Hi All,

We survived the turkeys and most of our customers seem very happy with their choices. We received 31 positive responses and two unhappy ones. I guess if this was an exam in school Brambly Farms would have gotten an A or maybe its  an A minus.  All in all a good season. It did take a toll on the farmers -- there were several days when we forgot to eat and sleep. Catching  the birds for processing began at 3.45 am on the Sunday before the holidays  ( 3 Days of that ) and each day ended around 11.30 pm or later.  I  did one processor run (for a pick up ) at 11pm and there were still 3 staff there working at that time.  So I guess it was just as hectic for them too.

We did make a few mistakes. We believed the processor when he told us his very optimistic plans several weeks before he began his 'Epic week'.  We did not allow for a few birds which got damaged at the processor and two Royal Plams which escaped as we unloaded them. I imagine those two are still flying somewhere over  Cape Cod now. We also "lost" a few birds the last week or two due to cardiac arrest / stress etc. The fact that farmers were trying to catch them from a dark field at 4am on a star lit night would cause any animal to get stressed.

The funny or maybe its sad thing which surprised me on the day after thanksgiving was -----  I missed the turkeys. -- Erin and Tara who were more than fantastic, when some of our 280 customers arrived for their birds, "requested" their pay for working -- $20 each -- and then they started planning for next seasons turkeys. They were already making lists of which breeds we should get and who will collect deposits and who would have to fill bags of giblets.

I think I should have paid them only $10 each and they would not have been so keen to go again next year.   

Again thank you to all our customers and we were delighted to get the positive feed back. And we will try to have zero unhappy customers next year :)

All the best

Ted