What to know about Penn State Poultry Science Club’s pre-Thanksgiving turkey sale
It’s time to think about getting a Thanksgiving turkey, and Penn State Poultry Science Club’s annual fresh turkey sale gives community members the opportunity to get a bird, meet interesting people and help support the club.
The student fundraiser will be held Monday. According to Phil Clauer, the adviser to the club, a great teacher and mentor to the students, the student’s objective is to raise the turkeys to be a certain age and weight by the time of the sale. The students are timing the bird’s age this year so that they will have mostly 18-24 pound fresh dressed turkeys ready to cook. As in any endeavor there are always a few outliers, so a few smaller and larger birds will be available.
The sale will take place at the Penn State Meats Lab (light colored block building) located on Porter Road between the Visitor’s Center and baseball stadium (Medler Field).
Tickets will be distributed at the Meats Lab auditorium between 9-9:30 a.m., with the actual sale beginning at 11 a.m. on a first come, first served basis with no pre-orders. It is recommended that you arrive earlier in order to assure weight selection and availability, but trust me, no camping out is required to get a turkey.
Only fresh dressed turkeys are available. When they sell out, a notice will post ASAP on the club’s website. The cost is $2/pound for No. 1’s and there will be a few No. 2 (small blemishes) birds available at lower prices. There’s a limit of three turkeys per customer.
Last year my wife, Phyllis, notified me that I needed to get a fresh turkey from the Penn State Poultry Club. I did my due diligence and checked in with Phil about the procedure and it sounded like something that I could handle. I had heard about lines forming early in the morning and fear gripped me that I might be camping out by the Meats Lab to get a place in line to get one of these special turkeys.
I decided to at least get there early in the morning and as I pulled in around 7:30 a.m., there were some cars already in the parking lot. As we got closer to the 9-9:30 a.m. opening of the Meats Lab auditorium doors, veterans of past turkey campaigns started to line up in anticipation of the event. I decided they must know what they are doing so I followed and got in line. What a fortunate move for me.
Standing in lines, even in my military days, is not something that I like to do, but I had my marching orders and like a good husband I was determined to bring home the bird. Well, the gentleman in front of me and I started sharing notes on how we ended up in line to get a turkey. That gentleman turned out to be Dr. Jack Walmer, retired chief of psychological services at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and a graduate of Penn State. He turned out to be a delightful and enlightening line companion who made the time fly by.
Before you know it we had passed the threshold of turkey heaven and received our tickets — we made it. We sat down in the auditorium and continued to talk covering a myriad of topics. It was such a pleasant time and thanks to the lively conversation with John, the next thing we knew we were getting our turkeys.
I’m not sure if John is going to be in line again for another turkey, but I will be in line again and if John doesn’t make it, I hope that someone new will engage me in some interesting and enlightening conversation and the time will fly by again. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
