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By Kevin Allen
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Thanksgiving turkeys don’t have to come from a far-off factory farm or even from a supermarket. Plump birds can be found right here in Rappahannock. Just ask Susan Hoffman of Belle Meade farm, located on Fort Valley Road about six miles south of Sperryville.
Belle Meade gives people a natural, local option for Thanksgiving dinner’s main course. The free-range turkeys are raised without hormones or antibiotics and Belle Meade uses no pesticides on the farm.
“You know how they were raised — with care from when they were a day old,” said Hoffman, who owns Belle Meade with her husband, Mike Biniek. “It’s not a confinement operation.”
Belle Meade stretches out across 138 acres and includes the farm, a bed and breakfast and a farm school for seventh- through ninth-graders. Students at the school help with chores on the farm, including feeding and harvesting the turkeys.
Hoffman and Biniek, who bought Belle Meade some 13 years ago, also raise chickens, eggs, beef and pork on the farm. Hoffman says the turkey operation, which they started five years ago, is seasonal but intensive.
The turkeys arrive in the mail from a hatchery each August when they are just one day old. All of the turkeys on the farm are just about four months old at harvest time. Belle Meade does not use hormones or antibiotics on their turkeys; they grow quickly because they are bred to do so.
Biniek nurtures the birds in their fragile early days, feeding them brewer’s yeast and scrambled eggs. As the turkeys grow, their pen is moved periodically to give them fresh grass and new bugs.
The farm charges $2.25 a pound for the birds, which come in three sizes: small, medium and large. A small bird weighs about 15 pounds, medium about 20 pounds and large
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