Kathy Graver, West Penn Township, kept a family tradition Wednesday when she drove out to Koch's Turkey Farm & Store.
"We've always done turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And we've always done a Koch's turkey. Always. It's never one from the grocery store. I could have gotten a free bird from store. But I want Koch's quality," Graver said.
Graver, owner of Graver's Christmas Tree Farm, Tamaqua, and her mother, Ruth Reinsmith, bought a 17.72 pound "All Natural Grain Fed Turkey Breast," priced at $64.50.
"We always get a breast, the biggest one we can get. That way, you get more meat," Graver said.
Despite the troubled economy, many families will go out of their way to get a turkey for Thanksgiving, Duane L. Koch, vice president and general manager of Koch's, said Wednesday.
"I think it's a special time of year where they want to have a great meal and they don't want to cut back on their Thanksgiving dinner. It's a big family event. They want to have the best turkey they can get. And some people are willing to pay more to get that," Koch said.
Wayne E. Herring Jr., one of the owners of a small, family-run "organic turkey" farm in Wayne Township, Herring's Green Grass Farm, agreed.
"I think Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that people don't worry a whole lot about. I think they just do what they've always done. If turkey's their tradition, they'll do turkey," Herring said Monday.
"I think people are going to do what they're going to do no matter what the economy's like. And I don't think the economy's getting better," Graver said.
The price of the average Thanksgiving dinner is 44 cents cheaper than it was last year, the American Farm Bureau Federation reported Nov. 14.
The federation's 28th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year's feast for 10 is $49.04. Last year's average was $49.48, according to the federation's website at www.fb.org.
The survey list includes turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and beverages of coffee and milk, all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10, according to the site.
"The big ticket item, a 16-pound turkey, came in at $21.76 this year. That was roughly $1.36 per pound, a decrease of about 3 cents per pound, or a total of 47 cents per whole turkey, compared to 2012. The whole bird was the biggest contributor to the final total, showing the largest price decrease compared to last year," according to the site.
"We held our prices to what they were last year. It was tough to do because the grain prices were as high as last year up until September and October," Koch said.
Last Thanksgiving, Koch's sold "about 94,000 whole turkeys" and this Thanksgiving, Koch said they're on track to sell "about 104,000."
Koch, 57, said his family business was founded in 1953 by his parents, Lowell and Elizabeth Koch. Koch's 60-acre operation is the largest turkey farm in Schuylkill County.
Herring, who started his business three years ago, said every year he's sold out his stock.
In 2011, he raised and sold 20. In 2012, he raised and sold 45. This year, he raised and sold 60.
"We sold out two weeks ago. And next year we might do double that, 120," Herring said Monday.
Turkeys range in price depending on what consumers are in the market for.
One popular turkey at Koch's is the "Natural Free Range Heirloom Bronze Turkey" which is "Fed a 100 percent vegetarian diet. Raised without antibiotics," according to the packaging. One of those 17.4 pound birds cost $52.03 Wednesday.
"Our sales are growing 20 percent a year on them. I think it's because people want something that's not mass produced, but different," Koch said.
Organic turkeys are also becoming more popular.
"Sales of organic turkeys are growing at 15 percent a year," Koch said.
A 17.6-pound "Free Range Organic Young Turkey" at Koch's Wednesday cost $69.52.
"This year, I'd say 25 to 30 percent of our birds are organic. To be labeled organic, they must be fed certified organic grain. Everything that they consume must be certified 'organic.' That's about 32,000 birds," Koch said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic Program "regulates the standards for any farm, wild crop harvesting, or handling operation that wants to sell an agricultural product as organically produced," according to www.usda.gov.
Koch's organic turkeys have a seal on the label, a circle with the words "USDA Organic."
"You have to get audited by a USDA certifier. We use the strictest one in the business, Pennsylvania Certified Organics," Koch said.
Herring, 38, is an independent turkey farmer at 511 Schwartz Valley Road, Wayne Township, who offers "organic" turkeys.
"We are not USDA-certified 'organic.' We are 'beyond organic' by my definition of what I want to eat, but I cannot use the word 'organic' in my advertising. We believe in buying local from farmers that we can visit and talk to and we encourage our customers to do the same. There are a lot of farms in our community. We believe our customers are the best ones to make decisions about how they want their animals to be fed and how they want their vegetables to be grown." Herring said Thursday.
Herring started his family's business three years ago. And even though his business is small, he said business is good.
"The nice thing when they buy one of our birds is they know where it came from," Herring said.
Herring is vice president of sales and marketing for Preferred Warranties, Orwigsburg. He said when he and his wife, Katherine, started their family a few years ago, they became fascinated with organic foods and started to raise their own animals, including chickens.
"We were trying to feed our children organic foods. We were concerned about chemicals and trying to keep certain chemicals and transgenic grains out of them. When I was a kid we bought a lot of food locally, and I know where it came from. A lot of the organics you see in the store are industrial organics that come from places like California. To me, that doesn't seem very organic," he said.
His family raised pheasants when he was a child. He said the experience gave him confidence he could raise his own chickens and turkeys.
He buys his turkey chicks from a farmer in Gratz, Dauphin County, and his grain feed from a Vernon Burkholder, a farmer in Oley.
"You know what you're getting. You know how it was treated," Herring said.
He sells his turkeys at $5 a pound.
"So a 20-pound turkey will cost $100," Herring said.
On Monday, Herring's flock of 60 16-week-old broad-breasted white turkeys were out in the sun, pecking at the grass and clover in their 1/3 acre pen.
Pennsylvania is one of the top 10 turkey-producing states, coming in 9th, according to www.eatturkey.com, the website for The National Turkey Federation, a national advocate for all segments of the turkey industry. The top 10 are, beginning at No. 1: Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, Indiana, California, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to the federation's website.
Turkey producers in Pennsylvania raised 7.4 million turkeys in 2010 and 7.5 million in 2011.
