Whole Foods Market's Organic Turkeys

We're hoping that everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a great "Turkey Day". In our case, wanting to have a yummy Thanksgiving meal, we opted for an organic turkey from Whole Foods Market. No, it wasn't cheap. And no, we didn't order the pre-cooked turkey. But yes, it was delicious.

We <i say this euphemistically> had pre-ordered the turkey and side dishes, and the amazingly agreeable husband picked them up at Whole Foods. That was easy, but then there was the cooking ahead of us. I had jokingly laughed to my husband that I was quite sure that the turkey he cooked would be quite delicious; hilarious, I thought, although he did not seem to find the same humor in the joke.

But I awoke the next morning to find our organic turkey sitting in a heavy roasting pan, stuffed and ready for the oven. <wow , I thought! Geek* alert: who knew that humor could be so powerful?!>

The turkey had come trussed with a plastic thingy that we wondered about: would it burn in the oven? As a died-in-the-wool geek, I suggested that we try it and watch to see what happened; we could always whip it out of the oven, remove it, and do the string-trussing thing. It turns out that that was not needed; the plastic truss thingy weathered the roasting experience just fine.

So "we" tossed our organic turkey into a pre-heated oven, accompanied by a little butter basting throughout the roasting period. Even though we sort of ::cough:: over-cooked it, it came out so tender that, when "we" went to slice off a leg, the whole leg just kind of came right off, leaving the delicious stuffing exposed for convenient and easy removal. How fortuitous was that?! Maybe it was our fabulous Cutco knives, which I'll write about another time. At any rate, the turkey itself was delicious.

And, as to the side dishes from Whole Foods, it turns out that the husband has excellent taste. Aside from a couple of kinds of organic gravy , there were pistachio mashed potatoes, a fabulously delicious mushroom risotto, a cream of spinach something-or-other, an amazing cranberry-orange concoction and other stuff, topped off with some chocolate truffles from Harry & David's. Wow.

Organic turkeys …?

As an aside, a few years ago, I asked a Whole Foods employee whether all their products were organic; the answer was "no" but a quick look around the store showed that products were marked either "organic" or something indicating a non-organic product , so it's easy enough to determine what you're getting. Says Whole Foods about their Meat Raised to the Highest Standards — Ours:

By working in partnership with outstanding meat and poultry producers, Whole Foods Market brings you the best tasting, freshest and most wholesome, naturally raised meat available.
…
The Whole Foods Market standards for natural meat and poultry go far beyond what the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires for labeling meat or poultry as "natural."

I'm surprised to learn that Whole Foods has now expanded to Canada and the U.K. Excellent — from a Los Angeles-area store started by Sandy Gooch (and originally called Mrs. Gooch's), we now have shared excellent food in a very stylish and upstat market.

So now, I'm wondering whether Whole Foods has any gravy remaining from the holiday shopping rush. I have no idea what all this cost — I figure it's better that I didn't ask — but maybe this is what all the work is about . If so, it's well worth it.

Anyway, if you want to find out about Whole Foods' organic turkeys, please visit the Whole Foods website.

* geek: bear in mind that, to computer people, the term "geek" is a compliment meaning "technologically knowledgeable", as we keep reminding our mother-in-law, who otherwise thinks I'm calling myself by denigrating terms. Not a joke.

2 Comments for "Whole Foods Market's Organic Turkeys"

1. NELLIE says:

   Hello WFM,

   Planning early this yr, we especially like the organic turkey from WFM last yr…..called the M/P dept….was informed dates for organic turkeys/and natural turkeys to be delivered. If possible need the companies websites…..would like to ck out the rest of their products, all white meat, or dk meat.

   Please advise!

   Thanks for your time,
   Nellie

   Comment by NELLIE — 11/1/2007 @ 7:21 am

2. Editor says:

   Hello, Nellie. Actually, this is DesignerJones.com, not the Whole Foods Market website, which you can reach at http://wholefoods.com/.

   Comment by Editor — 11/1/2007 @ 12:45 pm

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