While people are rearranging their Thanksgiving plans to facilitate the safest celebration under COVID-19 conditions, turkey growers in Arizona are seeing changes in what consumers want from a bird this year.
Ashlee Mortimer is the chief marketing officer with Mortimer Farms, an organic turkey-growing operation in Dewey, an hour north of Phoenix.
“A larger percentage of our customers are having smaller gatherings and thus they are ordering smaller turkeys to have those smaller gatherings," said Mortimer. "We’re having a lot of customers buy directly from us, and I think this is because they are cutting out the middle man at the grocery store.”
So those Rockwellian images of the giant turkey presentation may be a little more subdued this year.
The Show asked Ashlee Mortimer if Mortimer Farms can control the sizes of the turkeys they grow.
“Unfortunately no, Mother Nature does her thing and birds are the size that birds are. However — and who knows why this is — but this year more than ever ... our turkeys are smaller than they usually are.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct a typo in Mortimer's quote.
