How Humane Farmers Celebrate Thanksgiving
By Lydia Strand, FACT’s Humane Farming Program Assistant
The holiday season is well and truly upon us. As we gather with friends, family, and our community, much of this time is focused around food and sharing meals together. FACT farmers Anna and Shae of Over the Moon Farm and Flowers in Delaware County, Iowa, are working hard to provide humanely pasture-raised turkeys to their own community in the run-up to Thanksgiving.
A little background; Over the Moon Farm and Flowers began in the summer of 2019. The operation utilizes about 10 rotated acres of family farmland in Delaware County where Anna and Shae pasture raise chickens, ducks, and turkeys, Berkshire pork from farrow to finish, and offer a seasonal flower CSA. Their farm business is 100% direct to consumer.
In 2021, with support from the FACT Humane Farming Mentorship program and mentor Ben Grimes, Anna and Shae began their turkey enterprise with 40 poults. Iowa is a large commercial turkey production state, which offered their own operation an opportunity to provide a unique product, pasture-raised turkeys. If not for Ben and his mentorship, Anna says they would not have started raising turkeys.
This year the farm raised 200 turkeys, sold as whole birds and also in cuts, direct to consumer and through the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program (LFPA), which provides turkeys to local food banks and schools in their region (which is a priority for Over the Moon). They hope to scale up their turkey production in 2024 with improved infrastructure and processing access. Anna says they are very grateful to their processor, Stacyville Poultry Processing, who deserves significant credit for assisting their operation and for their powerful vision for humane local poultry production.
Turkeys are an integral part of Over The Moon Farm. Anna believes they’re an impactful animal in general because of their holiday significance and as a niche product in their area. They are a great economic addition and beneficial for the land. Turkeys love to be the clean-up crew for the sweet corn, pumpkins, and squash seasonally grown on the farm. This offers additional nutrition to the birds and saves labor and the cost of pasture fertilization.
Anna and Shae love that by providing turkeys to their community they become a part of people’s holiday celebrations. It builds connection as they learn about the cultural and family traditions around how the turkey is prepared. For instance, smothered turkey wings, a traditional soul food recipe. It’s also fun for them to hear about their product being a part of a celebratory day for families and communities.
For Anna, Shae, and their family, a low-key Thanksgiving family meal with Shae’s family is their tradition. Like most livestock farmers, holidays at Over the Moon Farm are also a pretty normal work day, providing care to their livestock in addition to taking the time for their own celebrations. After all the work involved in getting turkeys to their customers, they minimize the labor involved in Thanksgiving Day preparations and plan to have a low-stress meal of slow-cooked turkey thighs with all the sides.
Anna and Shae hope that people love and appreciate the turkeys they raise as much as they love raising them.
Over The Moon Farm and other farms that share their vision and values for raising livestock humanely are making a difference to our food system. We at FACT, are incredibly thankful for all their hard work and dedication.
With Giving Tuesday coming up on November 28th, we are very excited to share that donations up to $10,000 will be matched by six of FACT's generous board members. You can make your gift early this year to ensure that it will be doubled and help us to support more humane farmers like Anna and Shae across the country.