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Even before shoppers hit Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving dinners drive nearly $2 billion in spending across the US. Here's a look at how some of the favorites make it to your holiday celebration.
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00:00:00Thanksgiving in the U.S. is big business.
00:00:03More than 160 million pounds of butter,
00:00:0780 million pounds of cranberries,
00:00:10and 46 million turkeys land on dinner tables across the U.S.,
00:00:15not counting the ones made of pastry.
00:00:18Here's a look at how some of our favorite Thanksgiving foods
00:00:21make it to our holiday tables.
00:00:24Cranberries bring a bright, tangy burst of flavor to Thanksgiving dinner,
00:00:28and Ocean Spray farmers are North America's top producers.
00:00:32But they only have six weeks to get 100 billion berries
00:00:36from the bog to grocery store shelves.
00:00:38Here's how they do it.
00:00:40Hi, Allison. How are you, honey?
00:00:42Awesome. How are you?
00:00:44Well, it all starts here in the bog.
00:00:46You might recognize it from those commercials.
00:00:48Hi. We're Ocean Spray cranberry growers.
00:00:50And this is our 100% juice.
00:00:53Starting in the middle of September,
00:00:55the Gilmore family begins preparing its 100 acres of bogs
00:00:57for the wet harvest.
00:00:59Normally, the bogs look like this.
00:01:00Come right on.
00:01:01Dry fields.
00:01:02You can walk on this and not damage it.
00:01:04The cranberries grow just like this
00:01:07in a layer of sand, peat, gravel, and clay.
00:01:10We use water to harvest the cranberries,
00:01:12but they don't grow submerged in water.
00:01:14Some of the cranberry vines here on the bog are almost 90 years old.
00:01:19When it's time to harvest,
00:01:20Allison will flood the bog with about a foot of water.
00:01:23Once we add the water, the cranberries start to float on the vine.
00:01:27Cranberries have four pockets of air inside.
00:01:30To knock the berries off those vines,
00:01:32farmers use a cranberry harvesting machine.
00:01:34You can fairly easily take them right off.
00:01:36The harrow that Ben is using, he actually built that.
00:01:40The berries pop off and float to the top.
00:01:42Then, for the fun part,
00:01:44farmers drop on some waders and trudge out into the water.
00:01:47The cranberries are all floating to the top,
00:01:50and we're standing on top of the vines.
00:01:52There isn't anything quite like the experience of standing in a bog,
00:01:56but it does feel like I'm being hugged by all the cranberries.
00:01:59I do love that.
00:02:00As you can see, this is a wide open space,
00:02:03and we have put in place all the CDC guidelines.
00:02:06We are socially distanced by the nature of when we are farming,
00:02:09and we've put in masks.
00:02:11From inside the bog, farmers use what's called a boom
00:02:13to corral all the berries bobbing on the surface.
00:02:16One of the things that is surprisingly difficult
00:02:19is pulling the boom.
00:02:20It's heavy.
00:02:21100% of Ocean Spray's cranberries are grown sustainably.
00:02:25But not only is wet harvest environmentally friendly,
00:02:28it's also efficient.
00:02:29Allison's family can harvest up to 10 acres a day.
00:02:32We are harvesting in all different weather.
00:02:35We work every day for six or seven weeks,
00:02:37whatever it takes, eight weeks sometimes.
00:02:39The berry pump right over here,
00:02:41we can come over here and see.
00:02:43And as you can see, we're paddling and gently pushing the cranberries
00:02:47into that pump that's right there.
00:02:49The paddle helps to control the rate of which the cranberries are going into the pump.
00:02:54And the pump gently takes the cranberries up into a truck called the berry washer.
00:02:59The fruit is coming up through here.
00:03:02It builds up and then as it moves along,
00:03:05it goes in here where there's a grate and all the fruit gets washed.
00:03:11And it goes into the back of the truck.
00:03:14Those trucks say goodbye to Gilmore Farm and head out to the receiving station just up the road.
00:03:19Here, trucks coming from Massachusetts and Rhode Island line up by the dozens,
00:03:24waiting their turn to unload.
00:03:26Once in front, they back up and get locked into this giant lift.
00:03:30Hydraulics lift the front end up and all the berries tumble out the back.
00:03:34The berries are cleaned again to get rid of the rest of the leaves and vine bits.
00:03:38Then they're boxed and sent to one of the manufacturing plants.
00:03:41One and a half million barrels will be processed here in just over a month.
00:03:45It'll take the manufacturing plants a year to go through all those berries.
00:03:51Over at the plant in Middleborough, Massachusetts,
00:03:53berries are turned into the products we see on the shelves.
00:03:56We process all the fruit and freeze it.
00:03:58And then when it's frozen,
00:03:59we can slice it to make that optimal sweet dried cranberry.
00:04:02That's Scott, head of engineering here.
00:04:04We're going to go out to our fruit delivery area and see where the fruit comes in.
00:04:07And we kickstart the process.
00:04:09It's going to be very loud, so we'll be wearing ear protection and PPE.
00:04:13To continue operating under COVID-19 restrictions,
00:04:16Ocean Spray had to implement temperature checks,
00:04:18mandatory masks, and social distancing in its factories.
00:04:21After suiting up, we followed Scott into the freezer.
00:04:24We store 3.1 million pounds in our local freezer,
00:04:27which is about two days of production.
00:04:29The berries chosen for craisins, juice, or sauce have to be frozen first.
00:04:33Once it's frozen, it breaks down the cellular structure inside the cranberry
00:04:36and allows the juice to be released and processed.
00:04:41After they're frozen, the berries are spiked to break them up.
00:04:44Frozen fruit comes into the process.
00:04:46Then we slice it, we defrost it, and then we extract the juice from the berries.
00:04:50This is where we're extracting the juice.
00:04:52Once they've got the juice, it's sent here to become a concentrate.
00:04:55That concentrate heads to another facility where the water, juices, and other ingredients
00:04:59are added in to become the now very famous juice.
00:05:02About 4,400 cranberries go into a typical bottle of cranberry juice.
00:05:06But after the juice gets extracted, those leftover berries don't just get thrown away.
00:05:10They become the dried cranberries called craisins.
00:05:13As the fruit enters the dryer, it's a 210-foot dryer that has three stages
00:05:18where we dry the fruit to the customer's justification.
00:05:20Once there's no liquid left, the dried cranberries can get flavorings.
00:05:24Today we're running strawberry on our production line.
00:05:27It smells like strawberry shortcake in the facilities.
00:05:29Now for the sauce, Ocean Spray's first product, introduced back in 1930.
00:05:35This year, Ocean Spray expects Americans to buy nearly 60 million cans of the stuff for the holidays.
00:05:40The berries get ground up into a puree.
00:05:43About 200 berries, along with sweeteners, go into each can of jellied sauce.
00:05:47The process hasn't changed so much.
00:05:49Some of the equipment we use and some of the training that's required the personnel has,
00:05:53but the general concept has not changed in almost 90 years.
00:05:57Once all the products are finished, they're packaged up.
00:05:59And this robot does all the boxing.
00:06:01This is our finished goods cooler where we store a product that's waiting to go out to the customer.
00:06:05We have 3,500 pallet spots in here and a total of 5,500 at the site.
00:06:09So less than three weeks, we turn all the inventory over here in the cooler.
00:06:12Between all the flavors of craisins, juice, and sauce, Ocean Spray has more than 250 SKUs, or product types,
00:06:19on shelves across the globe.
00:06:2150% of it goes to Europe, and then the rest goes to our distribution centers here in the United States.
00:06:27For many, Thanksgiving dinner isn't complete without a side of mac and cheese.
00:06:32Here's how a century-old Vermont creamery makes 130 million pounds of cheese each year.
00:06:38In the tiny town of Cabot, Vermont, this creamery has been churning out dairy products for 100 years.
00:06:46Their claim to fame?
00:06:48The Vermont Cheddar.
00:06:50Cabot Creamery makes about 130 million pounds of the stuff each year,
00:06:55and it ends up on shelves across the U.S.
00:06:58Their extra-sharp cheddar nabbed first place in the 2019 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest,
00:07:04while their mild and medium cheddars got first in the 2018 World Championship for Cheese.
00:07:10Yep, such a competition exists, and I want to be a judge.
00:07:14So how does Cabot Creamery make the world's tastiest cheddar cheese?
00:07:18Well, it all started here in Vermont, on a family farm.
00:07:22In 1919, 94 farmers in Cabot, hoping to better market their dairy products, formed a cooperative.
00:07:29This co-op meant the farmers not only owned the Cabot brand, but saw 100% of the profits.
00:07:36Fast forward a century, and the creamery still runs on this model.
00:07:39But today, more than 800 family farms across New England own Cabot.
00:07:44Farms just like this one.
00:07:46This is Fairmont in East Montpellier, Vermont.
00:07:49My name's Clara, and I'm a third-generation dairy farmer here at Fairmont.
00:07:54My husband tells me that he's eaten more cheese since he's met me than he ever did in his life before.
00:08:00As part of the Cabot Cooperative, Clara's family knows exactly where their milk is going,
00:08:05and even what products it'll become.
00:08:07Our milk mostly becomes hard cheeses and butter.
00:08:10Cabot deals with making, marketing, and selling the cheese,
00:08:13so the farmers can focus on what they do best ā milking cows.
00:08:18Clara's family has almost 1,500 Holstein cows at their two farms ā one here in East Montpellier,
00:08:24and one in Crasbury, Vermont.
00:08:26We ship about 5 million gallons of milk a year.
00:08:30Fairmont milks their cows using a milking machine, attached to the udders by a farmhand.
00:08:35The cows are being really well cared for and loved by family farmers, and that's really special.
00:08:41But some of Cabot's newest farm facilities are using robotic milkers to speed up the process.
00:08:47Once the milk is collected, it's held in tanks until a Cabot truck arrives.
00:08:52These trucks can come up to three times a day to load up the supply of fresh milk and transport it to the Cabot plant.
00:08:59Here it will become either butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, yogurt, or of course, cheese.
00:09:05Cheddar cheese.
00:09:07It takes Cabot about 10 gallons of milk to make just one pound of cheese.
00:09:13To make Cabot's signature cheddar, first the milk is pasteurized.
00:09:16The milk is then poured into a huge vat, where a starter culture of bacteria and the special enzyme called rennet are added in.
00:09:24This combo jump-starts the process of curdling the milk into cheese.
00:09:29And as the cheese is formed, big steel wires break it down into small curds and a liquid known as whey.
00:09:36Once the cheese curds are cooked through, the whey and the curds head to the finishing table.
00:09:41Here, the whey is drained out.
00:09:43Salt is added in to cut some of that acidity.
00:09:48This is also the point where Cabot can add in herbs and other ingredients to make their specialty flavors,
00:09:53like super spicy habanero and the cheese for us weaker heat seekers, the pepper jack.
00:09:58After that, everything's mixed together.
00:10:01Next, the cheese curds are squeezed together to form massive 40- or 60-pound blocks.
00:10:06Those blocks are then sent to the aging room, where they're left in a temperature-controlled space to mature.
00:10:12These folks are the cheese graters.
00:10:15The people responsible for making sure Cabot's cheese is aging up to their world's best standard.
00:10:21On average in our inventory, we have close to 70 million pounds of cheese that we repeatedly will sample on an everyday basis.
00:10:30Some days we're evaluating up to 150 samples or vats a day.
00:10:36When the cheese finally makes it to the aging room, the cheese graters take a plug, or a sample, out of each block.
00:10:42Good flavor. It's a good Monterey Jack. A little salty.
00:10:55Monterey Jack is typically a short-aged cheese. Younger cheese. It's got moisture added to it.
00:11:01It makes a unique profile.
00:11:03As the cheddar gets older, the flavors that develop become more intense.
00:11:07Every batch tastes a little bit different.
00:11:10A thousand different farms, I mean, the mix is always going to be a little bit different.
00:11:13Cheese is a living organism.
00:11:15Graters like Gina and Ted determine when a cheese block is ready to be cut.
00:11:19The blocks head back to the factory for the finishing touches.
00:11:22An industrial slicer breaks those puppies down to a more edible 8-ounce block.
00:11:27Almost every Thanksgiving dessert needs a little vanilla, and it's one of the world's most expensive spices.
00:11:37Here's how farmers in Madagascar produce 80% of the world's supply.
00:11:42Here, farmers have to pollinate 40 million orchids that only bloom for one day a year.
00:11:59Only then will a vanilla bean or pod grow.
00:12:03Inside are the seeds and oils used in popular desserts.
00:12:07But Madagascar is still one of the poorest countries in the world.
00:12:13Volatility of the vanilla prices, this bust and boom, creates such a toxic environment there.
00:12:22Farmers can earn more when the price of vanilla is high.
00:12:25But rampant inflation often follows.
00:12:28And the big bucks attract thieves, who attack farmers and steal crops.
00:12:33Today, farmers arm themselves to defend their vanilla.
00:12:48Farmers can plunge into extreme poverty when prices are low.
00:12:54The government has tried to stabilize the price, but it's backfired.
00:12:58And now global customers are turning to other countries for cheaper vanilla.
00:13:04As locals fight to protect Madagascar's green gold,
00:13:07they worry how much more they, the land, and this crop can take.
00:13:11Raza Finsalama grew up on a vanilla farm.
00:13:18And seven years ago, he bought this hectare of land for himself.
00:13:24Vanilla is an orchid that grows on a vine.
00:13:26And it grows best in this rainforest environment, where there's plenty of rain and sunlight.
00:13:29Raza Finsalama grew up on a vanilla farm.
00:13:31And seven years ago, he bought this hectare of land for himself.
00:13:36Vanilla is an orchid that grows on a vine.
00:13:39And it grows best in this rainforest environment, where there's plenty of rain and sunlight.
00:13:54But vanilla isn't native to Madagascar.
00:13:58It's actually from 10,000 miles away, in Central and South America.
00:14:03Indigenous groups like the Totonacs, and later the Aztecs,
00:14:06cultivated native vanilla for centuries, thanks to this insect.
00:14:11Orchid bees are needed to pollinate a vanilla's flower,
00:14:14allowing a fruit, or that pod, to grow.
00:14:17After HernƔn CortƩs conquered the Aztecs, he brought vanilla back to Spain in the 1520s.
00:14:24It became popular across Europe, in desserts like ice cream, crĆØme brĆ»lĆ©e, and sweetmeats,
00:14:30which Queen Elizabeth I loved.
00:14:32Except the Spanish still controlled the trade.
00:14:35So, hoping to get in on the market, other European countries tried cultivating vanilla on their own.
00:14:41But, they didn't have that bee.
00:14:44So, their vanilla vines wouldn't produce any fruit.
00:14:47Then in 1841, on the French-controlled island of Reunion, a 12-year-old boy figured out an answer.
00:14:53Edmund Albius discovered that the orchid could pollinate itself,
00:14:57if he moved aside the membrane separating the male and female parts.
00:15:01Albius was born into slavery, but even after he was freed in 1848,
00:15:05he never made money off his discovery, and died in poverty 32 years later.
00:15:11France took Albius' work and started growing vanilla on the French-ruled island right next door, Madagascar.
00:15:18It thrived here because the growing conditions were perfect.
00:15:21Today, in towns like Razafin Salamas, almost everyone works in the vanilla industry.
00:15:27And they still hand-pollinate every orchid, just like Albius did nearly 200 years ago.
00:15:33Each flower blooms for just one day, a year.
00:15:37Raza Fintzalama works alone and can pollinate up to 500 orchids a day.
00:16:07It takes about nine months for a pod to grow.
00:16:12The price of this vanilla bean has skyrocketed in recent years due to rising demand and the
00:16:16destruction of crops by cyclones.
00:16:19In 2018, vanilla hit a high of nearly $600 per kilo, more than the value of silver.
00:16:27It's since dropped to $250 a kilo, but that's still a lot.
00:16:31And those prices are really attractive to thieves.
00:16:36So many farmers in the region are arming themselves and patrolling their fields at night, when
00:16:52thieves usually strike.
00:16:57He stole 20 kilograms of farmer Berlin Ranere's harvest, leaving his vines bare.
00:17:04In 2018, officials estimated 10 percent of the year's harvest was lost to theft.
00:17:11In 2018, officials estimated 10 percent of the year's harvest was lost to theft.
00:17:18He often sleeps out here overnight.
00:17:25He often sleeps out here overnight.
00:17:32He often sleeps out here overnight.
00:17:39And because farmers only get one vanilla harvest annually.
00:17:46And because farmers only get one vanilla harvest annually.
00:17:59Some of the thieves are actually children, driven to steal because of poverty.
00:18:16They were held in overcrowded and unhygienic prisons in the northeast of the country for
00:18:21years without trial.
00:18:22Farmers have started branding their vanilla beans with identifying codes, making the crops
00:18:30easier to track if they do get stolen.
00:18:33Another protective measure?
00:18:34Some farmers pick their beans before they're completely ripe, to beat thieves to harvest.
00:18:39And so the quality goes down a lot.
00:18:42This year, Razafin Salama was able to wait until his beans were completely mature.
00:18:52Farmers have to move quickly, because the pods start fermenting immediately once they're
00:18:56picked.
00:18:57They pack the vanilla pods in 40-pound bags.
00:19:01And haul the loads for miles along dirt roads to the market.
00:19:26Additionally, middlemen, called commissionaires, bought these beans in their raw green state.
00:19:31And they held a lot of negotiating power over the farmers, since the beans boiled quickly.
00:19:37The middlemen are definitely making a lot more money.
00:19:40They can kind of tell people whatever price they want.
00:19:44So some years, farmers walk away happy.
00:19:47In other years, they can barely make ends meet.
00:19:50I have heard farmers say things like, you have to have courage to plant vanilla because
00:19:55it may not be worth it at the end.
00:19:57You may not get anything.
00:19:58Nowadays, Razafin Salama sells his pods directly to a cooperative called Saha Nala.
00:20:11Saha Nala representatives check the bean quality and the brand on the bean.
00:20:15And pay the farmers directly in cash, cutting out the middleman and promising a consistent price.
00:20:21Today, Razafin Salama earns about $17 for a kilo of raw green vanilla.
00:20:36Saha Nala takes the beans to one of its processing facilities, employing thousands of workers across Madagascar.
00:20:42But even these large operations still have to protect against thieves.
00:21:01The facility has electric fences, surveillance cameras, and private security patrolling at night.
00:21:06But it'll still be another three months of painstaking work before the vanilla is export ready.
00:21:27First, workers have to sort the beans by quality and size.
00:21:36Next, they wash each bean to remove any impurities.
00:21:42Then the beans get dunked in hot water to release the compound vanillin.
00:21:52That's what creates the distinct vanilla flavor.
00:21:57The beans need less than a minute, depending on how ripe they are.
00:22:13They have to run the bean baskets so they don't lose the heat from cooking.
00:22:36Workers move the cooked beans to boxes where they'll sit for 48 hours.
00:22:42When they take the beans out, they'll be brown.
00:22:45When they take the beans out, they'll be brown.
00:22:46When they take the beans out, they'll be brown.
00:22:52There, the beans will stay for 15 to 30 days, depending on the moisture,
00:23:22the moisture, the moisture, the moisture inside.
00:23:52In the packaging room, they massage the beans to release the oils and the vanilla fragrance.
00:24:13Careful not to damage the beans, they group the pods in bunches.
00:24:16Then they check that there are no stray metals, like nails, hidden inside.
00:24:23Workers then weigh the boxes and package them for shipping.
00:24:29Saha Nala's vanilla beans end up with American-based food processor Archer Daniels Midland.
00:24:44Exporters like Saha Nala earn the biggest bucks.
00:24:59This cooperative has a turnover of $40 million annually.
00:25:02That's because cured beans are worth a lot more.
00:25:05Today, Saha Nala earns $250 per kilo for its cured vanilla, a 1,300% increase from what farmer Razafin Salama made selling his raw beans.
00:25:16The bigger problem is the volatility of the price.
00:25:30In those low-price years, farmers live in extreme poverty.
00:25:34Like 81% of the country, many earn just $2 a day.
00:25:46So many farmers grow other crops, like vegetables and peanuts, to supplement their incomes.
00:25:50During years of high prices, farmers, middlemen and exporters would make more.
00:26:09But this also drives up inflation, making everything more expensive.
00:26:13In the ideal world, vanilla would consistently get a good price.
00:26:20To balance out the ever-changing price, in 2020, Madagascar's government introduced a minimum-based price.
00:26:26Today, it's set at $250 a kilo for the exporter.
00:26:30They want to protect against this crazy up and down, right?
00:26:34But it hasn't gone to plan.
00:26:36Unfortunately, it appears that most people are not going along.
00:26:42with paying that minimum price.
00:26:46Global companies are turning to other countries that sell at cheaper prices.
00:26:50Or they're buying synthetic vanilla.
00:26:53A lot of this depends so much on the government of Madagascar
00:26:58and whether they will change tactics and go back to allowing their price to more accurately reflect the global price.
00:27:10Farmers are betting on cooperatives like Sahanala to alleviate the need the government can't fill.
00:27:15Sahanala can guarantee that its farmers make $17 a kilo, at least $2,600 a year.
00:27:23But as they face theft, an unreliable government, and shifting demand, farmers at the center of the industry are unsure of what's next.
00:27:40The demand for vanilla is continuously increasing.
00:27:44And so if Madagascar could find some stability, and if these farmers could find some stability,
00:27:51that there's no reason for the outlook to not be really, really good for vanilla in Madagascar.
00:27:57The undisputed star of this holiday meal is the Thanksgiving turkey.
00:28:02Here's how one farm takes it from pasture to plate.
00:28:07This is Hell Week at Gunthorpe Farms in Indiana.
00:28:11They'll harvest a thousand turkeys in three days.
00:28:14It's a fraction of the estimated 40 million birds that will be slaughtered across the U.S. for just one meal, Thanksgiving.
00:28:22Americans love cheap turkey.
00:28:25But not all turkeys are created equal.
00:28:28So we went to Indiana to understand the true cost of Thanksgiving turkeys.
00:28:36Greg's family has been raising animals this way for four generations.
00:28:41Yeah, they get rained on. Occasionally they even get snowed on.
00:28:44But they get to live the life of a turkey.
00:28:47They're raised on grain that's not genetically modified.
00:28:50And Greg never gives them antibiotics.
00:28:53The typical turkey is raised in a barn with several other thousand turkeys.
00:29:00Ours, you know, get to go out, scratch in the ground, chase after some bugs,
00:29:04get to actually see the sun, breathe fresh air their whole life.
00:29:11Catching this many birds the week before Thanksgiving takes teamwork and patience.
00:29:16Turkeys start out as a not very intelligent bird, but they got a lot going on when they get to this age.
00:29:22They got a personality.
00:29:26The next stop is the processing plant, where they'll spend the night.
00:29:33But we'll catch up with them later, after Greg gives us a tour of the farm.
00:29:36The animals that we consume ought to eat their green leafy vegetables.
00:29:41They ought to get some exercise and they ought to get some sunlight.
00:29:45There's a handful of other farms that are raising pastured turkeys.
00:29:49But it's a really, really small percentage of the marketplace.
00:29:52All kinds of farms in America have been decreasing for decades.
00:29:58At the same time, the farms that have survived have gotten bigger and bigger.
00:30:03Greg's turkeys cost up to three times as much as mass-produced turkeys in the supermarket.
00:30:09The intensive work it takes to raise his birds means they'll sell for up to $6 a pound.
00:30:14Our biggest cost is that we just have more labor in taking care of birds.
00:30:21Let's get back to those turkeys we left at the processing plant.
00:30:25It takes about 10 people working three long days to kill and package all of these birds in time for Thanksgiving.
00:30:32Workers hang the birds upside down by their feet and make sure the turkeys won't feel what comes next.
00:30:39We stunt our turkeys with electricity.
00:30:43I think it's a really good and humane way to slaughter turkeys at a small scale.
00:30:50Greg's processing plant is audited and certified annually to prove his poultry is humanely raised and slaughtered.
00:30:57Next, Greg tosses the dead turkeys into the plucker, a machine that spins the birds to remove their feathers.
00:31:04Then, workers remove their organs.
00:31:06At the end of the line, Greg's son Evan dumps them into ice baths.
00:31:11We want them to chill as rapid as possible.
00:31:13These all have to last them all the way into Thanksgiving.
00:31:16So the quicker that we can get them to chill, the better the shelf life is going to be on them.
00:31:21But keeping the business going just keeps getting tougher.
00:31:25Over the past few years, turkey has grown to be about 15% of Greg's business.
00:31:30That's because for the first time in two decades, the farm is missing what used to be its biggest seller.
00:31:37This was our pastured chicken operation last year.
00:31:42It was about 250 chickens in each one of those.
00:31:45We'd have 20,000 to 30,000 chickens on the farm at any time and would process about 3,000 of them a week.
00:31:51These now empty fields used to bring in half of the farm's revenue.
00:31:56But in 2020, Greg abandoned his chicken business.
00:32:00An awful lot of our business was focused on raising pastured chicken for 20 years.
00:32:05It was probably the most difficult business decision that I've ever made.
00:32:08His chickens cost nearly twice as much as the cheap poultry that American consumers have come to expect.
00:32:16Wholesale buyers picked cheaper, mass-produced chickens over his.
00:32:20I'm extremely worried that the turkey's is going to go the same route as chicken.
00:32:27Last Thanksgiving, Greg lost a longtime retail turkey buyer.
00:32:31He says the order was canceled at the last minute.
00:32:34If you lose a big wholesale buyer, it can be devastating on a business like ours.
00:32:40Greg had to put hundreds of unsold Thanksgiving turkeys in the freezer.
00:32:45He later cut them up to sell his parts instead, but it wasn't as profitable.
00:32:50We get dropped on a regular basis by wholesalers and it's almost exclusively overpriced.
00:32:58In some cases we're able to differentiate our birds and in some cases we're just not.
00:33:04Greg should have an advantage with customers who care about where their meat comes from.
00:33:09But corporate marketers are doing their best to tap into those consumers, even if it's just about creative labeling.
00:33:15For example, these three turkeys look like they're from different brands, right?
00:33:20Well, Honeysuckle White, Shady Brook Farms, and Honest Turkey are all Cargill brands.
00:33:26That's a food conglomerate that is one of the 10 largest private companies in the world.
00:33:30At the end of the day, there's really this illusion of choice in the grocery store.
00:33:35We see a lot of deceptive marketing claims being made by these big companies.
00:33:39Advocacy groups filed a deceptive advertising complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Cargill in 2020.
00:33:46Cargill told Insider it believes the claim lacks merit and that its turkey production is in line with USDA standards.
00:33:52The FTC said it can't disclose the status of the complaint.
00:33:57Cargill says their turkeys are raised by independent family farmers.
00:34:01This is how it works.
00:34:02Large companies like Cargill or Purdue Farms will often contract smaller farms to produce their chicken and turkey.
00:34:09But some small farmers say they lost their independence once they were contracted with companies.
00:34:13Craig Watts was one of them.
00:34:16He raised chickens on contract for Purdue Farms for more than 20 years.
00:34:20The company owns the birds, the company owns the feed.
00:34:23He says Purdue controlled how many chickens he raised and how he raised them.
00:34:28I definitely would have not had 30,000 birds crammed in a 20,000 square foot facility.
00:34:33In 2012, Craig says he filmed Purdue employees on his farm throwing chicks to the ground and kicking birds.
00:34:41He ended his contract with Purdue in 2016.
00:34:45They give you this image of mom and pa kettle and the pitchfork and the nice white picket fence and the red barn and the pretty white chicken.
00:34:52When in reality, the conditions that these animals are raising are miserable.
00:34:56In a statement to Insider, Purdue said it was not familiar with Craig's videos and that they don't reflect its current practices.
00:35:04The company also said it announced commitments to animal care, including focuses on farmer relationships and transparency.
00:35:11Purdue connected us with a current contract farmer, Stephen Brake.
00:35:15We have a whole lot of control of what we do.
00:35:18We're not sitting here at the mercy of Purdue.
00:35:21Stephen confirmed that Purdue owns the chickens he raises and manages their feed.
00:35:28Back at Gunthorpe Farms, Greg's turkeys are chilled and ready to be bagged.
00:35:34Despite all the extra costs, Greg doesn't want to give up his farming methods, even if it makes it harder for him to stay in the business.
00:35:43In a week, customers will pick up their turkeys from Greg in Chicago or directly from the farm in rural Indiana.
00:35:49And this time around, he plans to sell all of his turkeys.
00:35:54It's very rewarding to know that we're raising turkeys for people that care about how their food is raised, how it's processed, and how it gets to them.
00:36:03Nearly half of U.S. households serve apple pie at Thanksgiving.
00:36:08And there's a newer option in the mix.
00:36:11Here's how scientists in Washington State disrupted the apple industry.
00:36:14Scientists at Washington State University have been on a quest to breed the perfect apple for more than 20 years, and they think they finally got it.
00:36:25The Cosmic Crisp hit the market on December 1st, 2019.
00:36:28It was the largest launch of an apple in American history, coming after a half a billion dollars in investment, ten million dollars in marketing, and two decades of breeding and testing.
00:36:41We take a look at what it took to engineer what's been called the perfect apple, and why some hope it'll save the Washington State apple industry.
00:36:50In the late 90s, Washington State's apple industry was on the brink of collapse.
00:36:58That's because more than 100,000 acres of trees grown were for an apple that was losing its popularity.
00:37:05The red delicious.
00:37:07Once a star of the supermarket, the apple is now criticized for its bland taste and mealy texture.
00:37:12By the end of the decade, farmers lost about $760 million in three years.
00:37:21That's when Bruce Barrett stepped in.
00:37:23I eat an apple every day.
00:37:25And began breeding what would become the Cosmic Crisp.
00:37:28The goal was to have a fruit that was just as beautiful as the red delicious, but also had a sweet taste and a nice crunch.
00:37:35We had all our eggs are in one basket, red delicious.
00:37:40That's not good economics.
00:37:41It's just not good.
00:37:42If we grow more and more of something that people like less and less, that's not a good business model either.
00:37:47Since then, growers have increased production of other varieties, but the red delicious still counts for almost a third of apple tree acreage in the state today.
00:37:57To successfully take its place, the Cosmic Crisp needed to last at least 12 months, about six months longer than the red delicious.
00:38:05That's because the Apple Industries Super Bowl is the fall season, when farmers harvest nearly all the apples consumed through the rest of the year.
00:38:14So the goal is to find an apple that tastes as good in March as it does in October.
00:38:19Which is why Barrett chose the Honey Crisp and the Enterprise as the Cosmic Crisp's parents for their crispness and storage qualities, respectively.
00:38:29But even then, it took thousands of trials and errors.
00:38:32Take a bite.
00:38:38Soft. Terrible.
00:38:4010,000 seeds.
00:38:41And those seeds grew into trees, and we looked through 10,000 of them, and a couple showed promise.
00:38:47And the one that showed the most promise was Cosmic Crisp.
00:38:50In the first few years of breeding, the Cosmic Crisp seeds grew into seedlings.
00:38:56By year four, the seedlings turned into trees and produced their first apple fruits.
00:39:02And by 2008, though the Cosmic Crisp didn't even have a name, it had promising characteristics.
00:39:08The selection that is now named Cosmic Crisp was one of, I think, 10 selections.
00:39:14So that meant that they were just moving into a point where we would get bulk volumes of fruit that would enable us to do some of that really in-depth evaluation of the fruit.
00:39:24In the next 11 years, that in-depth evaluation consisted of tons of tests, evaluating the Cosmic Crisp's size, shape, color, crunchiness, juiciness, and tartness.
00:39:37The WSU team test the ripeness of the apple using iodine to determine the best time to harvest.
00:39:43What it does is that iodine, then it binds to the starch that's in the fruit.
00:39:49As the fruit ripens, that starch turns to sugar.
00:39:54And so when you have stained it with iodine, and it's fully purple or black, that's showing that it's really immature.
00:40:02It's very starchy.
00:40:04The lighter the flesh, the sweeter the apple.
00:40:09Mmm.
00:40:13See that juice, that juice inside makes it, makes it a pleasant thing to eat.
00:40:18I can eat this all day.
00:40:21There you go.
00:40:22That's how you know.
00:40:24But with hundreds of consumer favorites already on the market, how can a new apple stand a chance?
00:40:31It takes a big budget, takes a big industry, and it takes a big product.
00:40:35All those things have to come together.
00:40:37The Cosmic Crisp has it all.
00:40:39Named for its galactic-looking skin, experts expect the apple to take over the industry.
00:40:45By the end of 2019, Washington farmers had grown 12,000 acres of Cosmic Crisp trees.
00:40:52Which falls in the middle of apple production for the state.
00:40:55And to catch up with its competitors, $10.5 million went into just marketing the apple.
00:41:00It even has its own commercial.
00:41:06The variety will only be available to state-based growers for the first 10 years.
00:41:11The growers, they deserve that advantage.
00:41:13They contributed to the research project, and so they have a 10-year head start.
00:41:16The Cosmic Crisp sells for about $3 to $5 a pound as a premium apple variety, which is more than twice the price of standard varieties like the Gala.
00:41:27Still, the apple's creators are confident the Cosmic Crisp is up for the challenge.
00:41:32We want people to really enjoy apples, and we felt to have that happen, we had to give them better apples.
00:41:36We had to rise above Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Macintosh.
00:41:42We had to have an apple that was a much better eating experience.
00:41:45And more than two decades later, it worked.
00:41:48In September of 2020, the Cosmic Crisp won the Good Housekeeping Institute's Healthy Snack of the Year Award.
00:41:58Between mashed potatoes, flaky pie crusts, and dinner rolls,
00:42:01Americans can eat more than a stick of butter per person at a typical Thanksgiving dinner.
00:42:08But not all butter is equal.
00:42:10We visited Brittany, France, to see how some of the best butter in the world is made.
00:42:18In February, we met with Genev Bourdier, son and grandson of butter and cheese makers,
00:42:24who brought back to France the 19th century technique of malaxage, using this big wooden wheel to knead the butter.
00:42:29To Genev Bourdier, the malaxage is a more romantic way to make butter.
00:42:33I am always part of the principle that what was the most important was the emotions.
00:42:40After, we will try to see how we can do with emotions.
00:42:45But if we do a marketing product, it doesn't interest me.
00:42:52It doesn't interest me to produce 10 million tons of butter.
00:42:56It's not my job.
00:42:57I'm a very little man, but I do very little things. That's all.
00:43:01The malaxage is really what makes Bourdier butter unique.
00:43:05These are 50 kilo blocks of butter extracted from milk,
00:43:08and are pretty standard in the butter making industry, even for the most artisanal.
00:43:12But while everyone else will use huge centrifuges to filter out the last remaining drops of buttermilk,
00:43:17butter at the Bourdier workshop is flattened by a wooden wheel and worked by hand by Eric.
00:43:23What we're going to do is show you a complete malaxage.
00:43:30We're going to cut these cubes of butter and transform them.
00:43:35Let's do it.
00:43:37Little by little, the malaxage is going to give butter a new life.
00:43:41Dating back to the late 19th century, this tool was first used to rework different butters.
00:43:48At Bourdier, it also helps keep butter the desired texture.
00:43:54It's the worst time of the year for the malaxage,
00:43:58because the texture of the butter is only the result of what animals eat.
00:44:03In winter, the animals eat the flour, which will give butter blancs, friables, cassants,
00:44:13without great odor.
00:44:16You can see the vis here.
00:44:18It's slightly humid, but it's not yet completely dry.
00:44:24We're on the butter secs.
00:44:25Little by little, the Bourdier makes things more pleasant to work.
00:44:33The wood or the metal are a mechanical gesture.
00:44:39But it's more pleasant, it's more beautiful.
00:44:42It's important that it's beautiful in life.
00:44:45Yes, it's true.
00:44:47It's very hard what he does here.
00:44:50It's very hard what he does here.
00:44:52It's the hardest moment.
00:44:54And now he obtains a remarkable butter, and frankly, it wasn't easy.
00:44:59You're going to just roll it like this.
00:45:01You're going to roll it like this.
00:45:03You're going to let it turn it, and then you're going to break it.
00:45:06It's like no way I've done this.
00:45:09Like this?
00:45:11Like this?
00:45:13Wow, I'm sweaty.
00:45:14Oh man, this is going super fast.
00:45:18Oh man, this is going super fast.
00:45:21Yes, yes.
00:45:23Yes.
00:45:27You're going to put it here.
00:45:29No, you're going to put it here.
00:45:31No, you're going to put it here.
00:45:34Okay.
00:45:36Do it once and then do it.
00:45:39You leave your finger like this.
00:45:41Ah, okay.
00:45:42Do you know if it's smaller?
00:45:43Yes.
00:45:44Yes.
00:45:45Do you see?
00:45:46Yes.
00:45:52When you see him doing that, it almost has like an harmony.
00:45:58It's not easy.
00:46:00Somebody said this is 50 kilos of butter.
00:46:03So try and lift a bit of it.
00:46:06It's going to be like 10 kilos just in one go.
00:46:08How much time do you need to learn how to do this job?
00:46:14Three years.
00:46:15Three years.
00:46:16Yes.
00:46:17You know why?
00:46:18No.
00:46:19Why?
00:46:20Because the rain and the rain are not the same way every year.
00:46:22Every year.
00:46:23And it's the sun and the rain that will give to the plants and the earth a special taste
00:46:28that the cows must love and that the seasons will put in music.
00:46:35The spring, the summer, the autumn, the summer.
00:46:38And that to learn to discover the butter, that it is only the result of the food of animals,
00:46:44it takes three years.
00:46:46Eric then salts the butter using fine salt.
00:46:49This step is crucial to make sure the butter finally rejects all the leftover water it has in it.
00:46:55We are seeing, you see something?
00:46:58The vis is sinking.
00:46:59The water is sinking.
00:47:01The water is sinking.
00:47:02The water is attacking the grass molecules.
00:47:05The grass molecules take the grass as an aggression and reject the water that it has in it.
00:47:12And the water goes.
00:47:13He's sinking.
00:47:14The water is sinking.
00:47:15And we almost lost almost one-litre of water.
00:47:16But, I know, yeah.
00:47:17And then we lose the humidity, I concentrate the clean quality.
00:47:23In the dry water, there's the grass.
00:47:26And in the grass, there's the taste.
00:47:27Oh wow...
00:47:28I can see that it's getting wetter and wetter.
00:47:33It's picking up more water.
00:47:35You hear the sound?
00:47:37According to GenĆØve, they work with old techniques, but they are not trying to recreate an old recipe.
00:48:07It is truly something that you can see here.
00:48:12These are the 19th gestures, with a milk from 2020.
00:48:16This is how to restate and perpetuate the quality of our old, but living in the world of today.
00:48:28So, I'm going to take a small piece.
00:48:30Big one? Oh, no.
00:48:32No, no, like this.
00:48:34It's very salt.
00:48:39It's softer than the butter I've used to.
00:48:4524 heures plus tard, le beurre d'hier.
00:49:01It's much sweeter, this one.
00:49:03The sel doesn't disappear, but its intensity diminue.
00:49:08And, by the way, the taste of the cream is more important.
00:49:12Un bon beurre ne doit jamais ĆŖtre mangĆ© en sortie de barrack ou de malaxeur plateau.
00:49:18Il doit ĆŖtre mangĆ© 3, 4, 5 jours aprĆØs.
00:49:21Parce que les Ʃquilibres, l'harmonie des goƻts se met en place.
00:49:26Les cannelures, les stris que l'on voit dans le beurre, sont la preuve que ce beurre a bien ƩtƩ fabriquƩ chez nous.
00:49:38C'est la reproduction de la vis cannelƩe.
00:49:41Et Ƨa, c'est la preuve irrƩfutable.
00:49:44Parce que vous ĆŖtes le seul Ć l'avoir.
00:49:50Bordier also makes flavored butters, including chili butter, buckwheat butter, vanilla butter and more.
00:49:56Vous faites aussi du beurre avec des arabes ?
00:49:59Oui.
00:50:00Ća a Ć©tĆ© mon premier beurre composĆ© en 1985.
00:50:05C'est un beurre un peu particulier qui est intĆ©ressant parce qu'il est Ć la fois trĆØs colorĆ© et en mĆŖme temps extrĆŖmement parfumĆ©.
00:50:17Je vous laisse le goƻter.
00:50:18Vous fermez les yeux.
00:50:19Fermez les yeux.
00:50:20VoilĆ .
00:50:21Fermez les yeux.
00:50:23Vous n'avez pas de problĆØme.
00:50:25Fermez les yeux.
00:50:27Ća va ?
00:50:28Vous n'avez pas les pieds mouillƩs.
00:50:30Parce que Ƨa arrive souvent avec le beurre aux algues qu'on ait les pieds mouillƩs.
00:50:33Ća va ?
00:50:35Oui.
00:50:36C'est trĆØs frais.
00:50:37C'est trĆØs frais.
00:50:38Et...
00:50:39Oui.
00:50:40Il taste comme du beurre.
00:50:42Mais il n'est pas de peau.
00:50:43Il est bon et du beurre.
00:50:45Il vous rappelle vraiment de la pluie.
00:50:48L'eau.
00:50:49Quand vous vous ĆŖtes lĆ , Ć la plage, vous pouvez le rire.
00:50:51Attention !
00:50:52Oula !
00:50:53Il y a des mouettes.
00:50:54Ah, ok.
00:50:57Oui, c'est comme...
00:50:59Je suis catapultƩ dans la photo.
00:51:03C'est une odeur qui...
00:51:06C'est marvellous.
00:51:07Oui, c'est marvellous.
00:51:08C'est vraiment incroyable.
00:51:10Et donc, c'est votre signature de la Britannique.
00:51:14Parce que vous ĆŖtes de cette rĆ©gion.
00:51:16C'est les rares de ma identitƩ.
00:51:19Ća, c'est une vraie identitĆ©.
00:51:21Comme le beurre aux sarrasins.
00:51:23Il faut que ce soit comme Ƨa.
00:51:25Et puis si je vais au Japon, c'est comme Ƨa que j'ai dƩcouvert le yuzu.
00:51:28Si je vais ailleurs, je ne sais pas.
00:51:30Peut-ĆŖtre qu'un jour, si je vais sur Mars, je ferai un beurre tout vert.
00:51:34Je ne sais pas.
00:51:35Ah, non.
00:51:36Je voudrais que Ƨa, alors.
00:51:38Ah, non.
00:51:39Ah, non.
00:51:40Ah, non.
00:51:41Ah, non.
00:51:42Ah, non.
00:51:43Ah, non.
00:51:44Ah, non.
00:51:45Ah, non.
00:51:46Ah, non.
00:51:47Ah, non.
00:51:48Ah, non.
00:51:49Ah, non.
00:51:50Ah, non.
00:51:51Il Ć©tait trĆØs important qu'au moment de faire les modĆØles, nous n'ayons pas de machine
00:51:59qui soit violente, mais qui soit trĆØs douce.
00:52:02Or, ce petit poussoir, les modes de beurre qui viennent d'ĆŖtre faites vont dans le poussoir
00:52:08et tout simplement par un effet de vƩrin sont poussƩs ici.
00:52:13Et grĆ¢ce Ć cet appareil qui date du 19ĆØme, par l'Ć©cartement de chaque corde de guitare,
00:52:20nous avons le grammage dƩsirƩ.
00:52:22Il y a toujours de l'eau.
00:52:23Il y a toujours de l'eau.
00:52:24Oui.
00:52:25Donc, Ƨa veut dire qu'il y a toujours de l'eau qui vient de l'eau.
00:52:28Dans la mƩthode traditionnelle, il y a toujours de l'eau.
00:52:31Nous ne rajoutons pas d'eau.
00:52:33Au contraire, on en enlĆØve.
00:52:35Cette machine, est-ce que vous ĆŖtes le seul Ć l'avoir ?
00:52:39Ah oui.
00:52:40Alors lĆ , pour le coup, oui.
00:52:42Et on l'a encore utilisĆ©e, cette machine-lĆ , il y a 250 ans.
00:52:46Vous voulez que je vous montre oĆ¹ ?
00:52:48Pendant la RƩvolution franƧaise ?
00:52:51On appelle Ƨa une Marie-Antoinette.
00:52:54Je vais vous interprĆ©ter une Åuvre du 18ĆØme pour harpe et beurre.
00:53:12C'est la mĆŖme chose.
00:53:13J'ai pas de poids.
00:53:14Je vais vous montrer, je vais vous montrer.
00:53:15Oh non !
00:53:16Il y a des poids.
00:53:17Il y a pas de poids.
00:53:18On appelle Ƨa.
00:53:19Oh non !
00:53:20On appelle Ƨa.
00:53:21Il y a des poids de poids.
00:53:22Il y a des poids de poids.
00:53:23We have about 40 kilos of bread.
00:53:34The only thing that is left is shaping.
00:53:36And just like the rest, it is all done by hand.
00:53:39Each shape and size is custom.
00:53:41Some chefs may order these bite-sized shapes.
00:53:44Others may just buy the whole stock and cut it themselves.
00:53:47These are unique models.
00:53:49There are no machines here.
00:53:51We are human beings.
00:53:53You see, with the little spoon.
00:53:55It's extremely rare.
00:53:56He is all alone to do it.
00:53:58And here, you see, these models are different.
00:54:00There are different sizes.
00:54:01This looks like a construction that we have in Italy in my region.
00:54:06You're right?
00:54:07Yes.
00:54:08Do you know Alberto Bello?
00:54:09Yes.
00:54:11Is there a difference between the objects they use?
00:54:16There may be, yes.
00:54:18I'll stop.
00:54:19I'll stop.
00:54:20You're right.
00:54:21You have the part striated and the part lisse.
00:54:24There, it's small.
00:54:25There, it's small.
00:54:26There, it's small.
00:54:27And every time, the hand of the man or the woman will work like this.
00:54:33Like this.
00:54:34Like this.
00:54:35It depends.
00:54:36Okay.
00:54:37It's a job.
00:54:41Is there a particular reason for which you have this very small shape?
00:54:47First of all, because if we took a piece...
00:54:51If we took a piece...
00:54:53Let's go.
00:54:57In fact, there are cracks everywhere,
00:54:59so that there are no more.
00:55:01It's the quality of the texture and the visual, the aesthetic.
00:55:08But we have done a lot of research.
00:55:10We are scientists from the tapet of beer.
00:55:17So, currently, the match is between Lucienne, the embobineuse,
00:55:20and Fred, the masticer.
00:55:26There's something in this bathroom.
00:55:31My grandfather had done the same job before.
00:55:38And I always wanted to say that this job was difficult, complicated.
00:55:44But I have a mistake.
00:55:46I always do the opposite of what we say.
00:55:49And so I can understand.
00:55:51And in fact, I became in love.
00:55:53Today, maybe 2% of the beer production is made in barattes.
00:56:00And all the rest is made with the butyrateurs,
00:56:03with the cannons at bord.
00:56:06It's important to nourish the most.
00:56:08It's very important.
00:56:10But I think that, you know,
00:56:12if we were in the place where we are,
00:56:17we would replace all our collaborators,
00:56:20all our companions,
00:56:21by machines,
00:56:22we would go a lot faster.
00:56:25We would certainly gain a lot more money.
00:56:27But it would never happen here.
00:56:32If I made this job,
00:56:34it would also happen something.
00:56:36If there's nothing more,
00:56:37it wouldn't interest me.
00:56:40Amen.
00:56:41Amen.
00:56:44If poultry isn't for you,
00:56:46you can always substitute a showstopper turkey made of cake.
00:56:51Sarah Hardy makes incredible, realistic cakes and chocolates
00:56:54completely by hand.
00:56:58From realistic chocolate fossils to severed head cakes,
00:57:01her work is often creepy and incredibly lifelike.
00:57:12Her turkey cake is made from four layers of sponge,
00:57:15covered with a bright pink buttercream icing.
00:57:18This icing helps give the bird its realistic pink skin tone.
00:57:22So how do you get into making these shocking cakes?
00:57:26I was an artist and I went to art school
00:57:29and one of the ways that I paid my way through my exhibiting years
00:57:32was to make waxwork figures for museums.
00:57:35And we travelled around and made displays of battle scenes.
00:57:40And I mean, a lot of the work that I was doing was travelling.
00:57:43It was also using chemicals that I didn't want to use when I was pregnant.
00:57:45So I stopped.
00:57:47It did go a bit bonkers because I stopped working.
00:57:50And then once I had kids and they grew up a little bit,
00:57:52I could start making them cakes and that's,
00:57:54I couldn't help but start making sculpted cakes for them.
00:57:58So that's where it started.
00:57:59And then it just got slightly weirder and weirder.
00:58:07You know, we all know what cake is.
00:58:09Why not change it and just have a bit more of a laugh?
00:58:11When you're buying a chocolate or a cake, you tend to be giving it to someone as a present.
00:58:17So it's someone you want to give them an experience, not just a taste experience.
00:58:21You can give them the experience of surprise and a little bit of joy as well.
00:58:26But most of the ideas are just things that I love.
00:58:31So I'm interested in natural history, internal organs, historical artefacts.
00:58:36And if I like it and I think it's cool, I'll make it edible.
00:58:44The process of making one of these intricate cakes can take days and would cost over $600 to order.
00:58:53Most of my work is highly realistic, so it looks like something else.
00:58:57And the idea is that there's a moment where you're not quite sure.
00:59:01I just wanted to shock people whilst giving them pleasure because, I mean, a cake is always going to taste nice.
00:59:06But it's always good to give them a question what they're looking at.
00:59:13Once the cake is fully shaped and coated in icing, small dots of marzipan are placed all over.
00:59:18When the final layer is added, these give the impression of plucked skin.
00:59:24The final layer is a thin sheet of marzipan.
00:59:29It's draped over the cake and then worked carefully to add fine details.
00:59:35Once it's all in place, the finishing touches are ready to be added.
00:59:40String is tied around the legs and the details are painted on in food dye.
00:59:47A syrup glaze is even used to baste the turkey and give it that shiny appearance.
00:59:53And once all that's finished, it's ready to serve.
00:59:59Sarah sells a range of her amazing chocolate work through her website.
01:00:03And if you want to make your own turkey cake, there's even a tutorial available on the site too.
01:00:07For more information on the site, visit www.fema.gov.au
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