TAMAQUA, Pa. — It's the busiest time of the year for Koch's Turkey Farm near Tamaqua as the company gears up for Thanksgiving.
With many people having smaller gatherings because of the pandemic, the demand for the size of turkeys is different this year.
"What we really did, I think, was cater more to make sure that we produced enough small-sized, so that the assumption that more families will have smaller gatherings, we can serve that function," said Brock Stein, the president of Koch's Turkey Farm.
Koch's is still producing their normal-size range birds.
Koch's usually sells 400,000 turkeys every Thanksgiving, and this year with the pandemic, the wholesaler doesn't believe that number will change much.
"I think we're expecting at least the same, if not some increase. Just because, again, if people tend to overbuy to have those leftovers, were dealing with more families buying individual birds, so I think that, yes, I think we'll see a decrease in the average weight per bird, but we'll see more units sell," said Stein.
While this year's Thanksgiving may not have all the fixings, and at times be hard to swallow, Koch's believes we can all adapt.
"I think this is our 81st or 82nd Thanksgiving as a company, and we've never dealt with something like this, so we're trying to sort of just keep the tradition alive of Thanksgiving, but enjoy it in a social distance, COVID-friendly manner," said Stein.
Most of Koch's distribution is done outside of the region. However, its retail store is coming back again this year, with a limited offering.
The store on the farm will open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, starting November 19 and running till November 24.