Another Pandemic Thanksgiving
We’re not yet out of the woods on the pandemic or quite back to normal even with the advent of vaccinations, boosters and rapid antigen tests that can be picked up at your local pharmacy for around twenty bucks. But one thing is for certain, more families and friends will be gathering this year for the traditional Thanksgiving meal.
I continue to shake my head at the dire reporting of shortages for ingredients as well as turkeys. If you haven’t reserved your bird in advance, that’s your fault. Turkeys are not sitting on a container ship off the coast of California waiting to be unloaded in time for next Thursday. Every single year farmers begin asking patrons to reserve their holiday birds as early as September. Don’t blame it on the supply chain if you can’t get a fresh bird this year.
Here's the thing about fresh turkeys—they’re seasonal. Just like cherries, peaches, asparagus, and just about every darn thing you find at the farmers market, their availability is limited to certain times of the year. The centerpiece of your holiday meal was planned out by your farmers back in the spring when they looked at how many birds they sold the previous year and whether they had any leftover or sold out. Last year was an outlier thanks to COVID. Everyone wanted a smaller bird, including me. Despite ordering mine well in advance, I still ended up with a seventeen pounder for four people. I could have gone for a half bird, but already agreeing to split the beast with my neighbors a half of a half wasn’t going to cut it with people who all like dark meat.
Conventional birds (those big white ones) take 14 to 18 weeks to reach harvest weights and heritage turkeys take up to 28 weeks. Orders for the poults (turkey chicks) must be put in with the hatcheries even further in advance. With the uncertainty of the pandemic you can imagine the guessing games your farmers have had to ensure a local bird makes it to your table this year.
Growing the birds is only part of the equation, though. The other challenge many farmers faced this year where increased costs with feed and processing. Remember reading about record corn prices earlier in the summer? Drought in the Midwest drove corn prices as high as $9 a bushel. Turkeys consume between 75 to 100 pounds of feed each meaning those higher corn prices will be reflected in the cost per pound. I know several farmers who forwent growing market turkeys this year because they couldn’t afford to take on the risk of such an investment with the uncertainty of surging infection rates.
You think service industry workers are leaving their jobs in droves? Try being a small, regional processing facility looking for seasonal help. I’ve seen reports of wages more than doubling for poultry slaughterhouse workers in order to fill the demand. Those costs are getting passed on to the farmers who are paying as much as $25 a bird for processing. Even the little things, like bags and labels, have tripped up processors who waited until the last minute to procure their usual orders.
It's not that the supply chain is broken, but there’s plenty of tangles and knots with ongoing unprecedented circumstances. You still have a couple opportunities to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables, cakes, pies, libations, and decorations for your holiday table with markets this weekend and the special holiday market at the Pike & Rose location on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. But if you haven’t ordered your turkey and can’t get one, that’s on you—not the supply chain.