Why a Pasture-Raised Thanksgiving Turkey Costs $95

Humanely raised turkeys are often more expensive because they eat high-quality food, require more space, and take extra time to raise.

The turkeys at Troll Bridge Farm are pasture-raised, and Lisa Skillman, who runs the farm with her husband and four of their six children, said she works hard to keep the birds as natural as possible. Their beaks aren’t cut and their toes aren’t clipped, practices often used on farms owned by large corporations.

Ms. Skillman was raised on a dairy farm that was on the land where Troll Bridge now sits. When her parents sold the business more than 25 years ago, they kept the land. Ms. Skillman decided to begin farming again in 2007, starting with raising goats. She added turkeys, chickens and pigs in 2018.

“It’s just what I wanted to do,” she said, adding that she loved working with animals and being outdoors. “It’s just in my blood.”

Ms. Skillman said her original plan had been to raise animals for her family to eat, and that she struggled to even find customers to buy the poultry and pork.

That changed in 2020, when many people had trouble finding the meat they were used to in grocery stores during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, demand for pasture-raised animals has soared.

This year, Ms. Skillman’s farm sold out of its turkeys — 41 in all — earlier than ever, on Nov. 3. She said the majority of the farms in her area have more customers than they can handle, and some farmers have even asked her if she has extra turkeys to sell.