A Farm Grows in Livonia?

Here's an article about the Roperti Turkey Farm - formerly the Roperti Dairy Farm -where I milked cows before and after school - day in and day out. Development has created a Roperti Turkey Farm "Island" - this article is from youngest sister Chrisitine's perspective....

By HANK SCHALLER

11/18/2002

November 18, 2002 LIVONIA - Don't tell Christine Roperti how juicy the white meat on your Butterball turkey was last Thanksgiving. "The white meat on our turkeys is very moist," boasted Roperti, 57, whose parents, Tom and Mary Roperti, opened Roperti's Turkey Farm when milking 40 head of dairy cattle for the Twin Pines Farm Dairy became too much of a chore.

"We wouldn't be in business since 1948 if we had dry white meat." "My father had a buddy who raised chickens and turkeys, and he suggested that my father get in the turkey business," she recalled. "He got rid of the cows in 1947 and started raising turkeys in 1948. We started with 50 turkeys, then went to 100, 200 and 500, and now we raise 4,500 turkeys a year. "When we started raising turkeys, there were farms all over Livonia," she said. "Now we may be the only farm left." For 54 years, turkeys raised by three generations of the Roperti family have been a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner tradition for hundreds of families in the Detroit area. Some customers have been depending on the Ropertis for their holiday gobblers for 30 years or more. "We used to grow all our own corn, wheat and oats on 250 acres, including two large fields near Six Mile and Haggerty roads, where a shopping center now stands," Roperti recalled. The family now purchases the grain it feeds its large Wilford White turkeys, but otherwise the five-acre family farm at 34700 Five Mile Road continues operating as it has for years. "Wilfords are a large breed of turkeys that are very breasty and very meaty," Roperti said. "I get the turkeys when they are 8 to 9 weeks old and weigh about 2 pounds from my grower in Zeeland. I pick up the turkeys around the last week in August so I can sell them from Oct. 1 to Dec. 23." The secret to good tasting turkeys is the right diet, she said. In fact, the company motto on fliers distributed in neighborhoods in Oakland and Wayne counties tells customers of the importance of what a turkey is fed: "Remember, fresh is not the secret. The secret is what they've been fed." "Animals are what they eat, and that goes for turkeys, too," Roperti explained. "Our turkeys are fed corn, wheat and oats that are mixed with a high-protein mash from the time they arrive (until) the last two weeks before they are killed, when they are fed nothing but corn. "The larger turkey farms can't feed the turkeys the way I can because they can't get their money back," she said. "Some allow their turkeys to graze, feed them fish meal or anything that's cheap." The busiest time of the year for the Ropertis is the four-day period immediately before Thanksgiving, when about 4,000 of the turkeys are killed and dressed by the family and a seasonal staff of 35 employees who set up a production line. "For those four days before Thanksgiving, I'm working 17, 18 or 19 hours a day," she said. "I just can't sleep any more than four or five hours when we get to that time of the year." During these hectic times, Christine runs the store; her oldest son, Tony, is in charge of killing the turkeys in the "red room"; her husband, Wesley Bates, runs the scalding and defeathering room; her youngest son, Tom, runs the dressing table; and Tom's wife, Ferida, acts as the farm's secretary. Besides getting turkeys ready for the roaster or deep fryer, the family also sells turkey smoked for 12 hours right on the premises, using apple and cherry wood with a little wet hickory thrown on top. Ironically, when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, the Roperti family takes a pass on turkey. "My family has seen too many turkeys at that point and would hang me up like a dead turkey if I put turkey on the table," Roperti said. "Thanksgiving is sort of a party for us. "For Thanksgiving, we have filet mignon, lobster and stone crabs and key lime pie that my niece sends up here every year from Florida," she said. "She sends us the stone crabs and key lime pie in exchange for a turkey, of course."

©The Daily Oakland Press 2004

Comments

[Keep Salem Rural]

I sure hope Fred and his "Salem First" group get back into office. The anti-everything group will ruin the township and waste the money. Heyl can't get along with his neighbors, Uherek would be a mouthpiece for his father who is suing the township, Wallazy would fight with property owners ending in litigation. Fred, thanks for getting the TRUTH out here in Salem!

KSR