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Talking turkey with Lutes who raise the birds
November 25, 2008
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Editor’s Note: This spring, Campus Voice visited the Thundering Hooves Ranch, run by PLU alumni. On it, the Huesby and Swanson families raise sustainable and grass fed cattle, sheep and turkeys. Below is an updated version of the story that ran this spring. Most of the turkeys noted in this story graced Thanksgiving tables last week. The few that remain are spoken for already. To sign up for next year, go to the Thundering Hooves web site and subscribe to the e-mail list. Usually orders for the flock sell out in early July.
As Clarice Swanson ‘89, walked in the barn located on her family’s 400-acre Walla Walla cattle ranch, her mind wasn’t on the hundred or so Herefords and Black Angus chewing on grass just down the road.
It was on the tiny balls of grey striped fluff peeping at her feet. These turkey chicks, or poults, represent one of the few Wishard Strain of Unimproved Standard Bronze flocks in the country. Even if the chicks or their parents outside didn’t have the shelter of a barn to escape the snow-tinged wind outside, they’d survive on their own, without human intervention, she noted proudly.
This is life at Thundering Hooves Ranch.
You don’t want to mention Butterballs (Broad-breasted Whites) around this woman. She considers them freaks of nature, when compared with her brood, about 220 of which graced local holiday tables of Seattle and Bellevue gourmands who were willing to pay $70 for about 15 lbs of meat.
“This is the spice of life,” Swanson said, looking down as the chicks huddled and pecked underneath heat lamps.
The same sentiment echoes throughout the Thundering Hooves Ranch, which produces mainly grass fed beef on organic pastures. The meat is sold at food clubs on this side of the mountain – and at a local store in Walla Walla. Lois Huesby, ’59, grew up on the ranch, and later married Gordon Huesby, ’56, a Lutheran minister. Their children have guided the ranch into the sustainable and organic way of raising cattle, turkeys, chickens and lamb.
For Clarice Swanson and her husband, Keith, returning home to Walla Walla was part of the natural cycle as well. Both had graduated from PLU with degrees in education, and for the next 15 years, Keith taught English in the Federal Way School District, while Clarice taught music in the Highline School District and then became a stay-at-home mom.
But the couple tired of constantly having to carefully watch their kids play on the streets near their home. So when a 10-acre spread came up next to the family ranch, the Swansons jumped at the chance to go into the ranching business and embrace a new way of life.
“We’d taught for years, it was time to try something else,” Keith Swanson said. “This way our five kids could run around and they love all the wide open spaces.”
Every other week, Keith Swanson takes meat over to buying clubs in the Seattle area and works as sales and marketing for the family business. Walking through a cooler that is set at a tidy zero degrees Fahrenheit, Keith pointed out orders that will go over to buyers in Issaquah, Bellevue and Seattle. Some families even order their dog food from the market.
Outside on the phone, Clarice placed orders for the next shipment. Generally, she works at the family’s Walla Walla butcher shop and tends to her turkeys. Thundering Hooves rescued the flock from an Oregon farmer that was tired of raising the birds and was going to slaughter the lot of them.
She’s looking for others in the state who might share her passion for raising the birds and diversifying the flock. Out of the turkey flock this spring, Swanson kept aside 53 hens and seven toms to winter over, and produce next year’s batch of turkeys for Thanksgiving tables.
“These really are the domestic version of the wild turkey,” she said, looking at the adults preen their iridescent feathers in the weak sunlight and eye a photographer suspiciously. “They can take care of themselves, even in the winter weather.”
Content Development Director Barbara Clements compiled this report. Comments, questions, ideas? Please contact her at ext. 7427 or at clemenba@plu.edu. Photo by University Photographer Jordan Hartman.
It was on the tiny balls of grey striped fluff peeping at her feet. These turkey chicks, or poults, represent one of the few Wishard Strain of Unimproved Standard Bronze flocks in the country. Even if the chicks or their parents outside didn’t have the shelter of a barn to escape the snow-tinged wind outside, they’d survive on their own, without human intervention, she noted proudly.
This is life at Thundering Hooves Ranch.
You don’t want to mention Butterballs (Broad-breasted Whites) around this woman. She considers them freaks of nature, when compared with her brood, about 220 of which graced local holiday tables of Seattle and Bellevue gourmands who were willing to pay $70 for about 15 lbs of meat.
“This is the spice of life,” Swanson said, looking down as the chicks huddled and pecked underneath heat lamps.
The same sentiment echoes throughout the Thundering Hooves Ranch, which produces mainly grass fed beef on organic pastures. The meat is sold at food clubs on this side of the mountain – and at a local store in Walla Walla. Lois Huesby, ’59, grew up on the ranch, and later married Gordon Huesby, ’56, a Lutheran minister. Their children have guided the ranch into the sustainable and organic way of raising cattle, turkeys, chickens and lamb.
For Clarice Swanson and her husband, Keith, returning home to Walla Walla was part of the natural cycle as well. Both had graduated from PLU with degrees in education, and for the next 15 years, Keith taught English in the Federal Way School District, while Clarice taught music in the Highline School District and then became a stay-at-home mom.
But the couple tired of constantly having to carefully watch their kids play on the streets near their home. So when a 10-acre spread came up next to the family ranch, the Swansons jumped at the chance to go into the ranching business and embrace a new way of life.
“We’d taught for years, it was time to try something else,” Keith Swanson said. “This way our five kids could run around and they love all the wide open spaces.”
Every other week, Keith Swanson takes meat over to buying clubs in the Seattle area and works as sales and marketing for the family business. Walking through a cooler that is set at a tidy zero degrees Fahrenheit, Keith pointed out orders that will go over to buyers in Issaquah, Bellevue and Seattle. Some families even order their dog food from the market.
Outside on the phone, Clarice placed orders for the next shipment. Generally, she works at the family’s Walla Walla butcher shop and tends to her turkeys. Thundering Hooves rescued the flock from an Oregon farmer that was tired of raising the birds and was going to slaughter the lot of them.
She’s looking for others in the state who might share her passion for raising the birds and diversifying the flock. Out of the turkey flock this spring, Swanson kept aside 53 hens and seven toms to winter over, and produce next year’s batch of turkeys for Thanksgiving tables.
“These really are the domestic version of the wild turkey,” she said, looking at the adults preen their iridescent feathers in the weak sunlight and eye a photographer suspiciously. “They can take care of themselves, even in the winter weather.”
Content Development Director Barbara Clements compiled this report. Comments, questions, ideas? Please contact her at ext. 7427 or at clemenba@plu.edu. Photo by University Photographer Jordan Hartman.