Talkin’ turkey: 75 years of Raymond’s homemade goodness

Family lore says it started with a dozen or so turkeys gifted to an entrepreneurial nurse by her grateful patient in 1950. Today, it’s 125 toms and 850 hens that will produce somewhere between 15,000 and 17,000 turkeys. Many of those, along with mashed potatoes — 8,000 pounds— squash, turnips, cranberry sauce and too many gallons of gravy to be counted, will be scooped up by loyal customers in November as Raymond’s Turkey Farm is a local holiday destination in Methuen for 75 years.

The farm has adapted and thrived through generations. Jim Rischer, who led it through its second generation, remains strongly involved, but today, the three children he raised with his beloved late wife Patt are the face and muscle behind the day-to-day operation that brings turkeys and all the fixings on a Thanksgiving table to their customers all year long.

They laugh that they’ve never been apart for more than 15 minutes, but a weekday visit on a spring day to the farm has them spinning in their orbits – Jamie Rischer in the barn, and Vickie Rischer and Kim Ellis in the kitchen and storefront. They finish each other’s stories and argue playfully, but are serious on one topic: They wouldn’t be anywhere else but growing the family farm and upholding the vision and commitment of their family.

There’s a lot of muscle, knowledge, planning and patience going into keeping a small family farm alive and thriving, and all three siblings agree it’s the customers and their relationships that keep them going. This business started long before any of them were born. Today, in their hands, it’s about living up to the reputation, sure, but it’s the food on the tables of their customers that counts for them.

“It’s egg to plate,” said Jamie, and Vickie and Kim agree, with everything from scratch and fresh.

Thanksgiving is their big season, of course, but the Thanksgiving Day staples are always available, especially the turkey pies.
“All except for green bean casserole,” says Kim, “even though it’s been requested, it’s the only thing you won’t find!”

It is a working farm, and even though most of those turkeys are incubating now, the work is daily.

“Everything is homemade, nothing is from a mix, not the gravy, not the ingredients for the dough,” said Vickie.

The work is physically challenging and taxing, but you won’t hear a complaint. The sisters admit it’s a challenge, but shrug that it’s just part of the job, and they and their small staff take it in stride.

Kim, who loved growing up as part of the farm, has been helping for as long as she can remember.

“I pushed a cart as soon as I could reach,” she laughs. “It’s a lifestyle, it really is just part of your life. I’ve been in this my whole life; I’d gone other directions for a year or so, but here I am.”

Jamie agrees, “There are challenges, don’t get me wrong. I love what I do.”

All three siblings cite a deep satisfaction in the work, even though it’s hard work. Jamie oversees biosecurity efforts and keeps turkeys safe from predators. Vickie and Kim, who build the rest of the meal, say they are never far from the farm, even mentally.

“I’m always thinking of new ideas, what can we do tomorrow,” said Vickie, who admits it’s hard to shut down and relax in a 365-day-a-year endeavor.

The business has evolved through the years and generations, and today’s model reflects on the quality and safety of the product. In a time where much of the food supply is mass-produced and industrial, the family is whole-heartedly behind it. Their customers agree, as they stream in regularly all year, and line up out the door in the holiday season.

To those who have grown up on Raymond’s Turkey Farm turkeys, especially around the holidays, there is a deep loyalty.

“We have a customer who grew up here and now lives in Hawaii. They come back every year when visiting family and order,” said Vickie. “A lot of our regular customers are not just local, but people who grew up around here. They come all over the state every year.”

Millennial customers love to post photos online from the early ’90s when the toms were dyed with different shades of food coloring and displayed to celebrate Easter.

With their families, all three live within miles of the Hampstead Street location. The current site wasn’t even the first home of the now-famous turkey farm. The original business was hatched after Claire Rischer had some conversations with a patient healing up his broken arm in Lawrence General. The man was a North Andover turkey farmer and the nurse thought establishing a farm was a great idea to bring family together, said Vickie — who laughs that the details of the story change with each telling — but assures that one thing is certain: Her grandmother, a spitfire and visionary, and her hard-working grandfather, Raymond, a pipe fitter who was a quiet genius, built something special. Kim and Jamie, the younger siblings by a bit, remember loving their childhood on a family farm, getting off the bus at the farm and raising a bit of a ruckus. Today, they are all business, and their loyal customers are glad of it.