Sonora-area turkey ranch serves a few niches

Dozens of turkeys waddled across a hillside out past Sonora, pecking at grass that has helped nourish them for close to six months.

Diestel Turkey Ranch has been in business since 1949, most of that time relying on the corn and soy rations that are the standard industry practice.

Pasture-raised is the latest niche for a company that also offers conventional and organic products, some of them “heirloom” breeds from long ago.

“Over the years, we’ve grown what we call our family of Diestel products,” said Heidi Diestel, part of the fourth generation, during a pre-Thanksgiving tour for The Modesto Bee.

Diestel invites the general public as well to visit the home ranch, on Lyons-Bald Mountain Road about 5 miles northeast of Sonora. The company also has four sites in western Tuolumne County where turkeys are raised in buildings with access to the outdoors.

The products are pricey – $70 and up for whole birds purchased online, and more per pound than conventional turkeys at grocery stores.

The business employs about 100 people year-round and tops 300 during the October-to-December peak. The home ranch does the main processing, and a Chinese Camp plant makes deli meat, sausage and other value-added items. Diestel declined to specify the total annual volume but did say it is “several hundred thousand” turkeys per year.

That is a tiny slice of a California industry dominated by Foster Farms, which processes turkey in Turlock and has chicken plants in Livingston and elsewhere. This 77-year-old company raises most of its turkeys in large buildings with room to roam. It has branched into organic products, including whole turkeys, and poultry raised without antibiotics.

Heidi Diestel is the granddaughter of the late Jack Diestel, who started the family business on land where an uncle, Ernest Bottini, raised turkeys since the 1920s. Her parents, Tim and Joan Diestel, are involved, too, as is brother Jason.

The organic line started in 1999, under federal rules that bar synthetic fertilizer and pesticides to grow the feed. The heirloom breeds came along later, including Auburn, which originated in Mexico, and American Bronze, believed to be the centerpiece at the first Thanksgiving.

The pastured turkeys have access to the same corn and soy feed as the other flocks, along with grazing on grass enriched with composted manure and other waste.

“It makes a huge difference in the quality, the texture, the flavor,” Heidi Diestel said.

Diestel turkeys take about six months to grow, roughly twice the industry standard.

They have a “broad-breasted” quality that has made them popular at Village Fresh Market in Turlock, meat manager Mark Hamblin said. This supplier accounts for about 80 percent of whole turkey sales, he said.

Diestel sells some of its turkeys through the House of Beef restaurant in Oakdale, which does smoking and slow-roasting at customer request.

“They’re an excellent product for a high-end turkey,” owner Steve Medlen said. “They’re fresh. They’re locally grown.”

Diestel had to contend last year with a video that an animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere claimed to have filmed at two of the west county ranches. It showed crowded, dirty conditions, but a subsequent investigation by Whole Foods Market, a major seller of the products, found nothing.

“We’re doing our best to be as transparent as possible about how our turkeys are produced,” Heidi Diestel said last week.

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Sonora-area turkey ranch serves a few niches."