When most people want a Thanksgiving turkey, they go to the grocery store or butcher shop and buy some frozen bird from the assembly line.
Not Keith Girardot. He just walks out to his quaint red barn and picks a fresh one.
‘I think mine are more moist than the ones you buy in the store,? said the 48-year-old Oxford resident and part-time farmer.
Girardot raises turkeys, along with steers, horses, chickens (for meat and eggs), potatoes and sweet corn, on a 17-acre spread on N. Coats Rd. he’s owned for 21 years and lived on for 15 years.
‘My goal is to try to raise all my own food. That way I know what I’m eating. I raise everything that we eat, pretty much,? explained Girardot, who inherited the agrarian gene from his late grandfather, a dairy farmer in Harbor Beach.
Girardot originally started raising turkeys for himself, but then decided to expand in order to give all his employees a free farm-fresh bird at Thanksgiving as opposed to a store-bought one.
‘Mine are so much better,? he said. ‘Plus I know what’s in them.?
When he’s not working his farm, Girardot is president and owner of the Troy-based Pros-Tech, a prosthetics and orthotics company he co-founded in 1988.
Each year around the end of July, he purchases one or two-day-old turkey poults (or chicks) from Townline Poultry Farm in Zeeland, Michigan. He buys the most popular breed and the largest in size ? the white broad breasted turkey.
He used to raise about 25 turkeys, but this year he went up to 30 and will probably increase to 35 next year.
‘I got more people that want them,? said Girardot, noting whatever he doesn’t give to his employees or keep himself, he sells to folks for $2 per pound. ‘I have my annual customers and then there’s always a few (new ones) who call towards the end.?
By the time the turkeys are ready to be processed in Imlay City the week before Thanksgiving, Girardot said they usually average between 12 and 20 pounds.
‘The biggest one was about 28 pounds,? he said. ‘I got them in the middle of July that year.?
Unlike many store-bought turkeys, which are pumped full of hormones, water or butter-like substances only a chemist can pronounce, Girardot’s birds are all natural.
He fattens them up with a hand-ground feed that’s a mixture of corn and soy beans he purchases from the Stack Family farm in Lapeer. During the month of October, he bulks up the feed by adding cracked corn to it.
As the turkeys get older and bigger, Girardot said they will typically eat anywhere from six to seven gallons of feed per day and drink about seven gallons of water.
‘This last week they will probably eat 100 pounds of feed,? he said.
Girardot typically feeds them once in the morning, but during the last week or two, he’ll give them a little bit in the evening.
‘They’ll eat feed constantly if you give it to them,? he explained. ‘They say if you feed them too much they get heart attacks. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But chickens do.?
So what do Girardot’s employees think of his farm-fresh turkeys?
‘They all like them,? he said. ‘Some probably don’t really know the difference and others really appreciate the difference.?
To Girardot, the biggest difference is how ‘plump? his birds are compared to store-bought turkeys.
Despite the recent trend of deep-frying turkeys in peanut oil, Girardot still prefers cooking his in a traditional oven or roaster.
‘I’ve deep-fried them before, but that makes me a little nervous sometimes because of the fire hazard and getting burned,? he said. ‘Nice thing about the roaster is it frees up the oven.?
Eventually, Girardot plans to spend his retirement working his farm full-time.
‘My goal is when I retire to make some money here,? he said. In addition to the turkeys, he also sells chickens and eggs.
But for now, he’ll stay in the prosthetics business, a field he’s worked in since his junior year of high school.
‘I have patients I’ve been fitting (for limbs) now for 25 years,? said Girardot, noting when he started everything was made of wood whereas now it’s all thermal plastics, which are lighter and stronger. One of Girardot’s patients is now 44 years old and he’s ‘been making her limbs since she was 18.?
A former neighbor, the late Eugene Fillipis, son of the late owner of Wright and Fillipis, got him started in the business.
Girardot worked for Wright & Filippis, Inc. ? Michigan’s largest provider of home healthcare products and services ? for 12 years before co-founding his own company, which offers services to patients, physicians, therapists and managed care organizations.
While his success in the business world has been rewarding, both financially and personally, it’s his time on the farm that Girardot enjoys most.
It’s a safe bet there aren’t too many businessmen in Metro Detroit who spend an hour every morning before work and another hour in the evening doing farm-related chores.
‘It’s fun,? Girardot said. ‘I really enjoy spending my time outside.?