NEW SHARON, Maine — It’s a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and Bob Neal is sold out of fresh, pastured birds at The Turkey Farm. Inside his humble farm store, the phone rings every 10 minutes. He breaks the news to customers: “No more turkeys this year.”
Outside in fenced-in pens, hundreds of gleaming white birds gobble and gabble up a storm.
For 30 years Neal has raised, harvested and sold natural turkeys to customers at farmers markets, stores and cafes across Maine.
At top volume he pastured as many as 4,400 birds. The Missourian with a quick wit has seen it all.
But a heart attack six years ago and a bout with arthritis slowed him down. His sons, “both smarter than I am,” are not interested in taking over the farm. So, on the day after Thanksgiving the farmer hands off the farm to new owners.
As he prepares to retire, Neal shares what he has learned as a turkey cowboy.
You left a career in journalism to move to Maine and raise poultry. What is your favorite thing about being a turkey farmer?
It’s like the newspaper business in that no two days are alike. At the end of every day you can hold in your hands what you did that day. The next day there is the paper right on the porch and you can say, ‘Oh, I made some of this last night.’
What will you miss about raising turkeys?
They have a certain charm. That’s an odd word to use for something as numb as a turkey. But they are wicked curious. They follow you around. They seem to like you. They are really good to eat. One of the biggest things I like about them is you don’t have to milk them twice a day.
Are they a lot of work?
As the bird gets bigger my commitment to them goes down. When I get them they require constant care the first three weeks. We feed and water them three times a day.
They are just a couple hundred years away from being wild, so as they build up their immune systems they can take care of themselves.
Sounds like you’ve enjoyed a diverse life. How did you end up in New Sharon on 60 acres?
In 1980, at the end of the back-to-the-land movement, we were looking for cheap land where we could do subsistence farming, and Maine fit the bill then. My grandparents lived in Kennebunk, so I had Maine ties.
Did you start off with turkeys?
No. The four prongs of our plan was veggies, firewood, sap and cider.
You are one of few poultry farmers in Maine who raises “all turkeys all the time.”
I don’t like chickens. I sure as hell don’t like to kill them. They are greasy. Slaughterhouses are much more of a mess after you kill chickens.
Why are you retiring?
I’m 75 years old. I just can’t keep up with it anymore. Saturday mornings in the summer I’m up here at 3 a.m. with coolers to get to farmers markets, I’m not done until 5 p.m. I can’t do it anymore.
You make a dozen kinds of turkey sausages, turkey salad, chili, two kinds of shepherd’s pie, turkeyaki. What’s your favorite way to eat turkey?
Frequently.
That’s interesting. Most people only think about turkey this time of year.
I’ve dedicated 30 years to changing people’s thinking that chicken is better. Chicken has twice the fat as turkey and not much taste. Now that I’m stepping away, I’ve got people scrambling because they don’t know what they are going to eat.
Clearly you’ve enjoyed raising these birds. What was the darkest moment?
When Hurricane Bob hit, they were acting up in the wind and rain. I had to take them inside 100 at a time, get them dry and push them out into the storm. Then take in another group. I was with them for 24 hours and didn’t lose one bird.
Do you name them?
Half of them are named Tom.
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