Turkey farmer Daryl Deutscher in full swing for Christmas

FOR turkey farmer Daryl Deutscher, Christmas is all in the preparation, one if not two years in advance.

FARM: Daryl Deutscher Turkey Farm

• Free-range turkeys free to be festive at Almond Grove Free Range Poultry

IF CHRISTMAS is looming faster than you realised, spare a thought for veteran Dadswells Bridge turkey farmer Daryl Deutscher. He’s already preparing for next year’s Christmas.

“People always comment that ‘Christmas is coming up and you must be busy’ ... but we’re busy all year,” says the 40-year veteran turkey producer.

“At this time of year I just go from ‘busy’ to ‘stupid’. That’s the only way to describe it. No matter how tired you are, you wake up at about 3am every morning with your stomach churning ... are your employees going to turn up, is the weather going to be stinking hot, are the birds growing to the right size, will the birds be bruised after foxes ran past last night and spooked a heap of them? All those sort of things.”

With an annual output of 6000 open-range, antibiotic and preservative-free birds, Daryl reckons his Deutscher’s Turkey Farm operation is “piddling” compared to the big boys of the industry. “Contract growers produce 6000 in one shed-full,” Daryl says.

Talking turkey

Yet his workload is still immense, breeding Australia’s largest range of rare turkeys, while selling turkey products at an on-farm shop and through local farmers’ markets. Currently he’s hell-bent on hatching and raising turkeys for next Christmas, while continuing a one-man crusade to preserve rare turkey breeds.

If Christmas isn’t enough, Daryl has become increasingly busy because of the “unfortunate” closure of a major competitor, and because more people in Australia are now celebrating American Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) with turkey dinners.

Daryl predicts he’ll barely have time to gobble down his Christmas dinner (turkey, of course) before getting back to work.

While TV cooking shows have turned many people from buying pre-prepared turkey meals to preparing and cooking their own, Daryl’s feathers ruffle just a little at the number of dubious products out there.

“You go to the supermarket and look at a turkey roll,” Daryl says, “74 per cent turkey and 26 per cent emulsifiers and bastings and things like that. End of story basically. I tell people ours is 99.9 per cent turkey. I’m not bagging anyone else, but they are the facts.”

One of his strangest orders was for turkey testicles for use on the local TV series I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here.

“We had a few left over,” Daryl recalls, “so as a joke I tray packed them and put them in the shop freezer ... and a lady came in six months ago and said, ‘Oh, turkey testicles’. She was thrilled to bits and said she hadn’t seen them since leaving Europe.

“Later I suggested to my work lady that she get the recipe. But we both looked at each other and said, ‘you go first’. No, I don’t see a big business in turkey testicles.”

After four decades of turkey-raising, Daryl reckons he might have five years left in him, “if mind and body hold out”.

“It’s a tough life and very labour intensive,” he says. “Nine out of 10 people who go into turkeys fail. You’re lugging around 10kg turkeys, not 2kg chickens. It takes its toll on your body.

“But I’m still passionate about my rare turkeys and I’d love to find a successor. I’m the only person in Australia preserving as many rare varieties.

“That’s probably the most important thing in my life ... to preserve my life’s work.”

So how will Daryl spend his own Christmas Day? Tending turkeys. “You’ve still got to get up early Christmas Day and every other day,” Daryl says. “Things don’t stop. Birds don’t stop eating or laying eggs, or eggs hatching, so you fit in what you can around what you have got to do.”

He’ll allow himself a quick dinner with his extended family, with slowly roasted turkey. “The top chefs always cook it hard and quickly but, if you’re not an experienced cook, we always recommend you cook it low and slow and covered.”