(Left to Right) The Diestel Family: Heidi, Jason, Joan, Tim and Garrett, 2005

The story of the Diestel Turkey is the story of our family. The Diestel name hails from Germany and our family, of both German and Italian descent, immigrated to California to began ranching here over 100 years ago. In the early 1920s my great uncle Ernest Bottini started what has become our family tradition of raising premium quality range grown turkeys on his 400 acre ranch in the Sierra Foothills. Ernest took special care growing each turkey and built a successful trade with many of the famous landmark
San Francisco restaurants, to whom he delivered old-fashioned “ New York dressed” turkeys on his own truck. One of the passengers on some of those trips to the city was my father, Jack Diestel, who as a young man worked on the ranch watching and learning the secrets of range growing turkeys. I would like to share four of
these secrets with you now which will help explain what makes our Diestel Turkey special.

(At Right) Little Timmy Diestel in 1956 as a two-year-old on the family farm with a bronze turkey. Today the bronze turkey is an important part of our American Heirloom Collection of old-fashioned turkeys.

FAMILY SECRET #1 “Walk the flock every day,” Ernest would always say emphasizing an individual way of looking at the birds that has now been refined by years of practice.

FAMILY SECRET #2 Concentrate on the health of the birds. The freedom of the range provides plenty of exercise and fresh air while good husbandry and strict sanitation eliminate the need for artificial substances and techniques.

FAMILY SECRET #3 Don’t rush things. Give the turkey the time to develop flavor naturally. Instead of a high fat, high protein diet, Diestel Turkeys enjoy a wholesome vegetarian diet of grains mixed daily on the ranch, cool clean mountain water and an extra two months of growing time.

FAMILY SECRET #4 Never compromise quality. There are no shortcuts when producing a Diestel Turkey. Our attention to all of the little things reflects the commitment we make to bring the best possible product directly to you.

In 1949, using the knowledge gained, Jack began his own ranch in nearby Sonora , a small town nestled in the Sierra Foothills. It was here that I grew up learning the same techniques and finer points from my dad that he had learned from Ernest like how to read the weather, when to put the turkeys out on the range, how to handle the birds and so on.

And today, together with my wife Joan, we continue the tradition of naturally raising range grown turkeys on the family ranch and work as one of the last small family owned turkey grower- processors in the United States. We firmly believe that our family secrets of range growing with extra time, individual care, and a wholesome diet and environment consistently produce a better, tender and juicy turkey that has real old-fashioned turkey flavor.

Most importantly, we guarantee each Diestel turkey to be raised, processed and delivered by us directly to you. After all, this is our family tradition since 1949.