THORNTOWN — Heavenly Acres Farm in Boone County has a freezer full of farm-to-table turkey ready to go ahead of Thanksgiving.
Visit this Thorntown farm, and you'll see animals everywhere.
"We've had the farm for nine years," said Forrest Bopp.
Forrest and Jennifer Bopp are the farm's owners.
"Once we started getting animals, it kind of slowly built over the years," Forrest Bopp continued. "Every year we try something new."
One thing they've had since the beginning? Turkeys.
"Originally we just wanted turkeys for ourselves, our kids, my in-laws," Forrest shared.
The first flock contained only four turkeys.
"From there, I think we went from six to twelve the following year, and now we're up to 33," Forrest said.
Each year, the farmers learn more about the birds.
"We had a year where we got a variety pack from the hatchery, and it came with I think four different breeds, and let's just say some of those breeds, they tend to range," Forrest said with a laugh.
While the couple lets all their turkeys range, this particular breed wandered a bit too far, That year, they lost a couple of turkeys to predators.
That hasn't been the case in 2025. In fact, the farm didn't lose any birds to injuries, sickness or predators.
"We are very blessed with the turkeys this year," Forrest said. "This is a pretty easygoing year. This year was fantastic for the broad-breasted ones that we had."
The one downside? Feed prices for the flock.
"It has been rising, especially with corn," Bopp said of feed prices. "Which increases our costs."
The Bopps use a mixture of corn, sunflowers, wheat, and millet to feed their birds.
"We kind of zeroed it down to the amount of feed it takes, because that's probably the most costly part of having turkeys, and chickens for that matter, is the food cost," Forrest Bopp said. "We've kind of got it narrowed down to how much to feed them that'll still, you'll still get the produce, the product."
From the feed to the free-ranging, everything is done to keep the animals happy.
"The healthier and happier the animal is, the better the product," said Forrest Bopp.
The Bopps believe this quality drives customers to their farm.
"We see people that want to know how their food is being raised," said Jennifer Bopp. "They want to make sure that the animal is being treated fairly and good, and that it's being loved."
The turkeys aren't the only ones who are happy on the farm.
"I love raising turkeys. They're so much fun to have," said Forrest. "They're not the brightest things, so they kind of bumble around, jumping around doing turkey stuff."
This brood of turkeys was at the farm from July until early November. In that short amount of time, they got to the desired size range (most around ten pounds).
"We still have about fourteen turkeys available out of the 33," said Jennifer Bopp "Might be a little less because we had somebody call this morning."
Despite feed prices being high, the turkeys available at Heavenly Acres are able to be sold for about $5.50 a pound.
"We try to take into consideration food cost, processing, how much it costs to get the birds," Jennifer Bopp listed the reasons behind the pricing. "How much time it takes to raise them isn't even a factor in price because if you added that time, it would cost too much."
Jennifer Bopp says pricing the meat is a stressful job for her.
"I want people to be able to afford it, and I want people to be able to enjoy a good product that was grown humanely and that was raised and loved and taken care of," Jennifer said, "But we can't always sell it for store bought prices like Walmart prices, Kroger prices, can't always sell it for those prices, because we wouldn't be able to do it again."
The Bopps know their farm-raised turkeys have a higher price tag than the supermarket.
"As turkeys are moving into the grocery store, the costs are roughly the same as they were last year, and our retail price is roughly the same as last year," said Eric Halvorson with Kroger.
According to the Indiana Farm Bureau, Thanksgiving turkey at Indiana grocery stores was around $1.33 per pound last year, and $1.38 per pound in 2023. Shoppers can expect similar prices this year.
"That's just one more reason to say we're celebrating Thanksgiving this year," said Halvorson.
If you'd like to order one of the remaining turkeys at Heavenly Acres Farm, you can message them on their Facebook page.
The farm is also open for farm tours throughout the year and has an Airbnb cabin.
