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When it comes to Christmas dinner, the centrepiece is undeniably still the turkey. In the UK, we buy around 10 million turkeys, each year, yet so few of them are truly ethical turkeys.
We spend hours discussing cooking techniques, stuffing options, and brining methods. But, we often overlook whether it’s an ethical turkey and how the bird has been reared – yet it’s a fundamental aspect that can make or break the dining experience. So, where to buy the best ethical turkey this Christmas?
The secret to the best-tasting and ethical turkey
At Live Frankly, we’re staunch advocates for organic, truly free-range birds.
Not all turkeys are created equal; their taste varies significantly due to the vast differences in farming practices. The secret to the best-tasting turkey lies in its slow growth over approximately six months and a crucial hanging period before purchase. This approach is championed by farmers and butchers dedicated to doing things the slow way, like those listed below.
Unfortunately, the majority of the UK’s 10 million turkeys are intensively farmed – accounting for a staggering 90% of the total. These birds are typically raised indoors, injected with antibiotics, and fed genetically modified grains with pesticides, leading to rapid, unnatural growth. They are bred to be so heavy that they can’t fly or mate naturally. Beak trimming is also commonplace to stop them from pecking each other in such close confinement.
Even the supermarket version of “free-range” often falls short, with birds raised and housed in a way that means most will never venture outside.
You can taste the difference with these turkeys. These turkeys offer a tender yet excessively watery meat that can turn dry and tasteless when cooked.
To savour the true essence of turkey, opt for organic or genuinely free-range slower-growing breeds like Norfolk Black, Bronze, or Bourbon Red.
These birds are encouraged to forage for natural foods, develop muscle, and mature fully. Hanging for about 10 days further enhances tenderness and flavour by allowing muscle fibres to break down, and excess water to evaporate.
What size turkey do you need to feed up to 15 people?
4kg – 5kg: Serves 6-8
5kg – 6kg: Serves 8-10
6kg – 7kg: Serves 10-12
7kg – 8kg: Serves 12-14
8kg – 9kg: Serves 14-16
9kg – 10kg: Serves 16-18
10kg – 11kg: Serves 18-20
11kg – 12kg: Serves 20-22
12kg – 13kg: Serves 22-24
Source: Piper’s Farm
Where to buy the best ethical turkey that tastes great
So, for the best-tasting turkey this Christmas, those listed below are the farms committed to these traditional, humane, and flavour-enhancing methods that bring the goodness of the farm to your kitchen and Christmas table.
The icing on the cake is that you can order these turkeys to be delivered from the farm to your door.
Farms that deliver the best ethical turkey to your door:
Where to buy the best sustainable and ethical turkeys Christmas 2024 at a glance:
- Fosse Meadows, from £85.50
- Pipers Farm, from £96
- Riverford, from £110
- Abel & Cole, from £85
- field&flower, from £94.98
- Helen Browning, from £109.45
- Wylde Market, from £112.50
1. Fosse Meadows
Key Specifications:
- Weights: 3kg – 12kg
- Min. people serves: 5 – 22+
- Organic or Free-Range: Free-range, grown to 6 months old
- Whole bird and crowns: Both, plus turkey breast and ballotines
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Chilled
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivery Dates: Thanksgiving – Turkeys from 21 November, all other birds from 4 December. Christmas – 20 & 23 December and farmgate collection on 24 December
Fosse Meadows Free-Range and Ethical Turkey
Fosse Meadows is a fourth-generation farm selling free-range turkeys that are slow-grown to maturity of 6 months. It’s also celebrating its 15th year of offering its Bronze turkey this year too. They keep their turkeys in small flocks to promote natural behaviour and feed them an additive-free cereal diet, so the turkeys have good fat marbling through the meat.
You can buy their free-range Bronze whole turkey directly from Fosse Meadows from £85.50 (for 3kg which serves 6), along with other Christmas dinner essentials.
From £85.50 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at Fosse Meadows
2. Pipers Farm
Key Specifications:
- Weights: 4kg – 10kg+ for whole turkeys, 2.8-5.3kg for turkey crowns, from 1kg for boned, rolled, stuffed turkey joints
- Min. people serves: 1kg serves 4-6, 10kg serves 18-20
- Organic or Free-Range: Pipers Farm poultry is what it calls ‘Properly Free Range’ – as soon as birds are feathered up they move outside, spending the summer ranging freely on grassy hillsides, actively developing strong bones and muscles
- Whole bird and crowns: Yes, plus boned, rolled and stuffed turkey breast joints
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Whole birds and crowns are delivered fresh (except Highlands and Islands, which are frozen). Boned, rolled, stuffed joints and trimmings are delivered frozen
- Delivery Dates: From November – Friday 23 December, or until it sells out
Piper’s Farm Free-Range and Ethical Turkey
Small-scale family farmers in Devon and Somerset rear Pipers Farm turkeys. The turkeys enjoy a natural diet and roaming around their grassy hillside home until they are 28 weeks old.
Each bird is dry-plucked by hand, then hung for at least 12 days.
A whole turkey that serves 5-6 people costs £96. Pipers Farm are also renowned for their “simplest turkey”. They roll the leg and breast meat separately and stuff it with a choice of festive stuffing. It cooks in just one hour, prices start from £42.60, serving four.
From £96 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at Piper’s Farm
3. Riverford
Key Specifications:
Weights: 4kg – 6.5kg
People serves: 8 – 15
Organic or Free-Range: Organic
Whole bird and crowns: Both, plus stuffed turkey breast joints
Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Chilled
Other meats and trimmings: Yes
Delivery Dates: Available from Thursday 19 December, exact dates depending on different areas
Riverford Organic and Ethical Turkey
Riverford opt for traditional Bronze breed turkeys, a slow-growing traditional breed that gives rich, juicy meat with an intense natural flavour.
The turkeys are reared by the Malseed family, at Frenchbeer Farm in Dartmoor. They spend their first five to six weeks in a barn under heat lamps then they go out to grass and spend their days wandering around the pasture and popping in and out of their sheds as they choose. At night, they are bedded down with fresh straw in the sheds for protection.
The Malseeds have been farming turkeys for 30 years, so know how to rear a bird that really delivers on flavour. Christine Malseed describes them as “self-basting”; at full maturity, they have built up thin layers of fat between their layers of muscle. “This ensures the meat will be tender and succulent all the way through when cooked,” she says.
A whole small turkey (4kg), which Riverford says feeds 8-10 people (with plenty of leftovers!) starts from £110, and medium, large and extra-large sizes are also available, as well as other cuts.
From £110 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at Riverford
3. Abel & Cole
Key Specifications:
- Weights: 4-5kg – 7-8kg
- Organic or Free-Range: Organic and high-welfare
- Whole bird and crowns: Both, plus turkey breast joints
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Chilled
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivery Dates: Available from 20 December – delivyer dates depend on different areas
Abel & Cole Organic, High Welfare and Ethical Turkey
Since 1998, Abel & Cole has been working hard to make sustainble food accessible, as well as helping to look after the environment.
All of Abel & Cole’s turkeys are reared by expert farmer Paul Kelly in Essex who has been rearing turkeys since the 1970s. He now only rears Bronze turkeys which have a much better taste profile. Abel & Cole offers two types of turkeys: organic and high welfare, which range in price from £105-£145 for organic, while the high-welfare range from £85-£105.
If you want everything taken care of onthe day, order the Turkey Feast Box (£220, serves 6-8) which comes with all the trimmings, including all the veg, gravy and stuffing and even a bottle of prosecco too. There’s also a Vegan Feast Box (£120, serves 4) too.
From £85 | SHOP NOW at Abel & Cole
4. field&flower
Key Specifications:
- Weights: 3kg – 8kg+
- Min. people serves: 6 – 15
- Organic or Free-Range: Free-range
- Whole bird and Crowns: Yes
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Chilled
- Christmas Delivery Dates: Thursday 19 – Monday 23 December
field&flower Free-Range and Ethical Turkey
field&flower also source their turkeys from the small, family-run turkey farm Frenchbeer Farm. Here, the turkeys are slow-grown for six months and can roam freely from around five weeks.
Their expertise in rearing turkeys for three decades has led them to knowing exactly how to ensure there’s plenty of flavour in the meat. This means the bird are dry-plucked and game hung for up to two weeks to enrich the flavour and tenderise the meat, as well as guaranteeing a perfectly crisp skin.
A 4-5kg whole Free Range Bronze Turkey serving 7-8 people starts at £94.98.
From £94.98 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at field&flower
5. Helen Browning’s Organic
Key Specifications:
- Weights: 4.5kg – 12kg+
- Min. people serves: 8 – 22
- Organic or Free-Range: Organic
- Whole bird and Crowns: Yes
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen: Chilled
- Christmas Delivery Dates: Order by 13 December. Delivery is Wednesday -Thursday, 20-21 December
Helen Browning’s Organic and Ethical Turkey
Helen Browning prides themselves on both rearing and sourcing the best organic meat produce, including award-winning Organic Bronze Turkeys from Walters Farm.
Walters rears its turkeys on the Berkshire Downs. These birds roam outside during the day, are fed high-quality organic cereals, and return to spacious straw-bedded barns at night.
They dry pluck the turkeys and hand finish them on the farm. They hang the turkeys for at least seven days.
From £109.45 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at Helen Browning’s
6. Wylde Market
Key specifications:
- Weights: 4kg -12kg
- Min. people serves:
- Organic or Free-Range: Organic
- Whole bird and Crowns: Yes
- Other meats and trimmings: Yes
- Delivered Chilled or Frozen:
- Christmas Delivery Dates: Sunday 22 December
Wylde Market Organic and Ethical Turkey
The Bronze turkeys from Wylde Market are reared inline with old school principles, meaning they’re free to roam as they please and are raised for twice as long as commercialised raised turkeys.
This allows them to become plump with a layer of fat that makes them much tastier when they’re cooked. Also helping improve their taste is their diet, which consists of a mix of organic feed and whatever else they can forage including radish, mustard, kale, triticale wheat and sunflowers.
Once they’ve reached full maturity, the birds are dry plucked on the farm, then hung for 12 days which helps give them that intense flavour. Order extra trimmings to go with your turkey like the organic pigs in blankets (6 pack, £6)
From £112.50 for a whole turkey | SHOP NOW at Wylde Market
How we curate our farms and test
Live Frankly is a place for exclusively ethical and sustainable farms. All the farms we feature go above-and-beyond in the work they do because they recognise the climate crisis, the injustices in their industries, and they know there’s a better way. They’re proving farming can be done differently.
Every farm fills out a form answering questions about the animal welfare, the people in their supply chains and their governance structures. We speak with them before adding them to the Live Frankly Directory, and we test the quality of their products.
We do the hard work in the background, so you can focus on buying top quality food for you and your loved-ones from smaller, independent farms who are true custodians of the land for future generations.
Here, we have recommended some of our favourite organic, free-range and Pasture for Life farms and farming networks that deliver directly to your door. They’re listed in no particular order, it just depends on what you’re looking for. All are brilliant in their unique ways!
Christmas guides:
Best Christmas Gifts
Best festive feasts
Best Christmas Crackers
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