SANGER — Wading through a knee-high sea of wattles and beaks in mid-November, Mary Pitman shouts above waves of gobbles to rattle off the names of turkey breeds on her family farm in Fresno County.
She points out the Narragansett, the white Holland and the standard bronze — birds Americans have eaten since the days of the Founding Fathers.
Pitman Family Farms — which produces the Mary's Free Range Turkey brand — sold out of Thanksgiving birds several months before. The flock percolating around Pitman is reserved for Christmas.
Despite economic hardships and shrinking overall U.S. turkey production, the allure of a fresh, organic turkey has grown in recent years. Farmers and industry experts attribute the increasing demand to the health- conscious culture, the popularity of the anti-agribusiness sentiment found in the documentary "Food Inc." and the movement for locally grown food. Or maybe it's just simple nostalgia for a classic holiday feast.
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