Day 1

Over the next 10 days we will bring you the top 10 essentials from the county that will help make your Christmas.

Day 1 is all about the turkey.

Traditionally raised on a family-run farm located within the natural beauty of the Romney Marsh in Kent, Appledore Turkeys and Geese are reared with the greatest care for welfare and the environment. Allowed to grow slowly to full maturity, Appledore Turkeys and Geese have a distinctive taste and texture that is certain to deliver a truly special Christmas meal for all the family.

The family-run business has a farming heritage dating back to 1940 when Frank Wreathall first started rearing turkeys. Today Clive and Andrew Wreathall follow in their Grandfather’s footsteps and farm over 1,200 hectares of Crown Estate farmland on the Romney Marsh in Kent and are passionate about the food they produce.

Members of the Traditional Farm Fresh Turkey Association, which sets the standard for top quality in Christmas turkeys, the brothers oversee the extraordinary care and attention given to every bird on their farm. Using traditional animal husbandry, their aim is to give all the birds – whether free range bronze or traditional white barn reared – a long and healthy life.

In 2019 the Wreathalls introduced traditionally reared free range geese to the farm.

From the day they arrive at the farm as chicks, the turkeys and geese are fed on a natural wheat and vegetable diet, free of additives, drugs or growth promoters.

Reared with the greatest care for welfare and the environment, the birds are housed in buildings giving both natural light and ventilation, with the free range turkeys and geese roaming grassy paddocks during the day. At night all the birds are bedded down on the farm’s home-grown wheat straw.

Allowed to grow slowly to full maturity, Appledore Turkeys and Geese have a distinctive taste and texture that is certain to deliver a truly special Christmas meal.