100 years of Bates Turkey, an Alabama tradition
The Bates business is a family affair. Pictured here are Becky Sloane (center), her daughter Michelle Sloane (right) and Michelle’s daughter (Becky’s granddaughter, left), Helen Grace Sloane, in front of Bates’ holiday pop-up shop next to the Montgomery location of Bates House of Turkey. (Jennifer Kornegay / Alabama News Center)
Whether you prefer it roasted, smoked or fried, no food is more tied to the Thanksgiving celebration than the centerpiece of the special day’s feast – the turkey. And in Alabama, one family-owned and -run business has cornered the market on turkey tradition. Bates Turkey Farm right outside Fort Deposit, Alabama, has been raising turkeys for 100 years. In 1923, current owner Becky Bates Sloane’s grandparents, W.C. and Helen Bates, got nine turkey eggs as a wedding present. From that humble gift, a century of success was hatched.
“It was right before the Depression, and you had to make ends meet the best you could. They lived in the country and were fortunate enough to have land and a little farm,” Sloane said. The fledgling couple raised those first turkeys, figuring out how to do it on the fly. One lesson quickly learned was happier turkeys are better-tasting turkeys, so long before “free-range” and “all natural” became buzz words in the food industry, Bates birds have roamed outside.
“There were pecan orchards on the land, and they realized that the turkeys could gather under the pecan trees and stay cool,” Sloane said. “That’s important, because it’s hot down here and when they’re overheated, turkeys don’t eat.”
Her dad theorized that it was more than shade from the leaves at work. “He said the trees’ dome-shaped canopy created a convection-like breeze underneath it.”
Another advantage to free-range fowl is the birds are less susceptible to diseases than those crowded together in a structure. “That means we don’t have to medicate them, but we do have to watch out for predators, like owls and racoons,” she said. “We’ll never do it any other way.”
Even with the occasional varmint attack, Bates is turning out a lot of the big birds. In a year, the farm raises, processes, smokes and makes products from approximately 50,000 turkeys. Many of them end up in the second arm of the Bates family business, Bates House of Turkey restaurant in Greenville, where diners gobble up smoked turkey sandwiches plus roast turkey plates with all the traditional Thanksgiving trimmings, including dressing and cranberry sauce, any day of the year.
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The eatery sits right off I-65, and proximity to the interstate was by design. “Our farm fronts Highway 31, and for years, we used to sell our turkey to folks traveling up and down that highway,” Sloane said. “When the interstate took that traffic, dad knew he’d lose that business.” So, he followed the cars and opened the Bates House of Turkey in 1970.
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Today, the kitchen goes through 30 turkeys on a regular day (not counting the turkey people buy to take home), and on a busy day, like a Sunday in summer, the restaurant hosts up to 1,000 diners. A Montgomery outpost of the restaurant opened in spring 2023.
This time of year, business is booming at both spots as well as at the farm; Bates Turkey sells an average of 20,000 whole turkeys and turkey breasts during the holidays alone, keeping the team running around like, well, turkeys with their heads cut off.
Even those not eaten are exemplary. Alabama’s governor has annually pardoned two turkeys prior to Thanksgiving since 1949, and the lucky birds have always come from Bates. This year, Puddin’ and Giblet avoided the axe.
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The Bates business is still a family affair, with nine in the Bates bloodline (all the way down to the fourth generation) playing some role in the farm or restaurants or both. And while she’s been involved in some way since birth, Sloane never tires of turkey. “I probably eat some every day, and I still love it,” she said.
But there’s something Sloane enjoys more than the meat.
“My dad’s goal was to see turkey served year-round because when he started, it was mainly only for holiday meals. I think we have helped him hit that goal. I know we have at the restaurants; except for the week of Thanksgiving, they’re busiest in the summer,” she said. “My work is continuing my parents’ hard work and their legacy, and I believe they would be proud.”
