|| What makes a KellyBronze special?

The way we produce our turkeys is at the heart of the KellyBronze heritage. It takes more time, effort and care, but we believe it’s worth it.

Our turkeys grow slowly in the outdoors, to full maturity and with the seasonal rhythm of the year. With the freedom to roam in the fresh air with loads of space, they are able to forage for nettles, berries, insects and windfall apples as well as the mix of natural grains we give them, and to have dust baths and display other natural behaviours that make them happy turkeys.

KellyBronze turkeys are 100% from pure bronze, heritage breeds. Some turkeys advertised as ‘bronze’ may have some but not all bronze. The history of the KellyBronze is entrenched in the Kelly family gathering the last of the bronze breeds across the UK in the 1980s when white turkeys became more popular, and dedicating years to developing a pure bronze breed that has stood the test of time.

Our turkeys are over twice the age of a standard ‘intensively reared’ turkey. This at least doubles the farming costs but it's what makes them cook and taste differently. We do lots to create the great flavour they are known (and have won prizes) for, but maturity arguably has the biggest single impact on this.

We still follow the age-old tradition of dry plucking and game hanging the turkeys to allow the flavour to intensify and the meat to tenderise.

It costs 10 times more in labour but the way we pluck and hand finish every KellyBronze allows us the privilege of dry aging our turkeys. This results in a well marbled meat and depth of flavour, and we are very grateful to the team who help us make this happen.

Each turkey is then hand packaged with a sprig of rosemary cut from the garden, and with a meat thermometer and full cooking instructions. In a world where so much is automated, there are some things that are still best done by hand!

It’s not the easiest, nor the cheapest way to produce turkeys but it’s what makes the KellyBronze a very special Christmas roast, and why we want to do it.

We hope you enjoy your Christmas turkey and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.