The "Are You Ready For Your Thanksgiving Day Turkey Dinner?"

It was an ordinary day.  If you have been reading this blog site for any length of time, you probably realize by now that Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is home to many historical buildings and places, famous people and unusual or different businesses.  Well, today I will add one more business endeavor to the list of businesses.  It is a rather unusual business that is recognized more this time of year than any other time or season of the year.  Has to do with the Thanksgiving Day turkey!  Goes way back to 1858 when the Esbenshade Turkey Farm was founded in Lancaster County.  Today the farm is known as America's oldest turkey farm and is famous for it's moist and tender turkeys.  The patriarch of the Esbenshade family is Bob Esbenshade who died in December of 2020.  Even though he is no longer living, his legacy of award winning excellence lives on.  He won many Grand Champion Awards at the Pennsylvania State Farm Show.  Today the day-to-day operations of the farm are supported by the efforts of the 4th to 7th generations of the Esbenshade family.  Their farm is located in rural Paradise, Pennsylvania where they raise close to 8,000 Broad Breasted Whites each year.  That's a lot of family tables that are covered with an Esbenshade turkey on Thanksgiving Day.  Their cage-free turkeys are always free of growth hormones and fed an all-natural vegetarian diet mixture of corn and soy, growing to an average of 10 to 30 pounds.  The turkeys are sold fresh during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons with pick-up at their farm or at a pre-arranged drop-off time at locations in Lancaster County.

They also supply frozen turkeys throughout the rest of the year.  Now getting back to the Turkey farm...it predates the Civil War which is why it is the oldest turkey farm in the country.  Although Bob is no longer living, he was born on the farm as was his dad, his granddad, and his great granddad.  It is said that it first began as a dairy farm, but began raising turkeys soon after it began operations.  The family's grown turkey in houses for the past 40 years, but before that the birds were raised in the fields, with movable sheds for shelter.  Young Bob would haul the water and feed out to them.  His father hatched the eggs himself, incubating them in a garage and the stripping room of the tobacco cellar.  Today the birds are delivered as poults from a hatchery in Michigan.  Today, the turkeys live in well-lit wooden and cinder-block floor houses.  They flock to the door when it's opened, and they divert themselves with a rack of alfalfa hay.  The Turkey's feed comes from White Oak Mills in nearby Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.  Grain is also grown on the farm's 60 acres to help feed the turkeys.  The birds are grown to 10 to 30 pounds, killed in the fall, feathers are removed, the carcasses are drained of excess water in metal-grate wheelbarrows then the giblets are stuffed in and the birds are bagged.  A machine shrinks the wrapping around the bird which is weighed and put in an individual box.  The turkeys are stored in refrigerated trailers until it is time for delivery.  Perhaps you may have read one of my stories about the Strasburg Railroad in the past...well, the railroad cuts through the turkey farm.  The biggest seasons for turkeys is Thanksgiving and then Christmas.  What turkeys haven't been sold by the end of the year are frozen, so you can get a frozen Esbenshade turkey any time of the year.  I read one account telling that a customer from Illinois drives the entire way to Esbenshade's farm every year to buy his fresh turkey.  Now...that's a loyal customer who appreciates a good home-grown turkey.  One member of the Esbenshade family, Barbara Zerbe, is the fifth generation of the Esbenshade family that also raises and sells turkeys on her and her husband, Dave's farm in nearby Ronks, Pennsylvania.  They plan to sell about 6,000 Broad Breasted Whites this year also.

Members of the Esbenshade Family

Raising turkeys in Lancaster County has been a way of life for many families, but the most famous and oldest running family business is the Esbenshade family.  Perhaps you might want one of their turkeys sometime?  Google them and see how you too can have an Esbenshade turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.