Charlie and Jan Brotzman in Bradford County raise and sell turkeys such as these, all now processed and sold. Charlie Brotzman Photo
11-26-25
By Lauren Royce, Editor
BRACKNEY — It’s turkey time and SusqCo residents are getting those roasters ready for cooking up farm fresh birds. Local farms Russell’s and LaRue’s gave the scoop on their Thanksgiving sales of the holiday’s main meal.
Angie Russell, of Russell’s Farm in Brackney said somewhere between 65 and 100 turkeys were sold this year, and sold out. Her brother, Michael Russell, said their turkeys were purchased from a farm in Penn Yan, NY.
More chocolate turkeys at Leopold’s, this time in peanut butter cup form. Lauren Royce Photo
Russell runs the bakery making a wide array of pies year long, including the staple apple and pumpkin flavors. “We don’t just limit them for the holiday season, we do our whole range of seasonal pies that we do all year long,” Russell said. This way, people have the dessert they want after the main meal.
“We were about sold out, and this is about our fourth year selling, so I have a lot of regulars,” said Renee LaRue, of LaRue’s Farm Market in Montrose. “I would say probably 75% of my people are people are ones that have ordered in the past. And this year we saw almost a 50% increase, so a lot of new people this year too. I tried to really advertise early.” But in September and October, people are not really thinking about turkey just yet.
The Thanksgiving turkey Dan Graham cooked last year. Dan Graham Photo
Their turkeys are also sourced from a farm, near Bloomsburg. LaRue said they charged $3.75 per pound for the birds. But the price is worth having a truly fresh bird on the table, for most people. Turkey pickup was scheduled for Tuesday.
“The one nice thing we like (about) selling the turkeys, is we get people in the farm market to buy our fresh produce, such as potatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, a bunch of different kinds of winter squash,” LaRue’s husband Ben said. As well as beets, sweet potatoes and onions.
“For us, it gives us another outlet later in the year to provide our customers with more stuff for their Thanksgiving table,” Renee LaRue said. The stand closed in October on Halloween but reopened for Thanksgiving.
LaRue said her father had made a funny turkey-themed joke to her: what’s blue and has feathers? A turkey holding its breath, she said. Dad jokes and turkey seem to go together like giving and sharing this season.
“We have a lot of very loyal customers,” LaRue said. “The community’s very supportive of us so I think they know the quality they can expect from us, and we just appreciate that.”
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