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In Loveville, an alternative to the frozen bird
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by JESSE YEATMAN
David Stauffer has turkeys on sale for Thanksgiving and Christmas from his farm in Loveville. Those ordering a turkey can visit Stauffer at his farm at 25029 Pin Cushion Road in Loveville. The residence has no phone.
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Most of the turkeys served up at Thanksgiving come frozen in vacuum-sealed, skin-tight bags. David Stauffer of Loveville offers an alternative — a fresh turkey raised at his farm off Pin Cushion Road.
The turkeys born in June are ready for Thanksgiving sales and the rest hatched in August will be ready for Christmas. Some of the June birds are already pushing 30 pounds.
It is Stauffer's 12th year selling turkeys. "The demand seems to be picking up a little bit," he said. In the past couple of years there have been more orders than available birds. There are about 325 up for sale this year.
"I guess more and more [people are] realizing when they have a fresh one they don't want to go back to a frozen one," Stauffer, 37, said.
"It's fresh, it's locally produced, part of a local homegrown effort," said Bob Schaller, director of the St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community Development.
Stauffer's birds are usually sold $1.25 a pound, plus $5 to clean them. "There's a few people that do" clean them themselves, he said.
Hens generally weigh less than toms and customers order by the size they want. They don't hand-pick a turkey from the yard.
The turkey is killed and cleaned the day before pickup. The bird is put in ice water to chill it for at least a half a day, Stauffer said. A freezer doesn't do as good a job as the ice water because the air cavity within the turkey can trap heat, he said.
The turkey business is hectic for about two weeks out of the year, around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Stauffer spends the rest of the year selling produce and flowers at a Loveville auction house, where Mennonite farmers market their goods. He raises three greenhouses of flowers, grows cantaloupes, watermelon and tomatoes in the summer.
The turkeys arrived as baby chicks in the mail from Pennsylvania, Stauffer said. Though his turkeys are soon destined for the chopping block, they need protection and oversight while they are growing.
When they become alarmed, they'll pile on top of each other in a corner of the pen, and those at the bottom can be suffocated. The flock "doesn't care who's underneath," he said.
There was a rush to the feeders earlier this year that ended up killing 10 of the birds when they were small, Stauffer said.
There are also natural predators to contend with. "Possum is almost worse than a fox is," he said, when the birds are small early in the summer. He shot six opossums this year.
As Stauffer looked over the pen earlier this month, he noticed that what he called the flock's "voice" changed and some of them got nervous. He said they must see a hawk somewhere. A vulture was spotted gliding overhead.
Stauffer was born in Pennsylvania and came to Loveville when he was 3 years old. He now lives on his great-grandfather's farm, who started the turkey business there.
Stauffer used to be a farrier as well, fitting horseshoes. He doesn't do that anymore. "It's not a very easy job," he said.
"The most I ever cranked out was 22" horses in one day, he said at farms in Upper Marlboro. He generally worked on about 60 horses a week, but the work became too physically demanding.
Amish and Mennonite families first started moving to St. Mary's County in 1939 from Pennsylvania for cheaper land and less restrictions on their children's education. By 1944, 130 families held title to 6,000 acres in St. Mary's, in Charlotte Hall, Mechanicsville and Loveville.
There are now about 135 Amish and 80 Mennonite families in St. Mary's County.
Stauffer's three boys go to school in the Pin Cushion School at his neighbor's farm, which was built about three years ago. The nearby Clover Hill School got too crowded so the Pin Cushion School was built.
Mennonite children attend school until the eighth grade or up until they turn 14. "Then it's time for the school of hard knocks," Stauffer joked.
"That's a group that are content to be content, but they're very resourceful," Schaller said of the Mennonite community.
Stauffer said he was thankful that Route 5 in Loveville was recently resurfaced. Breaks in the road had been plaguing the community that use horses and buggies. Stauffer himself hit a hole that broke his axle while he was hauling produce to the auction house in the rain.
