Talking Turkey

11/19/08-Thanksgiving. The holiday of mountains of mashed potato, rolls dripping with butter, pies of all varieties, and of course a golden turkey erupting with stuffing. Essentially the holiday of all things fattening, artery clogging, and just generally bad for your health. Yet it seems that the health conscious, eco-friendly fad has crashed this sacred of all feasting holidays, and Central New York as well, with what two people in the turkey business say is a product growing in popularity. Organic turkey.
Casey Knapp, who works on Cobblestone Valley Farm which is an organic farm in Preble owned by his parents, says organic turkeys are fed organic grain (which is grown without pesticides) as well as grass and not given antibiotics from the time they hatched. Knapp would know, this Thanksgiving Cobblestone Valley will process between 105 and 125 turkeys for customers he says are concerned with what they put into their bodies and are willing to pay for higher quality meat.
And they will pay more, about three times more. Enrie Talerico, meat manager of Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard, says while he has also seen a growing demand for organic turkey fresh organic turkey cost about three dollars a pound and frozen non-organic is about ninety nine cents. One shopper, Leon Haar, says he and his wife can't tell the difference between organic and regular turkey. He's taking the cheap one.