By DAVID CLOUSTON
Salina Journal
LINDSBORG -- Right after Thanksgiving, Frank Reese Jr. took a call from New York City food writer Molly O'Neill. Could Reese give her an in-person interview and tour of his heritage poultry farming operation?
O'Neill is arriving this week. And she's bringing along some influential friends to see not only how Reese's heritage turkeys and chickens are raised but to see cooks prepare dishes from Reese's prized fowl using traditional recipes.
For a decade, O'Neill was the food columnist for The New York Times Magazine and host of the PBS series "Great Food." Her work has appeared in many national magazines, and she is the author of three cookbooks, including the award-winning "The New York Cookbook."
"She wanted to come here to hear about what we're doing that's causing so much attention and encouraging people to want to find out about this (subject) again," Reese said.
Reese, a nurse anesthetist by trade, several years ago began to raise traditional heritage breeds of fowl -- primarily turkeys, to start with -- that were in danger of extinction.
Today, his free-range poultry operation, Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch, on Smoky Valley Road between Marquette and Lindsborg, includes not only his farm but eight -- and soon to be 11 -- other producers who've joined with him to create a market for specialty fowl. They serve homes and restaurants in Denver, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere.
The New York Times featured Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch Bourbon Reds, a heritage breed weighing 18 to 33 pounds, in an article in its Nov. 21, 2002, edition.
The way settlers cooked
For O'Neill's visit, Reese has pulled together 10 cooks. On Friday, starting at 10 a.m. at the kitchen at Messiah Lutheran Church, Lindsborg, they plan to prepare a variety of chicken dishes to showcase the flavor of the specialty fowl for the visiting food experts.
The cooks are friends and others recruited by word of mouth for their knowledge of family recipes.
Reese said he was raising the same kind of chickens that prairie settlers raised "75 to 100 years ago."
"We asked people who were given the knowledge (passed down) or who are old enough to remember how to cook these particular birds," Reese said.
The pool of visitors attending includes representatives from the American Poultry Association, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Animal Compassion Foundation and the American Livestock Breeders Conservancy. O'Neill is bringing along three interns whose plans are to interview Reese and his heritage cooks on Thursday. Also expected to attend are representatives of Whole Foods, a nationwide organic grocer that sells Good Shepherd Ranch poultry.
Altogether, the group of visitors should number about 70 to 80 people.
"We have people coming from as far away as Texas, North Carolina, New York, Washington and Virginia," Reese said. "There are people out there who care about this."
Teaching other farmers
Reese hopes the gathering will serve not only to introduce some in the animal welfare movement to those with an interest in organic food. He also hopes it will foster his plan to begin a nonprofit foundation.
He plans to call it the Standard Bred Poultry Institute. Its purpose will be to teach farmers nationwide the way he breeds, manages and processes free-range poultry from beginning to end.
"I want to try and teach other farmers to do what I do," he said. "It just so happens that Kansas is where some of these old bloodlines have held on."
n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclouston@salina.com.
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