It may be as much as Christmas tradition as the Queen, but turkey has had a bad press. But, as Nick Morrison discovers, one couple aim to show it doesn't have to be this way

ROBERT would be the first to admit that turkeys are not the brightest of birds. Nor are they the most graceful. But it's clear he has a soft spot for them, nonetheless. As we walk towards the enclosure which is housing about 200 turkeys, he grins as they waddle noisily over to meet us, stopping a respectful distance short of the electric fence.

Once their initial excitement at seeing visitors has worn off, the birds quieten down, and stand in a huddle, reassured by our presence. Then Robert whistles, a low, soft drawn-out whistle. Instantly, the gobbling begins again, a frenzied gurgling which lasts for a few seconds and then dies away. Robert whistles again. Again the turkeys gobble. Every time he whistles, they respond, a reaction as automatic as vampires recoiling at garlic.

"They're not the most intelligent of creatures," Robert says. "You have to wonder at them. Either they all go out or they all come in, and they love first thing in the morning, when the day is breaking, and last thing at night. They're not like chickens who wander about - if you go into a field they follow you about.

"There is one that just sits outside when the others come in at night, always just sitting outside, the same every night. You would think it would look at all the others going in, and follow them, but it doesn't."

Robert and Lea Darling brought turkeys onto their farm, just outside Darlington, for the first time last year. Then, they had 150, this year it was 200. The turkeys are all KellyBronze, a breed made famous by Delia Smith's endorsement, and are free range and fed organically.

"We were fairly ordinary farmers, and we were looking for something that would pay in the present climate," Robert says. "It fills a gap in the year, and what I call proper farming is dead in the water. As far as making a living growing wheat and barley goes, I don't see anybody really making a profit if they're honest.

"It takes about ten minutes a day to feed them, there is a really busy week plucking them and a busy two or three days dressing them, but that is in December, when, if you're an arable farmer, you are not doing much more than sitting watching the rain anyway."

But it was not as straight forward as wanting to farm turkeys and then getting a batch of chicks. Robert and Lea had to go through a rigorous application process to be able to breed KellyBronzes, and were one of only five out of 106 hopefuls who were approved. The turkeys are prized for the quality of the meat, and Derek Kelly, who started up the breed, insists they are all free range, fed organically and killed humanely, aspects which appealed to the Darlings.

"I'm not organic to the point where I think everything you spray on the crop is wrong," Robert says. "But you don't want to feed them drugs and growth hormones. I don't like the thought of feeding strange things to animals that you are then going to eat. I'm not a dedicated organic farmer, but I prefer things to be fed naturally."

And he believes the way the turkeys are kept is reflected in the meat, darker than normal turkey meat and said to be juicy, with a stronger flavour. "We got a few letters from people last year who said it was how they remembered turkey used to be, and hasn't been for some time," he says.

The hard work comes at the beginning of December, when the turkeys are around 24-26 weeks old. Over the course of a week, they are all killed and plucked and left to hang for at least a fortnight, until they are 'dressed', when the insides are taken out.

"The night before, we put the ones we're going to kill into a separate pen - because they mustn't eat for 12 hours before - and we put a curtain over the window. They're quiet in the dark," Robert says. "We go in the next morning and they're very calm, so we can catch them fairly easily. You just walk in and hold them against your chest, and as long as they're pressed against your chest they feel safe."

The turkeys are then stunned so powerfully that they are knocked unconscious instantly and dead within seconds. After their throats are cut, they are plucked and left to hang. The plucking was one part of the job Lea was dreading, but in the end it turned out much easier than she anticipated.

"Before last year, I had tried to pluck game, and I couldn't do it," she says. "Game is cold and hard and you get dry skin, but with the turkeys it was absolutely fine, the feathers come out easily."

They can manage to pluck ten to 15 turkeys each a day, taking about a week to slaughter the entire flock. The birds then hang in a cool shed until they are dressed and boxed the night before they are collected. The labour-intensive methods mean it is more expensive than most supermarket turkey, costing from £5.85 a kilo to £7.84, but Lea believes it is well worth it.

"We had a guy who rang us up on Boxing Day last year and said it was the best thing he had ever tasted and he was having one this year," she says. "If you cook a normal turkey, you get a lot of juice in the pan, but with these you get a cup full of juice, because there is nothing added to it. It is all traditionally done."

Last year's chicks arrived at six weeks old, but this year the Darlings took delivery of one-day old turkeys. Almost six months on, with their distinctive blue heads - and not many creatures can boast of blue heads - and dangling wattles, just a week or so before their demise, the birds presented a bizarre spectacle, as they swarmed towards us with their legs moving as much side to side as forwards.

"They are the clumsiest creatures," says Robert. "They will jump up to perch on a post and if you push them off to get them in at nights they just crash into the ground in a heap. From the way they run, you think there is something wrong with them, but they're just very ungainly. You have to laugh at them, but in a way you miss them when they're gone."

Robert and Lea Darling can be contacted at Burtree House Farm, Burtree Lane, Darlington. Tel: (01325) 463521