Barbara Esbenshade has three words to describe this week on her turkey farm.

“It’s a madhouse,” she says with a laugh.

Thousands of people will visit Esbenshade Turkey Farm — just outside Lancaster, Pa. — to pick up the bird that will adorn their Thanksgiving dinner table. That means long, exhausting days for the family that runs “America’s oldest turkey farm.”

Few, if any, farmers can say they do Thanksgiving the way this farm does. But that’s what keeps people coming back, says Dave Zerbe, Barbara’s husband.

"It's old-fashioned. It's just the way it's been done for years," he says.

Local tradition

Barbara thinks the secret to the farm’s success is in the look and taste of each turkey.

“I think there is something about the way it looks in that wrap,” she says of the shrink-wrapped birds emblazoned with Esbenshade Turkey Farm. "My dad used to say that the taste of the meat is what you feed them and how you dress them.”

To that end, very little has changed over the years. The farm raises 6,000 turkeys a year, a number that has stayed constant and is based on the number of turkeys sold the previous year.

Day-old poults arrive in July, with final shipments arriving in August. The main house has four pens with a capacity of 1,500 each. The first birds are the biggest size; the last birds are the smallest.

The turkeys are fed a custom pelletized formula — a corn-soybean mix with other ingredients — from a local feed manufacturer. The average-size turkey will grow to between 16 and 22 pounds, but some birds get as large as 30 pounds.

By October, the office phone rings almost nonstop. This is when people start calling in their Thanksgiving Day turkey orders. Almost all are taken by phone — receipts handwritten and placed in a box — with a limited number coming online through the farm’s website.

The two weeks before Thanksgiving are the busiest. This is when the family brings in between 45 and 55 people, some of whom have worked on the farm for decades, to dress the 6,000 birds.

Each turkey is shrink-wrapped and individually boxed, with a number and the bird’s weight placed on it. The turkeys are placed in a refrigerator at 32 degrees F until the week of Thanksgiving. Dave says 95% of the turkeys are packed and sold fresh; 5% are packed and sold frozen, mostly for Christmas or cut up for value-added products.

"It can be messy and not the most pleasant, but that's just part of it," Dave says.

Thousands of people will come to the farm this week to pick up their turkey. Dave, Barbara and the rest of their family and friends will greet customers, grab their turkeys from the refrigerator, and take payment — mostly cash or check.

Buying a turkey from the farm isn’t cheap. This year’s price is $5.86 a pound, meaning the average-size turkey sells for between $93.76 and $128, while the biggest ones sell for nearly $200.

But this hasn’t discouraged people from coming back.

“The novelty of it draws people. It's like old times," Dave says. "People like that historic look. The facilities are older, and that sort of thing. We have people that say they won't get turkey any place but here. We have lots of people doing that.”

Generations in business

Is it American’s oldest turkey farm? It’s not a statement that’s based in absolute fact, Dave says with a laugh.

Although the farm has been around since 1858, the legend of it being the country’s oldest was started by previous generations of Esbenshades. There is no concrete proof that it is, in fact, the oldest turkey farm in the country. But as Dave puts it, “Nobody has refuted it, so we have kept going with it.”

Bob Esbenshade, Barbara’s late father who died in 2020, was the farm’s face for many years, and he swore by the farm’s traditions. He and his wife, Gladys, who recently died at age 95, helped put the farm on the map.

"He [Bob] was always out there, even if he was feeling ill," Dave says. “Bob treated the customer right, and the customers keep coming back. They don't stray off.”

Today, Dave and Barbara are the fifth generation on the farm. One of their two daughters, Erin Landis, is also involved in the operation and is the sixth generation. Erin and her husband, Kevin, have three children involved in the operation, representing the seventh generation.

Dave and Barbara’s other daughter, Lauren Johnston, lives in Minnesota with her husband and four children.

Adjusting to the times

But as much as the farm clings to its past, Dave and Barbara know the future means change.

The farm has ventured into value-added cuts with a local restaurant, selling skinless, boneless breasts that the restaurant incorporates into its menu.

“We take turkeys that we freeze, debone them and make them available to the restaurant owner in 10-pound packs,” Dave says. “We are looking at other products so we can do more year-round stuff, perhaps a turkey pot pie to sell. We're also slowly ramping up into the technology side of things to try to improve that communication piece and information to our customers.”

While they have no interest in becoming a contract producer for an integrator — Dave notes they would have to grow the herd size considerably and insulate the house — they have made plans for a new building to replace the aging, dingy barn where slaughter and packing is currently done.

“We want to build a 10,000-square-foot building to allow us to dress and pack the birds in one area, with refrigeration and freezer next to that, all in the same building,” he says. “Right now, we have to go in and out of buildings, and this can be inefficient. It will enable us to do it more easily. We're making it happen now by grinding turkey. We'll go out there, we pack the birds, and weigh and price them.

“We'll have the facilities to do that, and it won't be in a low-ceiling, tightly enclosed space. It's going to be 10-foot ceilings, and it's going to be nice and open with a lot of light — and brand-new, easy-to-clean spaces. It will certainly make the process simpler.”

One thing they don’t plan to change, though, is what’s brought them such a fiercely loyal clientele in the first place.

“What you feed them and how you dress them is key to how they taste,” Dave says. "We've had people come back and say, ‘I've never had a turkey like that before in my life.’

"Once they buy our turkey, they don't go anywhere else.”