KUNA, Idaho — Cabalo's Orchard and Gardens raises local turkeys for months, leading up to Thanksgiving. Their all-natural, free range turkeys spend their whole lives in Kuna and are in high demand around the holiday.
- Cabalo's Orchard works in partnership with Vogel Farms to bring hundreds of fresh, local Thanksgiving turkeys to dinner tables each year.
- You can see if there are any Cabalo's turkeys still available for this year's Thanksgiving here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"The last couple of weeks before Thanksgiving is very very busy," says Cathy Cabalo, Owner of Cabalo's Orchard and Gardens.
Cathy and her turkeys are in the middle of what she affectionately calls "hell week" — when her flock heads to the butcher shop to get weighed, tagged, and ready for Thanksgiving dinner.
"This entire pen was full of about 300 turkeys. The other hundred were at our partner farm and this is the last 20 or 30 birds we have left here," says Cabalo.
The last batch of birds were butchered this week, just ahead of the holiday.
"So from the butcher shop, we bring them back to Vogel Farms. They have the big walk-in refrigerator… Sunday we got 288 birds in there, but I don't think I could get another bird in there if I tried," added Cabalo.
"They're as local as you can get, basically," says Chris Lester, the farmer at Vogel Farms.
He partners with the Cabalos to raise turkeys that live their whole lives in Kuna.
"So Cabalo's Orchard, we've been kind of sistering on this for a lot of years. I raise them from poult to, you know a large poult," says Lester.
"The way we raise these birds is all natural, free range. We raise 100% non-GMO feed, so they are the healthiest we can. We are not certified organic, but we try to raise a really good quality bird and that feed is not cheap. So one of the things that we've discovered over the years is until our birds reach 15 pounds of butchered weight, we don't make back what we put into them"
The cost of the high-quality feed makes for a high-quality, but expensive birds, most of which cost more than $100 — but Cathy says her customers have no issue paying for the premium taste.
"They love them! We get a lot of emails and comments afterwards: 'That was the best bird I've ever had!' 'I can't wait to come back!' I've had a few customers this year that had to cancel because they're going out of town or something and they said "I'm sure going to miss your bird, but I'll get one next year," says Cabalo.
