COL Quast reckons today and the end of last week would probably be the busiest for sales of Christmas turkey in the Tamworth area.
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Mr Quast said the number of people turning up to buy their frozen turkeys and turkey rolls at the Tintinhull shop was “really constant”.
“It will start to die off Tuesday afternoon,” the second-generation turkey farmer said.
He said the build-up was huge for wholesalers in October and November, whereas retailers like Kay’s Meats, which sold throughout the North West, bought up big at the start of December.
“Kay’s buys six pallets from us,” Mr Quast said.
He said between their shop door and Kay’s Meats, they sold 4000 turkey rolls and between 700 and 800 turkeys – sales figures which had remained constant for the past 15 years.
“The four- to five-kilo turkey is our biggest seller; it feeds seven to eight people,” he said.
It’s all a far cry from when his father, Col Snr, started the business 66 years ago at the age of 17.
Now, three generations of the family are involved – Col Snr (82), Col Jnr (55) and James Quast (29).
“We just used to sell out of our freezer room door, but 30 years ago we opened the shop up,” Mr Quast said.
He said Quast Turkeys, which produces 60,000 turkeys a year, was the biggest smaller producer left in the nation – after Baiada-Steggles and Ingham’s which, between them, produce the majority of turkeys in Australia.
“We’re now the biggest of the small producers; there was one in Victoria, Goldfields Turkeys, that did 300,000 a year and it shut its doors in October last year,” Mr Quast said.
TALKING TURKEY: TOP XMAS COOKING TIPS
(As used for more than 60 years by the Quast family)
* Turkeys must be cooked at a gentle temperature for an extended time for the white meat to remain moist and tender;
* Cooking time is 45 minutes per kilo plus 15 minutes (approx) for browning.
* Place a cake cooling rack in the baking pan and then three generous strips of aluminium foil across the pan – the foil needs to be long enough to roll around the bird easily with room to fold at the top;
* Bake the bird at 160 degrees Celsius with oven rack at lowest position. Ideally, put oven on bake, not fan bake – if it doesn’t give you a choice, lower the temperature by at least 10 degrees Celsius. Add water to pan but don’t let it touch the foil; and
* Once cooked, take turkey from oven and carefully unwrap foil. Increase oven temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and switch to fan bake, if possible, and bake a further 15 minutes.
