From Your Farmer

Bird flu is all over the news these days. Whether it is egg prices, dairy herds testing positive, or the staggering number of poultry lost, it’s hard to miss the talk about avian influenza. We are incredibly grateful that we’ve been largely spared from the worst, but it remains a nearly constant worry and one that’s created disruption at a moment’s notice. Fact is, bird flu isn’t a new worry for poultry farmers. It’s been on our minds in some way for nearly a decade, when highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) first showed up in the US. Farmers like to think they can solve most problems, but this is a virus in nature without any know prevention or cure. We used to say that our geography served us well, away from heavily concentrated poultry farming and outside the primary migration path for ducks and geese. Now, that narrative has shifted a bit. Cases seem to pop like popcorn: big farms, [...]

My new Minnesota Cooks Calendar has officially turned to 2025. As we take stock of last year and look ahead to new opportunities, I thought I’d share what we learned at Ferndale Market in 2024: The formula for turkey farming is ever changing: Someone without a background in farming might assume it’s a straightforward, rinse-and-repeat occupation. For better or worse, it turns out there’s nothing static in turkey farming. Beyond the usual weather-related variables, 2024 surprised us with a new turkey virus (avian Metapneumovirus, for those of you keeping track at home) that appeared everywhere across the Midwest last spring, seemingly overnight. We still had the familiar poultry worry in the headlines: bird flu, now infecting dairy cows, which changed the storyline significantly this year. And, our hatchery partner changed the way our baby turkeys begin their lives outside of the shell, so we adapted our brooding here on the farm. The only constant was change! E-Commerce is a monster: Like [...]

The tents are taken down, the cooler looks empty, and our phones have quieted down after days of our unofficial turkey hotline. Yes, we’ve wrapped up another TurkeyFest. In the days after, I’m always filled with deep gratitude for all it takes to pull off our annual turkey season. I’ll also admit to feeling a bit of astonishment that our small team pulls off such a feat each November. From our own market to our retail partners across the region, the Thanksgiving season is a puzzle we construct all year. Thankfully, we don’t do any of this alone, which leaves me with this annual appreciation for all the partners it takes to bring our Ferndale turkeys to the table. From the wee-early morning truck drivers picking up orders for delivery, to our partner farms helping us to ensure we hit all the turkey sizes. Our egg farmer showing up on short notice when our market shelves went bare, or [...]

One of my favorite events each fall is the annual Minneapolis Public Schools Community BBQ, a showcase of their ambitious farm-to-school initiative and the farms it supports. This year, the BBQ fell on a picture-perfect night, a great community of fellow local foodies, with the Minneapolis skyline as our backdrop. The Ferndale turkey tacos and my unexpected win in the corn shucking contest (no joke!) made a good night even better. I was on a farmer panel with two of my favorite people, Rae from L&R Poultry and Produce, and Ben from Open Hands Farm. We all marveled at Ben’s incredible stats on the number of carrot seeds he plants each spring, and we bemoaned all the things trying to eat what we grow – insects, rabbits, coyotes, owls – among the other familiar farming challenges. As the panel wrapped up, the host asked us what we’re most proud of as farmers. My answer felt like a no brainer: TurkeyFest. [...]

I’m a huge fan of the Minnesota State Fair, so one of my absolute summer highlights was enjoying the new Turkey Kristo sandwich at the Minnesota Farmer’s Union Coffee Shop. Of course, I’d love to tell you that the Ferndale turkey stole the show, but the spirit of an authentically local sandwich – including CannonBelles cheese – made it all the better. Trust me, it was fun to fulfill a smoked turkey order that was headed to the State Fair! Then again, we had a highlight-filled summer. A mural appeared on our market building, we launched a new turkey burger, our public farm tour day was a hit, and I got to toss the first pitch at a Saints game. Now we turn the page to fall, and shift to delivering turkey to schools instead of fairs. Around here, everybody knows what the start of autumn brings – yes, we’ve already got Thanksgiving on the brain (although, I think that long ago become a chronic condition for me!). [...]

When it comes to farming, there’s no secret recipe, simple hack or product that solves everything. For better or for worse, I think most farming and animal care knowledge is gained best through experience. If we have a secret sauce around here, it’s that we’re blessed with an incredibly experienced farm team. For those keeping track at home, this is certainly one of our good fortunes over the years at Ferndale Market. As evidence of our staff tenure, we had an employee retire last fall after working beside us for 50 years. He was hired out of high school by my grandpa, a decade before I was born. Over the years, he’d likely seen it all. He knew the seemingly small, everyday things that keep turkeys happy. As he liked to remind us before he retired, our farm may fall apart without him. Thankfully, the rest of our small farm team has been at this for years too. My [...]

On a recent spring morning, we moved some of our free-range turkeys from their outdoor yard to one of our range pastures. As the birds made their way out, one of our longtime staff members commented that it looked like a modern range, with our recently-built feeders and shelters, and a newly revamped water system. I responded that “modern range” would be an oxymoron to most poultry farmers, but he was right: we’ve re-invested in the way we’ve grown our turkeys on our family farm for 85 years. This got me thinking about another good fortune at Ferndale Market, following in the "greatest hits" theme I’ve been sharing here lately. We’re fortunate that my dad and grandpa stuck with free-range farming through an era when most folks moved indoors. As I often tell visitors, when my grandpa started farming, this was the way everybody raised turkeys. He wasn’t trying some new-fangled technique. It was in the decades following that [...]

I haven’t run out of stories, so I’ll continue with the theme of good fortune that’s benefited our on-farm market over the past 15 years. I think many of you know that the building we call home is our former turkey hatchery, and the changes it’s seen are a walk through our evolution. Coincidently, we had stopped hatching our own poults in 2007. It had simply become too labor intensive, and we were a very little fish amongst the big guys in the business. So, our hatchery building was sitting idle when we decided to repurpose it into an on-farm market. We paved the driveway, tore down walls, turned truck garages into our front door, and gave the floors a smooth and shiny upgrade. Initially, we had a test kitchen and small event seating space in the front of the store, but time taught us that our customers weren’t eager to attend cooking classes. And, we needed more display [...]

It goes without saying that this Minnesota winter has been out of the norm. As a turkey farmer, that’s had its advantages. We’ve spent less time moving snow around, which gives us time to tackle other off-season farm projects. We’ve spent less time worrying about keeping poults warm. We’ve hardly had to salt the market parking lot. And, I doubt we’ve ever had turkeys running outside this early. It’s one for the record books! I’ve really enjoyed playing with this “Greatest Hits” theme in belated celebration of our 15th anniversary and I’d like to share another fun one here. One of our most recognized Ferndale Market visuals is our “turkey t-shirt.” Our staff wear them, we sell them in the market, and I’ve worn through many of them over the years. They catch your eye from a distance with a big white turkey and up close you can see the feathers make up words that describe us: free-range, raised [...]

I’m going to continue the theme from last month, sharing another stroke of good fortune that has sustained us for 15 years in business at Ferndale Market. None of us can do it alone, and nothing has been more central to our continued growth than our partner farms. They’re tops in our “Greatest Hits” of good fortune. I’d argue that we’ve got the best of the very best. We’re a unique group of longtime farmers and new farmers. Diversified farms and turkey-or-bust farms. Some were former poult customers from our hatchery days and others discovered us through the grapevine. But, we all have one thing in common: we’re independent farmers who want to do things a little differently – to be a part of a different model in agriculture. You might ask why we need partner farms in the first place. The initial response is simple: we’re at a sustainable flock size here on our [...]