Heritage Turkeys

Think of Heritage meats as the animal equivalents of heirloom fruits and vegetables.

The trend of raising rare farm animals started when the Slow Food Movement connected its members with farmers raising rare breeds of turkey. The taste was such a revelation, the birds so superior, that Slow Food USA Director Patrick Martins broke off from the main Slow Food organization to form Heritage Foods USA. There, Martins started marketing Heritage chicken, beef, pork, and lamb as well as turkey.Marsha McBride, owner of Café Rouge in Berkeley, sells Heritage chickens at her butcher shop. “They’re just so rich and succulent,” she says. “They remind me of the chickens I’ve tasted in France.”

This Thanksgiving, Heritage turkeys are available online, and also can be found in upscale groceries. Web purveyors, small butcher shops, and farmers markets in the Bay Area sell Heritage meats year round. Here’s where you can get one of these rare birds in the East Bay.

Thanksgiving Heritage turkeys: Andronico’s and Lunardi’s

Heritage chickens: Café Rouge, 1782 Fourth St., Berkeley

Heritage meats like Scottish Highlands beef, Tamworth pork, and Dorset lamb: Berkeley Farmer’s Markets, or call Ted Fuller, (530) 908-5672. Fuller will expand to Contra Costa markets next spring.

For information, www.heritagefoodsusa.com .