Business is booming for Thanksgiving at Fremont's Roots Poultry
The turkey business is evolving, with a wide variety of options being offered by the industry, but Sandusky County residents can go local with Roots Poultry.
Roots Poultry, based in Fremont, is known regionally for its shredded chicken, but it also has a retail store, food trucks and a booming Thanksgiving retail turkey business.
"We do a lot of turkeys for Thanksgiving, so November definitely gets pretty busy for us, said Annette Reed. "We bring in a lot of frozen turkeys, for area factories and businesses who are giving them away to their employees, and we do two different brands of fresh turkeys that we sell out of our retail store, for our retail customers.
"With our fresh turkeys, we definitely sell hundreds, but when you get into all of the frozen turkeys, we're definitely in the thousands," she said.
Reed is a Roots Poultry family member. She has worked on the farm for more than 20 years and has had a variety of jobs in the family business.
"I do a lot of things," she said, but she's currently the production manager, handling most of the company's food-related certifications and government requirements.
Matt Damschroder is the fourth-generation owner of the Fremont-based family business. During an interview with the News-Messenger, he was weighing turkeys in the Roots Poultry warehouse as the company prepared for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is Roots' biggest event of the year.
Roots Poultry takes orders for turkeys
When the turkeys arrive at the Fremont facility at 3721 W. State St., they first get sized.
"We individually size them, so I know how many 14-pound turkeys, 13-pound turkeys, and 12-pound turkeys I have. Then once I know how many of each size I have, I will start tagging them for the individual orders, because we've got a whole peg board for different orders for different individuals that have called in and requested a certain size turkey and certain brand," Damschroder said.
Roots has two different fresh turkeys, representing an evolving market: Troyer Foods, from Goshen, Indiana, and Bowman and Landes, from New Carlisle, Ohio.
"Bowman Landes is an all-natural, free-range turkey. It's another fresh turkey we carry," Damschroder said. "They are more expensive, but they are also more local. They are a good quality turkey that we've been buying for a number of years."
Bowman Landes farms take their environmental green commitment to a level beyond the way they raise the turkeys. They have an energy independence goal, having installed solar arrays generating a total of 350,000 kilowatts, which powers more than 50% of their annual energy needs. The turkey farm website has a link for monitoring the solar arrays.
They also no-till and minimum-till practices with their soil and in waterway maintenance. The turkey manure is used to fertilize their fields.
More than shredded chicken
As Roots Poultry's retail store gears up for Thanksgiving, Reed is regularly called on to help between the production side and the store management because of the wide variety of jobs she's held.
Often called "the face of Roots Poultry," she doesn't remember how young she was when her father first started featuring her in a variety of promotional activities that required a person who was willing to be in front of a camera.
Matt Damschroder bought the business during the pandemic, in 2020.
"My dad was finally ready to retire, so my wife and I bought the family business," Damschroder said. "It's kind of been one of my lifelong dreams. I grew up here and worked here as a kid."
Damschroder brings some outside experience to the business. He was elected as a county commissioner and worked as a full-time firefighter for Fremont.
Damschroder is a hands-on owner.
"Oh yeah, I'm here every day doing something. People think of the typical owner that just sits in an office and doesn't do much, I'm very hands-on in the day-to-day operations that go on here," Damschroder said.
There are several new aspects to the business, including a food truck that they take to special events, and a mobile grocery store.
While the retail store has been a popular part of the operation for many years, it has evolved.
They now also do hot meals, along with the deli counter. The meals include variations on the Roots' wholesale items found at other stores, such as barbecue shredded chicken and barbecue shredded pork sandwiches, and macaroni and cheese.
On a recent weekday, Dustin Gray Dean Davis and Eric Runion took a break from their construction jobs to grab chicken lunches at Roots Poultry. They are fans of the new ready-made hot meals and deli.
"This is their second time coming here, but I've been here many times," Eric Runion said while eating his hot fried chicken.
Between mouthfuls, they all agreed that they will be back and their favorite part about stopping at Roots is that "The food's pretty good."
rlapointe@gannett.com
419-332-2674
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Fremont family business Roots Poultry ready for busy holiday season
