It's time to talk turkey

To buy a more expensive locally raised turkey or a cheaper bird injected with hormones and antibiotics? That may be the question for some cash-strapped consumers this Thanksgiving.

Although price will always be the deciding factor for some, area butchers say they are busy taking orders for local turkeys that can cost in the neighborhood of $4 a pound.

"The demand is there," said Mike Smollon, owner of My Butcher & More butcher shop on Forest Drive in Annapolis, who typically takes 80 percent of his turkey orders the week before Thanksgiving.

But customers have already placed 60 orders for the vegetarian-fed...