Carving out family time this Christmas with a truly traditional turkey

While many families continue to experiment with their Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year spreads, Devon-based online butcher, Pipers Farm has seen a 20-fold increase in demand for its Properly Free Range Bronze Turkey over the past seven years. Golden, plump and juicy, this traditional breed bird is the crowning glory of any festive table, feeding the whole family and more with succulent, seasonal and nutritious meat, which has been reared in harmony with nature.

Hatching in late spring and spending their first few weeks in a brooder, the slow-reared Bronze birds are free to roam the rolling Devon hillside all day long, building up a strong natural immunity without the need for antibiotics. With the Saddleback pigs as their neighbours, they spend their days foraging and exploring, while enjoying a natural diet of cereals, grass, nettles, fodder beet and cider apples before they are tucked up in a barn at night to protect them from predators. Once the birds reach natural maturity at around five or six months old, double the time given to mature industrially-reared birds, they are slaughtered, dry-plucked and hung for two weeks to develop a wonderful texture and depth of flavour.

Served with crispy, golden and fluffy potatoes, roasted in Pipers Farm’s Free Range Goose Fat, moreish Sausages Wrapped in Bacon, seasonal vegetables and homemade gravy using the giblets from the turkey, this Properly Free Range Bronze Turkey makes the perfect centrepiece for a Christmas plate worth the wait. Delivering comforting texture and flavour, as well as plenty of leftovers for stocks, sandwiches and curries, each turkey has been produced with the whole family in mind, just like every cut of meat produced by the Greigs since Pipers Farm was first established nearly three decades ago.

Pipers Farm’s Properly Free Range Bronze Turkey, which ranges from 5kg to 11kg, is available to order from early November at www.pipersfarm.com. £13.95/kg.