys that are raised in Minnesota, the top-ranking turkey producing state in the country. Peterson said from early spring to the later part of fall, their turkeys in Cannon Falls have access to shelter for when the weather turns bad.

"They're kind of indoor, outdoor that time of year, where they can self-select where they're most comfortable, but during the peak summer months, they're completely out on a ranging pasture, where we're moving them throughout the ground every week," Peterson said. "They have a lot more room to move, and we think it's a lower stress environment, with fresh air and sunshine."

That environment is also good for human health, he pointed out.

"For me and for our staff, it's an environment we would all rather work in," Peterson said of the outdoors. "When you have a beautiful spring, summer or fall day, why wouldn't you want to be outside, whether you're a human or a turkey? Why wouldn't you want to be working out in nature?"

Raising free-range birds without antibiotics doesn't stop Ferndale Market from producing good-sized turkeys, but it does take longer, Peterson said.

"We let our birds grow at nature's pace but certainly, we can still grow a big turkey," he said. "At Thanksgiving, we anticipate having everywhere from a 10-pound turkey or so on the small end up to a 26-pound turkey on the high end. We can cover a wide range of sizes."

Peterson said probably due to good fortune, the farm has been able to avoid an avian influenza outbreak .

"Probably one of the good things we have going for us is that we're in a part of the state that doesn't have a lot of other poultry," he said. "I definitely think that being in a lower density part of the state helps us out."

He said the farm never lets its guard down when it comes to biosecurity, but they were able to host a farm tour day this summer, which Peterson said is important for their business.

"We want to pull back the curtain and show people how our turkeys are grown," he said. "On those peak summer days, you can visit our farm and see turkeys running around on range and it is wonderful, but we do that in a controlled way, where people are on a haywagon."

Nov. 22-27 is Turkey Fest at Ferndale Market. The weeklong event is a unique opportunity that allows customers to pick up a farm product straight from its source.

"That particularly doesn't happen in the world of meat," Peterson said.

The comparison he likes to make for Turkey Fest is families picking out their Christmas tree at a local tree farm, and getting to cut it down and take it home.

"Oftentimes, farmers invest all their time and energy into raising something, and then that gets put on a truck and driven far away," Peterson said. "Instead, folks are coming right here to where the birds were raised."

Turkey Fest takes place the week before Thanksgiving to give people a chance to make the important turkey pickup, along with other products from the retail store, before the holiday.

"We call it Turkey Fest because it is a festival all around picking up that turkey and the Thanksgiving meal," Peterson said. "We'll have food trucks here every day serving fun local foods. We'll have vendor partners here every day sampling other local foods, and in addition to picking up a fresh Thanksgiving turkey, customers can also pick up a lot of the other foods to round out their table with local items, pies, gravy, stuffing, all of those kinds of things to keep those dollars here in Minnesota and get better local foods for your holiday table."

This will be the 17th year of Turkey Fest, which is a tradition that began when Peterson and his wife moved to the farm in 2008.

It's not just the customers who enjoy the excitement of the annual weekly fest, but the employees at Ferndale Market as well.

"For me and for our staff, there's such an energy to this time of year, and it really is not a stretch to say that this is the time of year we work all year toward," Peterson said. "As soon as one Thanksgiving is done, we are already thinking about the next. Turkey farmers view it as a blessing to have this one time of year that everybody is going to be thinking about sourcing a turkey and where that turkey came from and how it was raised, so we take that seriously, and I hope that energy is felt by our customers."

Peterson said by far, the lead-up to Turkey Fest is the "mountaintop" of the year for Ferndale Market

"It's a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when we get there, and also such a rewarding feeling to be able to literally hand folks a turkey that we have grown for them," he said.

On a Thursday afternoon in early November, employees in the retail store joke with one another while Christmas music plays over the speakers. Peterson said there's a camaraderie around this time of year and throughout the year with the Ferndale Market family.

"I would say everybody is probably working a little bit of overtime," Peterson said of November. "In a small family business like ours, in addition to working extra hours, everybody sort of pitches in across and maybe outside of roles that they're normally working. And I always think that sort of spirit of teamwork makes this time of year extra fun."

Carlson said although she works primarily with other businesses, it's the customers that make her job what it is.

"Our customers are great, and they're all just so appreciative of what we're doing. They love coming in and finding local products. They love meeting the people behind the products, which is one of the key parts of Turkey Fest," Carlson said.

The range of customers of Ferndale Market products is wide.

"We have people who come from just down the street here, and during Turkey Fest, we will see people an hour, hour and a half away, north of the cities, even coming or south of Rochester, coming up to visit the farm," she said. "I've heard a couple people say that they came last year and they want to make this their new annual tradition."

To reserve a turkey and pick it up at Turkey Fest, first check availability by visiting Ferndalemarket.com. For those who miss the reservation opportunity or live too far away, there are still chances to get a Ferndale Market turkey for Thanksgiving. The business distributes to about 80 stores with markets as far away as Fargo, North Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Chicago.

"We're really fortunate to have a good network of grocers and meat markets and natural food stores that carry both our whole turkeys at Thanksgiving and a lot of our year-round products as well," Peterson said. "If you happen to live in Bemidji or Duluth, and you're not able to make it here to the farm, I bet we can help connect you with a partner who can provide you with one of our turkeys."