Lou, the farmer I get my turkeys from has mostly birds over 30 pounds. A 25 pounder is a "small" turkey, usually a hen. He raises something called "Standard Bronze" and the average weight of a Tom is 35-40 pounds, hens are 25-30 pounds. He's had a couple of big Toms that have neared 50 pounds but they're old birds and not suitable for roasting. He also has a few smaller Bourbon Red turkeys, but he's building his flock and doesn't sell those yet. The Toms are averaging 35 pounds and the hens about 20 pounds. He doesn't sell the "broad breasted white" turkeys for a couple of reasons. One, they cannot mate naturally, and so the only way you can get them is to get poults from a hatchery. They are too hybridized and inbred to breed. Second, they are bred to have a lot of breast meat and to mature quickly, so many times they have the same problems that broiler chickens do. Their puny little legs cannot support the weight of the bird and their legs break. Or, they sit at a feeder and eat until they have a heart attack. The big agribusiness turkey growers don't care about either of those things, they are interested in quick growth and profit. For small independents, though, those traits are not conducive to raising flocks year after year. Annie

plllog, I misspoke, I raised Black/Gray Slate turkeys, not Black Spanish. That said, the poults still cost me $10.25 each for day old birds. I can't really count food, as 5 of them died within the first three days, so I didn't feed them much. Two more died the next week, and one died after about a month. I did factor the mortality cost into the cost of the final bird. When dressed, the turkeys weighed between 11 and 18 pounds and cost $45 to raise. 15 pounds was the "average" that we reached between one small turkey/one big turkey and all others were in the middle as to weight. So, that's $3.00 a pound just to get the poults and feed them. They require a longer growing period and they are fussy, needing light and heat, watching them so they don't forget to eat and starve to death, or drown by falling asleep next to the water dish. Mine got infectious sinusitis and required antibiotics, so much for organic birds. Even after they are big, you have to watch them. One was so dumb that he stuck his head through the fence and didn't realize how to take one step back and take his head out. He just stood there and screamed until I walked over, pulled him a few inches backward and he realized he was no longer "stuck", not that he ever was. They are, without exception, the dumbest thing I've ever encountered, although they were friendly. So, truthfully, I'd say $10 a pound is a bit of a stretch, even for something as labor intensive as those bird brains were, but I'd have to charge someone $7 a pound, at least, to compensate for the time of plucking and cleaning as well as feeding, cleaning pens, rescuing them from the fence, etc. And, of course, I don't have to make a living. I probably spent at least 6 or 7 hours on each bird, so there's approximately 48 hours of work. At minimum wage that's $8.15 per hour, or $391 in labor. Divide that by the 7 birds and there's $55 a bird, plus the $45 to feed it and buy it in the first place. So, $95 if I'm only making minimum wage, divide that by 15 pounds and you get $6.33 per pound just to raise the things and that is if I'm making $8 an hour! More birds, of course, translates into less cost for feed/etc., so someone who raises more than a dozen could probably do it more cheaply and spend about the same amount of time I did raising my 7. And, of course, you're helping to ensure biological diversity, something that I can't put a price on, plus you are hopefully getting a bird that's been humanely and sustainably raised. As they say, "Eat them to save them", otherwise they become extinct. Annie

Whether bone in or boneless, I cook it the same way. Shove a ton of herbed butter under the skin(I like sage,chives and thyme for a turkey),heavily season the skin with salt and pepper,and roast that sucker. I have long wanted to try Ina Gartens turkey roulade(minus the fruit) but finding a whole,boneless skin on turkey breast has proved almost impossible around here. And I couldn't debone one myself, it would be shredded...

Okay. My sealer behaved. The bag was generously wide, though a little tight around the waist. I was working on my poultry board but only had my two hands, not wanting to wait, and cross contaminated everything, so the turkey breast is vacuum sealed in cooking grade, in a carry out bag, in a handle tie tall kitchen bag, in the fridge. :) Since it's skin and bones on, I didn't bother with oil or anything. I had to make "poultry seasoning" for the stuffing, so made the whole recipe and rubbed most of it on the turkey, and put in twigs of purple sage which had dried on the counter when I didn't make what I cut it for. 151 degrees F. for 2 hr. + and I don't have to worry about the danged stuffing! Though I do need to go make the stuffing casserole and chicken stock gravy. And clean the potatoes. It's only 6:00!