Diestel Family Ranch - What Real, Responsible, Food Really Looks Like

Ramon Vela (00:02.85)
Welcome back everyone. This is going to be a great show. I have with me today, Heidi Destel, who is a fourth generation turkey farmer from Destel Family Ranch. Welcome to the show.

Heidi Diestel (00:31.287)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:34.21)
Well, I appreciate it. don't, it's not always that I get a, you know, a company, like yours, a brand like yours, a farm, a ranch. There's so many different things I want to talk to you about. Plus a fourth generation. that's, know, typically the companies I feature are five years old, three years old, five years, you know, like 10 years old, maybe at the most every now and then we have a longer, but fourth generation. That's pretty cool. So before we get started,

Heidi Diestel (01:00.481)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:03.674)
I always like to start with a, with my signature question and the reason why I do this just for everyone out there listening is one is I'm a big believer in this question and which is a question of gratitude. I'm just a big believer in gratitude. think it's gonna, it's a free tool that you can use to help alleviate stress and anxiety. And there's a lot of that stuff going on in the world today. but it's also.

It helps to understand who you are, Heidi, and who my other guests are, because it's so easy for consumers and listeners to see a product or a brand online or on the shelf and just think like it's some faceless corporation. They don't realize that there's real people behind these brands. Many of them small businesses who care deeply about the product, who have family businesses, who care about the community and the quality and everything else.

And this question is a great way to get to know who you are, who my guest is. And it kind of brings it to a very human level. So with that in mind, Heidi, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential?

Heidi Diestel (02:23.147)
Yeah, definitely. And also like, what a great question. You know, we're a Turkey company. We, you know, our Super Bowl is Thanksgiving, which is like centered around gratitude. So I'm like, really excited about that. And couldn't agree more. think gratitude is super underrated. Yeah, so you know, this goes back to during the pandemic. I had sat down with a major customer of ours and

Ramon Vela (02:31.171)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (02:52.049)
the kind of the main category lead buyer really wasn't super enthralled with some of our, what we're now referring to as regenerative practices. At the time it was kind of this like pasture raised. We didn't have great terminology for it. Programming and I just felt like it was a program that had so much opportunity and.

really was going to be something that, you know, was going to bring us to the future of food, future of farming. And anyways, I kind of had to sidestep around kind of our main key points of contact and go to, you know, the boss, right. And I asked this individual out for coffee and said, like, could I talk with you? And within like 10 to 15 minutes of kind of describing this vision that we had for this program, you know, this person was like,

Ramon Vela (03:29.976)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (03:43.511)
Yes, like why, you know, why, is this even a question? And you know, at the time when, when you don't have a solidified program, when no one in the industry is doing that type of work, when you don't even have a certification that you can say, Hey, here's third party certification of our practices and what we're doing and why this means what it does. Um, yeah, it was super validating. was like, wow, like you, you can see this.

You know, this person wasn't necessarily connected to our farm in a huge way, right? But it was just very, very, it was almost liberating in a way. Cause I'm like, wow, someone sees us. Like someone sees our efforts. Someone sees our, our initiatives and finds value in that outside of just what I see every day and the value that I think is super important in the way that food is coming to market. So I always think back on that because I am super grateful for.

Ramon Vela (04:15.981)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (04:40.371)
that conversation and just the belief that we had something really special that needed a market, it needed support, it needed a way for us to continue to grow and evolve the messaging and we received that. And it's a huge component of our success and just moving the future of farming forward.

Ramon Vela (04:55.342)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (05:02.58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean it's and thank you for that. It goes to the heart of the question when someone believes in you

sometimes before you're ready or before you are who you are now, you had to start somewhere and along the way you needed at different points, people to believe in you and believe in your vision and believe in what was going on. it's incredibly validating and just, you know, I can see how grateful that how you can be so grateful for that because it's hard, you know, because as a farmer, entrepreneur, whatever, like you're working every day and you're you're grinding every day and you're trying to to to

Heidi Diestel (05:20.351)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (05:39.86)
make this vision a reality and it's just nice to get validated every now and then. You your hard work. So I appreciate that. you know, I don't, like I mentioned before, I don't always get a chance to talk to farmers. I think I mentioned to you, had a, we had another brand on that were dairy farmers. So it's, kind of cool. I don't get to interview people like that all the time. And I'm always fascinated by longevity. I'm fascinated by

Heidi Diestel (05:42.081)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, definitely.

Ramon Vela (06:09.154)
companies and family businesses that have been around for a long time. Give us a little bit of a history around your family farm, your fourth generation. How did it get started? And talk to us about some of the things that the farm has done and some of the challenges that have taken place.

Heidi Diestel (06:28.523)
Definitely. So my great uncle Ernest was farming turkeys in our county back in the 20s, 1920s. And my grandfather learned the tricks of the trade and kind of the farming philosophies. We refer to them as our family secrets from his uncle. And my grandfather formally started the Still Turkey Ranch in 1949. That's where I'm actually speaking.

you know, from today. I'm sitting on the same ranch. And, you know, my grandfather was a contract grower mostly, and then he had de-stole turkeys. De-stole is our last name, his last name, and the local community came out and picked up their holiday turkey from him. Here on the ranch, we had like a little sales room where people could come get their bird.

Ramon Vela (06:59.096)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (07:22.507)
And at the time, you know, it was a very great time to be in turkey farming, right? There were thousands of turkey farmers. This wasn't necessarily a unique or heavily consolidated market, right? And my dad grew up in this business and he grew up, you know, turkey farming and processing at the holidays. And he went to a junior college and, you know, very...

very simple means and ultimately ended up in business economics at UC Davis. He met my mom there who was studying to be a registered dietitian and they got married. And my dad was a CPA and he just always had this tug of the farming side and the fact that over the years of my grandfather's career, the market started to...

Ramon Vela (08:06.915)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (08:16.48)
Consolidate right less and less farmers were farming turkeys But the distal name was just very popular it You know people continued to come out year after year to pick up their bird and my dad had a really simple concept of like Hey, we are doing something different and we are doing something with really good quality We're acknowledging like the birds needs the health and vitality of the bird and how that results in the quality product and eating experience and so, know, what if we took

these turkeys out of our county and took them to San Francisco and butcher shops and, you know, sold our product in, you know, Northern California, right? Like we could have a great business. And that was like basically his, his premise. And my mom being a registered dietitian was like, I think that's great. You know, so she worked at the hospital when they moved back to Sonora, she worked at the hospital and my dad was turkey farming and they had a part-time team member when they first got started. and

Ramon Vela (08:59.416)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (09:15.761)
really what ended up transpiring in their career was this massive awakening of natural and organic food. And so, you I grew up going to butcher shops and then vitamin shops, not necessarily a natural organic grocer like we think of today. And so you'd go to a butcher shop and you wouldn't really talk about the fact that they were, you know, no antibiotics ever or vegetarian fed. You wouldn't really like talk about those things.

Ramon Vela (09:23.662)
Mm-mm.

Ramon Vela (09:30.158)
Thank

Ramon Vela (09:44.493)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (09:44.587)
You would talk about the meat to bone ratio and the quality of the meat and the subdermal fat because we gave the birds time to develop this naturally and be at maturity when they're being harvested. then you'd go to the vitamin shops and most of those owners were vegans and they didn't necessarily want to sell meat, but they understood that for their business they probably needed to. And so you would talk about.

hey, really good animal husbandry practices, right? They cared about the source where the birds, the environment in which the birds were being raised, what they were consuming, not consuming. You you had kind of more of that natural organic spectrum. And so, yeah, the trajectory of the business grew with the natural organic industry. The butcher shops and the vitamin shops called back year after year after year saying, can we get more turkeys? Can we have turkey throughout the year, not just at the holidays? And then the business grew very,

Ramon Vela (10:36.61)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (10:39.031)
much with natural organic food. In 1999 was the first year you could label a certified organic turkey, which is kind of interesting if you think about organic food. Everyone feels like they're purchasing everything organic, but it wasn't until 1999 actually that there was even a solidified program for poultry. So my parents were part of helping to set those standards and provide feedback on what that might look like. And we had one of the first turkeys produced.

produced then and we still produce certified organic products. And yeah, I mean, we just continued to grow very consistently producing ground turkey, deli meats, whole holiday birds. The business has really evolved over the last 75 years. And then my brother, my husband and I all came back, different journeys coming back, but we all came back and we all kind of run the business. It's a...

It's a three-legged stool, if you will. My brother Jason does all of the operations, all of our sustainability initiatives, all of our regenerative initiatives, organic composting programs. My husband is the president of the company. We had to bring in a foreigner, know, family businesses. He had to keep everything mellow. And then I do, you know, sales and marketing. And I'm kind of the front-facing for our customers.

Ramon Vela (11:52.225)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (12:01.784)
Well, I mean, that's quite a story. Let's dive a little bit into some of the details of it because I'm fascinated by it, like I mentioned, and I'm sure this is like you gave a great overview, but I know from just talking to other companies and other farmers, it's difficult to have a farm. I mean, you have your ups and downs, know, there's different, there's all sorts of stuff that happens. Sometimes things that are out of your control and you know, there's, you know, there's

Heidi Diestel (12:20.919)
Mm.

Ramon Vela (12:31.158)
Of course there's economies that go up and down and so forth, especially if you've been around since the, you know, since the early part of the last century, you know, things happen. and, and then of course you have the health changes because nowadays I'm like when you were describing how you used to not talk about to the butchers about certain things that I'm imagining now people want to hear some of that stuff.

Heidi Diestel (12:39.98)
Yes.

Heidi Diestel (12:55.318)
Mm.

Ramon Vela (12:55.726)
You know, they want to hear about the organic part of it, or they want to know how it's fed and all this, you know, how it's raised and everything else and so forth. So I know things have changed, right? Things, things have changed and now people are looking more for, um, they're looking more for products like yours and going out of their way to find products like yours. Um, like I know some people who, like they, they go to places like yours because they want that.

that fresh product or they want it organic and all of that. So there's a lot of changes. Walk us through some of the challenges that the, let's start first with the challenges. What has, what have been some of the challenges over the years in terms of just, you know, the business, keeping the business sustainable and going and, then what do you see as the challenges today? Is it distribution? Is it education? Is it awareness?

Heidi Diestel (13:25.335)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (13:49.771)
Yeah, well, let me start at a really relatable level to kind of talk about challenges because farming is incredibly risky, no matter what you're doing. Thankfully, I feel thankful we're not like a crop farmer because that's really challenging work. But I would say, know, turkey farming is just as challenging in its own right. But here's something I think is really

Ramon Vela (14:01.066)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (14:05.464)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (14:16.195)
It just really hits me and hopefully it will do the same for your viewers. You know, if you think about my grandfather, he's 99 years old and he's still alive. And you know, when he was farming, there were thousands of turkey farmers throughout California. Today, there are two, right? And that's just one state, right?

Ramon Vela (14:28.438)
Hehehe.

Ramon Vela (14:38.52)
Wow.

Heidi Diestel (14:43.319)
So you look at the national inflection of like turkey farmers. Now granted, there are a lot of turkey farmers that don't necessarily have their own brand and sell their own products. But if you look at the brand hierarchy of the brands providing turkey into the market, you're talking like two, two and a half dozen companies, 24 to 36 companies that are.

producing and selling Turkey in the country. That's not very many brands or companies, right? So when we look at the challenges, look at this very, poultry is very, very vertically integrated and we are incredibly small in the mixture of what we do. Now we are large in the sense that like we have scale, we have some national distribution, we have a direct to consumer platform. You can buy our products pretty much anywhere in the United States.

Ramon Vela (15:15.096)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (15:39.703)
But we make up a very small fraction of the turkey production in our country, right? And so when you look at these, you know, the scaling of our programming, the access, you know, it's very capital intensive, right? Very infrastructure heavy. You have to have trucks and feed mills and barns and, you know, the food system, the, you know, the way that we've created our food system in the United States has been one in which is volume.

Right. And then price price is king and we're producing as a consumer. We are used to shopping like, this is 25 cents less. Right. And we place value by a price point, not always to be pressed place value by attributes or quality or taste and texture. Right. Because if it's 25 cents more or per pound and you know, that's a dollar, two dollars, five dollars.

Ramon Vela (16:12.12)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (16:30.626)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (16:37.833)
that to us does not necessarily resonate with our mainstay shoppers. Now you have your hierarchy of shoppers. There are some who are very much willing to seek out our products. But when we look at like the larger kind of, you know, shopper, the masses of people producing, you know, and buying protein, regardless if it's organic or not organic, they are shopping by a dollar, by a price point. And so that's really challenging because

Ramon Vela (17:03.875)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (17:08.117)
going all the way back to us, we're like, hey, we want to maintain quality first, right? We want that meat to bone ratio to be there. We want the higher protein density. We want better nutritional profiles. Well, in order to do that, that's going to be a lot more expensive. We have to control the feed quality. We have to source really good quality corn and soy. We need to maintain practices that require more labor. We need to use breeds that are older.

genetic lines that maybe don't convert the feed as quickly, therefore are more expensive to grow, takes more feed for that turkey to grow. So most of everything that we do is very price sensitive and we're charging more because we're putting more in to the product, but the rest of market, some of your closest competitors really aren't doing this. And so that's very challenging. Now,

Ramon Vela (17:43.437)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (18:04.299)
That's just business. That's just the way that it is. And we have to show our worth and our value. And we do that to the best of our abilities. And we continue to do that. But what I find really interesting is when you look at the generational buying habits, know, the, my generation and kind of some of the younger generations, they're really starting to acknowledge quality. They're really starting to acknowledge nutrient density and the benefits that they receive from the food that they're consuming, right?

Because when we look at the past 30, 50 years of agriculture, like even with the adoption of organic and all that organic has done, all the benefits that organic has brought to the market, our nutrient density in our food is steadily declining. And so you have these generations saying like, well, why is this? And why is my food not providing the same level of nutrients? And where do I go to purchase this food?

And so you have a whole, you know, kind of up and coming population who are much more inclined and motivated to source their food from more genuine sources than strictly by price point alone.

Ramon Vela (18:56.93)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (19:09.87)
Yeah, I mean, and I see that in the market and then, and then also the one thing that you mentioned, but I know that you're that, it's there is the taste, right? Because I've talked to people who have source foods from like farms like yours, and they always tell me it's like, you can't beat the, like the taste is just different. It's, it's better. It's, know, juicier. It's all this, you know, all of the above compared to what you see just.

Heidi Diestel (19:21.932)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (19:31.381)
Yeah.

Yes.

Ramon Vela (19:37.89)
you know, and the frozen food section from other other places because of the, and this is all, I mean, of course the nutrients are important, but you know, just at the very bottom line, I always tell people like in terms of, products, no matter how good they are, they're always going to come down to taste. But I think all you know, all someone has to do is just try one of your products, I'm sure. And then see what the taste is like. And that in itself becomes like.

Heidi Diestel (19:41.473)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (20:06.446)
a whole other reason why they should follow this route. As a matter of fact, it's probably the same with other areas as well. Because I know people who have tried other things from beef and all sorts of other stuff. When you try these foods that are done in an organic way or regenerative way, the taste is just, everything is just all different. I remember I had a family friend who

Heidi Diestel (20:25.313)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (20:29.398)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (20:34.478)
would come from South America and they would come and I would always drive them back to the airport and he would tell me like, he goes, I don't eat hamburgers here in the United States because they taste weird. The meat tastes weird here. He goes, I want to go back to where it's like grass fed and everything else. That's really important. And I think that along with the nutrients, I think that going back to the organics, back to all the things you just mentioned is a growing trend for a lot of people.

Heidi Diestel (20:49.271)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (21:00.535)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, and it's also like, it's very primal, like as humans, right? Taste buds. We are, we can taste the difference in the foods we're consuming. And it's just like a berry. Like if you were in the wild and you came upon a berry that was edible and you tasted it when it was not in season, you wouldn't consume that berry because at a very primal level, it's going to be tart and sour and just like not, not what you want to taste. If the berry is in season, you're going to

I identify this and say, my goodness, I need to eat more of this. So it's funny to reduce us in a way into this instinctual ability to eat, but food is so manufactured today. You go into a grocery store and a solid 80 % of it is shelf stable, completely shelf stable. And again, like,

I use, I look at my own generation of family because that's where I can relate because I grew up with my grandfather. And I just, I look back into like how he managed his kitchen, right? And just what he ate and, and how he was raised and the stories I've heard from his childhood. And that was a hundred years ago. And, know, or, you know, 80 to a hundred years ago and, know, they were going to a butcher.

Right? If they weren't butchering their own turkeys, they were going to a butcher in town in our town, in our tiny little town. And they had a cold box or, you know, whatnot. They had a freezer, but they're wrapping that in wax paper and it's not lasting all year. It's not lasting two years. It's lasting a few months. And so, you know, you have to consider like the nutrient density of the food that we were consuming 80 to a hundred years ago was significantly higher. There's a multitude of reasons for this. But like, how do we get back to that?

Ramon Vela (22:41.976)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (22:54.771)
And our mission and like part of what drives me and my brother and our team here at DSTL is in pursuit of that mission, right? Of saying like, how do we get back to basics? How do we produce and procure food in the system we have today, which is incredibly complex, but how do we do this and scale it, right? And provide a higher nutrient density, a higher quality product to the consumers.

that, you know, again, they can taste completely, they can enjoy, but it's actually food and it actually fuels them. It's not, you know, this slurry of meat put into a casing steamed in, you know what I'm saying? Like highly manufactured, like how do we get back to basics and be a brand that, and be a company that really, you know, solves this need that our consumers genuinely have.

Ramon Vela (23:35.277)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Ramon Vela (23:52.27)
Yeah, well, I I 100 % agree. By the way, you you mentioned your your grandfather was still alive. My grandmother, she's passed away now, but she lived also to be 99 years old and she died like six months before I got married. And and. I obviously I can't this is anecdotal, like I don't I don't have proof of this, but she grew up for most part of her.

Heidi Diestel (24:15.457)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (24:21.108)
she grew up for the most part in a farm. So all her formative years were on a farm and butchering, know, she would, you know, my aunt, my aunt would always, my aunt would always tell me, you know, that she couldn't eat, she couldn't eat certain foods because she just remembers, you know, my grandmother, you know, and, but anyhow, but my mom, everyone, they all ate, you know, food that was

Heidi Diestel (24:43.062)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (24:50.734)
butchered right there that was made for you and so forth. My grandmother lived to be 99 years old. She was not like a health, she wasn't health conscious, she just ate real food. And she ate a lot of stuff that nowadays you probably, the doctor tells you not to, but it was just all real food. And she was actually very healthy until about 93 years old when she had to have a gallstone removed. And then after that, that's when she started deteriorating.

Heidi Diestel (24:51.926)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (25:02.06)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (25:09.868)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (25:20.406)
You know, she was actually very healthy, like always up and around and doing stuff. So she was like in her nineties and I, I truly believe it has to do with the nutrients in the, the, in the real food that she was eating. And this is kind of like what we're talking about. You're talking about real food, not manufactured food, but real food that's grown, you know, the way that people used to do it. And, and I think that's what people are looking for. And, and, and I think.

Heidi Diestel (25:24.491)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (25:34.219)
Yes. Yes.

Heidi Diestel (25:49.131)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (25:50.37)
They're also, by extension, they're looking to have a better, healthier life because they know that we're just eating too much junk.

Heidi Diestel (25:54.902)
Yes.

Yeah, well, completely. And I think consumers are very confused about this. They're like, well, I'm shopping at put in any whole food sprouts. I'm shopping all organic at my local Kroger. Put in whatever context you'd like. And then they're like, but am I making the right choice? We're very much questioning our food choices because we still aren't seeing the nutrient density in our food.

Ramon Vela (26:23.182)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (26:24.055)
And yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, it's an alarming rate, the attrition rate of farmers, young farmers. I mean, it's just, it's continuing to decline in our country. It's not a career in which, you know, people are entering. Hobby farms are, right, second careers where you're 55 plus, you've, you know, potentially did very well in a previous career and now you've decided to be a homestead. Like these types of farms are kind of, you know, picking up and you see a lot of Instagram famous.

Ramon Vela (26:48.685)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (26:54.338)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (26:54.487)
farmers, right? This whole like, you know, kind of cultural shift. And I think it's us as humans just like yearning for that connection to our food, yearning for that real, tangible life, like a life cycle of a carrot, you know, like you've planted it, you're waiting for a harvest, you're harvesting it, you're consuming it. It's a very primal like instinct. It's very something that to be connected to. And it's funny, you know, when I work with, you know,

marketing professionals or people that you come across, might contract with, what have you. There's one gal that I've become quite close with. And the other day she said, Heidi, you're not going to believe this, but I went to my local farmer's market and I've been buying carrots from my farmer's market. And our entire family now is like, where did the carrots come from? Did you get them from the farmer's market? And if I can't get them there, I have this backup, but I no longer buy just an organic.

Ramon Vela (27:45.07)
Hehehe.

Heidi Diestel (27:51.649)
carrot at the grocery store because like I can find these really high quality carrots more locally. And she's like, and the crazy part is my kids come into the kitchen asking for them. And it's like, yeah, that's amazing, right? Because we're driving the connection to our food and your body will crave the things that are good for you when it's real wholesome food. And that's what fuels us. And that's what drives us. And it's no different with the products that we're procuring and making, but we have to have a market to sell that into. And we have to have consumers willing to pay more.

for those products because they genuinely cost more because we're not adding water and brine solutions and sodium phosphates and all the tricks and things that producers might do and need to reduce the cost of production so that it's more palatable at a retail on shelf. We're just very used to seeing products not very expensive, right? Now I say that like,

Ramon Vela (28:24.398)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (28:47.619)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (28:50.749)
knowing that food has become exponentially more expensive since the pandemic and since inflation. And so it's genuinely a struggle every day to keep a value price point in the market and still continue to drive the nutritional profile, which you can't cheat on. Like there's no way I can drive a nutritional profile that's, you know, better and like cut corners, you know, it that just requires better ingredients.

Ramon Vela (29:16.866)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (29:19.979)
better, you more time for the birds to develop that naturally. So yeah, that's, you know, that's the challenge, but that's also the beauty of it because that's what makes me tick. Like, you know, that's, that's the exciting part is that we're not just producing a turkey product. We're producing something that someone's consuming to fuel their goals in life. And that to me is, is the paradigm shift in, in that's kind of what makes you swing your feet out of bed in the morning.

Ramon Vela (29:48.846)
Yeah, well, you know, you know, and that's the difficult part. And I think that's where probably the education comes in, because I think more and more people are becoming educated, but it's, it's always like a constant thing that you need to do. In those terms, what are you guys doing to build that awareness? Like for instance, you know,

Heidi Diestel (29:57.857)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (30:11.412)
social media, you mentioned social media with these other hobby farmers and so forth. And by the way, I know some folks who do homesteading now and they love it. They have these things. And I think also that contributes to people's awareness too, even though they're not farmers farmers like the way you guys are, but still I think it's just bringing more attention to this kind of way of life. But how are you guys building awareness?

Heidi Diestel (30:18.421)
Yeah. Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (30:39.891)
Yeah, so I think, you know, we have worked really hard to be descriptive as much as we can on our packages, because that's the point of purchase. That's where someone makes a decision about, you know, whether or not they're going to buy our product. That has a lot of regulation around it. So that's probably, you know, a very challenging place to start, but we do our best there. We have a really beautiful website and social channels where, you know, we're talking about what we do and, you know, showing

who we are and that transparency piece, which I think is really important. We still have a phone number on our website that you can call our ranch and you can just talk to a human. So we're really trying to provide a high degree of transparency to how and what we do and the products we produce and kind of like where you can learn more. And then I think for other marketing tactics, like we have a very small budget that we work with being a small...

Ramon Vela (31:14.766)
You

Heidi Diestel (31:36.161)
farm, family farms. So we have to get really creative, but we have found, you know, ambassadors in the social world that are willing to just talk about our products or post what they love, you know, for free with exchange for product, right? We send them meat and they are so another thing to be grateful for, grateful for, generous with their time and their energy and just genuinely really appreciate what we're doing in the products that we're

Ramon Vela (31:57.518)
Thank

Heidi Diestel (32:04.727)
curing and so they'll talk about it. And it's, you know, it's, it's not revolutionary. We're not like completely changing the way that we go to market, but we have to explain a lot more of why you would pay more for our products. We don't just to kind of get to put it out there and have the price point just, you know, kind of help sell the item. And so we have to find those creative ways to, you know, help people from all funnels across the country, like learn about our brand and then

maybe want to know more. One of the things we did that was a bit of a departure from most of our, from really anyone in food, we child this fresh ground turkey. It's a very popular item. Ground turkey sells every day. And instead of like take, I mean, we still have a lot of the main, you know, no antibiotics, ever vegetarian fed all of this, you know, kind of jargon on the front of the package. So people know what isn't in it.

But instead of like really focusing in on what, who we are, what we do and what, you know, what is not in the product, we actually took more of like a categorical approach where we told the consumer, Hey, this has, you know, 70 % less, less fat than beef. And it has 15 % more protein than ground chicken. Right. And we took the kind of our category and we gave the consumer, you know, information from a categorical perspective. Why would I choose Turkey?

over my chicken or my beef, which beef and chicken are the king and queen of the meat department. And so that was actually a really interesting trial because we were kind of leading with education of category first of like why Turkey, regardless of whose Turkey it is. And I think that was providing value to the consumer in a way in which they maybe didn't receive it before from a different brand. And then, you know, as they pick up the package and they read more, I think they're more intrinsically like,

Ramon Vela (33:37.165)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (34:00.693)
You gave me a nugget of information that I didn't even know who are you and what do you do? And, know, it's a very genuine transition versus just like, this is our brand, you know, hierarchy of marketing claims and here's everything that's not in it. And it feels very much like the next Turkey brand.

Ramon Vela (34:05.859)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (34:18.286)
Yeah, I almost feel like you're making it very easy for a health influencer because people are obviously looking for protein, they're looking for good sources of protein, and they're looking, like we just talked about all the organic and all the farm type of products.

that are made in the way they used to be, not just manufactured. So it feels like there's a lot of opportunity there for people to showcase, you know, your foods in there. By the way, you may be just think of something. So my father, unfortunately, this is a long time ago. it's, you know, it's a long time, but my father died when I was young. when I was about 13, going on 14, and he died of a heart attack.

Heidi Diestel (35:11.873)
Mm.

Ramon Vela (35:12.242)
And, and after that, I don't remember why. mean, obviously it's a heart attack and so forth, but my mom associated with the, what the meat he was, the beef he was eating. So ever since after that, she stopped making beef, burgers and stuff like that. She would, she would make turkey burgers. So as a teenager, that's all I remember eating was like turkey, turkey burgers that she would make.

Heidi Diestel (35:22.145)
Mmm.

Heidi Diestel (35:30.497)
Yeah. Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (35:36.435)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (35:39.316)
out of Turkey, know, ground Turkey and so forth. So anyhow, when you said that, it just like popped in my head. I hadn't thought about that a long time.

Heidi Diestel (35:44.371)
Yeah, I don't know if that's a great association for us, but understood.

Ramon Vela (35:47.466)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it was healthier. You know, it was healthier. was leaner at the time because this was back in the 80s. There wasn't really a lot of talk about lean meats and everything else. And so that was the lean meat that she thought was best for us in terms of like making burgers and things like that. And I think a lot of that still holds up. mean, like you mentioned, it still has this great nutritional profile to it.

Heidi Diestel (35:54.091)
Yeah, it is, yeah.

Heidi Diestel (35:58.461)
Yes. No. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (36:10.582)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (36:16.878)
especially now where everyone is looking for protein. Everyone's looking for, know, good sources of protein. So, so yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's still flies. Let's talk about some of the actual products that sell. So let me make sure that people know you can go to a distal turkey, distalturkey.com and distal, I'm sure you can type it, type it into Google and you'll find it, but just in case it's spelled D I E S

Heidi Diestel (36:20.085)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (36:46.594)
T-E-L and then the word turkey.com. Destalturkey.com is the website. You can also, by the way, just Google Destal Family Ranch and you should be able to find it as well. So walk us through, so someone's listening to this. They like everything they're hearing about, you know, how you raise them and the farm and everything else and the history, of course. What do you want them, where do you want them to start?

in their journey with the brand. So we go to the website, where do you want them to go and what should they experience first?

Heidi Diestel (37:23.755)
my gosh. That's such a great question. I don't think I've ever had that question phrased this way. I mean, there's no reason why you can't have a whole turkey mid-year, like throw a barbecue together, put it on the barbecue, right? Like we could have a Thanksgiving meal more than one time a year. That's a turkey farmer's dream, by the way.

yeah. I mean, I would say like, start with the staples, right? Like start with some ground turkey, start with some deli meat, the things that you are used to eating, and just incorporate it into your daily practice and genuinely. Don't tell your family. Like if you're the one, if you're the cook, I love this approach because it's, it's really a fun one where, you know, you just make a swap, right? Swap out the deli meat that you've been using with distal deli meat. Don't really tell anyone.

And just see, just see if your family notices because nine times out of 10, the child or the husband comes back or wife comes back and says, that sandwich was really good today. You know, that was amazing. Like, did you get different bread? What did you do so different? And that's the trade right there. That's the difference. That's the taste buds. That's your primal instincts going like, this is really good meat in the dish.

That is kind of like the fun approach. The deli meat and the ground turkey, there's breakfast sausage and turkey chorizo, which is like phenomenal. So if you have a chili recipe or nachos or enchiladas or anything like this, the chorizo is a bit of a sleeper item. And then of course, like the mainstay item is the holiday bird, which you can buy different birds from us throughout the year. Availability changes depending upon what we have. But for Thanksgiving, of course,

you know, come back, grab a de-stall turkey for Thanksgiving. I will say it's a pretty, it's incredible because as you go through life, you'll be in different, you know, dynamics with different people and they learn, you know, hey, you're de-stall, de-stall turkey. And what you'll hear is like, it is not Thanksgiving without a de-stall turkey, right? And it's, in fact, just last week I was with someone who said, hey, what is crazy is that I was introduced to de-stall turkeys from my father-in-law.

Ramon Vela (39:34.542)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (39:44.491)
He came over for Thanksgiving one of the first years and he was almost like scolding him because he didn't have a distal turkey. And he's like, this is not a health conscious individual. This is not somebody who, you know, like seeks out organic food. But he knows a distal turkey and he knows its quality. And I've never had a distal, you know, I've never had Thanksgiving without it since. Right. And so it's that kind of an experience because we all remember our Thanksgiving meals for better or for worse.

Ramon Vela (39:49.71)
Thank

Ramon Vela (40:12.814)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (40:13.363)
We know how those went. So yeah, I mean, I would kind of start that way. There's so many options and there's like something for everyone on the website.

Ramon Vela (40:23.042)
Yes. Pause. Just one second. You know, I'm hearing some noise and it hasn't didn't really start until towards like 10 minutes ago. I heard it a little bit, but it was it wasn't very, very much. now it's happening more often. I think it's happening. Yeah, there like there's something that you might be hitting or the microphone might be hitting something.

Heidi Diestel (40:34.507)
Hmm.

Heidi Diestel (40:38.826)
Okay.

maybe I'm hitting these.

Heidi Diestel (40:51.831)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (40:53.839)
Do me a favor, do gently do this. I'm wondering if it's hitting your.

Heidi Diestel (40:59.754)
Is that it?

Is that better?

Ramon Vela (41:03.598)
And I just heard it again. I don't know. You want to try taking off? Does your computer have a microphone if you just pull it out?

Heidi Diestel (41:14.044)
It does, but it sometimes will get really echoey.

Ramon Vela (41:18.56)
I can eliminate the echo. Let's try that without.

Ramon Vela (41:33.944)
Are you still there?

Heidi Diestel (41:51.632)
Is that any better?

Ramon Vela (41:55.0)
Let's see.

Ramon Vela (42:00.814)
Go ahead and say something again.

Heidi Diestel (42:04.378)
Can you hear me?

Ramon Vela (42:06.934)
I can hear you, it is definitely lower in register.

Ramon Vela (42:15.214)
Why don't you go ahead and try playing it in again.

Heidi Diestel (42:17.146)
How about that?

Heidi Diestel (42:24.762)
that any better?

Ramon Vela (42:27.446)
It's still pretty low.

Heidi Diestel (42:31.96)
Hmm, that's weird that it just switched, like mid.

Ramon Vela (42:39.502)
Well, I mean, it's okay. We only have a few more minutes left, but I just didn't know, because I kept on, the clicking sound kept on happening more and more. I was watching to see if you were hitting your microphone and you weren't, so I'm not really sure where the issue was. But anyhow, let's continue. We should be fine. Because in post-production, I could bring up your, because your audio and video is being recorded separately.

Heidi Diestel (42:50.691)
Weird.

Heidi Diestel (42:57.838)
Yeah, I don't either. Okay, all right.

Heidi Diestel (43:06.456)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (43:06.817)
So I can always up the volume on your side of it. I just wanna make sure that we didn't have the last bit of the recording with the clicking sound over and over again. No, no, it's okay. All right, so let's go ahead and start one again. We should be recording still. Let me just make sure. Yeah, you're recording in there. Okay.

Heidi Diestel (43:16.418)
Yeah, sorry about that. I'm not sure where that's coming from.

Ramon Vela (43:31.694)
All right, so let's start over again. I'm gonna count us back in and then I'm gonna ask, I waited to finish your answers because I didn't want to interrupt you. And that way we have a clean cut there. I'm gonna count us back in and then I'm gonna ask another question. okay. One, two, three, unpause. So let's talk about where people can buy it because...

Heidi Diestel (43:35.62)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (43:56.908)
Like for instance, as I was online at distilturkey.com, I noticed that you guys have, you mentioned about the deli meats. I hadn't seen them, but I'm looking at them right now. That is incredibly, that's an easy place for people to start and imagine. My kid, both my kids, all of them love turkey deli meats and things like that. So that's an easy place to go.

And then I was also thinking in terms of Thanksgiving, should people be putting in orders for Thanksgiving now? I know that's kind of early, but I knew.

Heidi Diestel (44:30.778)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (44:34.648)
Yeah, no, they can wait. They can wait a little bit. They probably would order their turkey. Like we do an early bird special. So if you want to get in early for your holiday bird with us, join our newsletter and you'll see like early October we'll come in with an early bird special and then you can place your order for your holiday turkey. But yeah.

throughout. So there is a store locator on our website. So if you're, know, and that's the most economical is to find us at a grocery store near you. So you can buy directly from our website. It's wonderful. It comes direct to your doorstep, but you can also use our store locator and find our products more locally. We are in a lot of your natural and organic health food stores. So think like Sprouts, regional grocery stores, chains, Sprouts Whole Foods, and then regional grocery store chains.

like if you're in Northern California, like a nugget or Linares or Olivers, Rayleigh's. Southern California, you'd have like Mothers and Jimbo's. And the Pacific Northwest, you'd have the New Seasons. Any of your national co-op of grocers, right? So Boise co-op in Idaho and this type of thing. So think natural and organic health food.

Ramon Vela (45:51.532)
Yeah, I just actually went to your food locator, which by the way, everyone, can go to distilturkey.com is the website distilturkey.com and it automatically had my zip code up and you are in my local sprouts. So definitely that's not that far for me. And the website is beautiful. So if that's what your farm looks like, that is like, that is

Heidi Diestel (46:10.68)
Yes. Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (46:18.339)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (46:20.906)
Very, very cool. And you have lots of different categories there that you can look at. Deli meats, sausages, bacon and burgers. You've got recipes. You've got the store locator, as I mentioned. You've got the turkey breast, whole turkey, specialty, grins and sausage, deli meats. So there's a little something there for everyone, depending on what form factor people want to eat it.

Heidi Diestel (46:22.03)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (46:35.578)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (46:48.586)
And then I love to see like your family there and it's just a very cool looking farm. And then of course you have a lot of the testimonials, people's comments and things like that in there. So this is really cool. Is there anything that you want, you know, I know that a lot of this is education component. A lot of it is really just also just getting in my mind from.

marketing and sales standpoint, getting people to try it because I really feel like if you, let's just try it. Don't think about the price right now. mean, obviously price is important, but you know, give it a try. I actually think that the prices that you have on there are very reasonable, especially for the large birds. But once someone tries this, I kind of feel like it will become,

Heidi Diestel (47:22.5)
Mm-hmm.

Heidi Diestel (47:29.284)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (47:33.198)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (47:44.32)
either they're gonna wanna try a more everyday thing with the deli meats, or it's gonna become their seasonal bird that they purchase or whatnot. But I really just feel like the taste, taste is ultimately, it's going to be the thing because if it is what I think it is in terms of the things that I've tasted that are grown organically, that are grown with the optimal nutritional value and so forth,

Heidi Diestel (48:00.963)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (48:13.976)
the taste is just going to be so much better than what you're normally used to. And again, I told you, I've talked to people who come from countries and other places that are used to like grass-fed or organic and so forth. And they tell me like it's night and day, like the taste is just so much better, richer, juicier, all of the above. So anything that you want to leave with the audience in terms of, you know, this conversation that you want them to remember or something that you haven't mentioned.

Heidi Diestel (48:29.625)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (48:42.584)
just, you know.

There's a lot of things we have to care about today. There's a lot of things that are competing for our attention span and there's a lot of supplements that you could be taking when you look at your own health and wellness journey. And I think a lot of that starts with food. And I would just put a PSA out there, a poultry service announcement, but know your farmer. Take a minute and do you know where your produce is coming from? Do you know where your meat is coming from? And maybe make a goal to know your farmer because I think that's

source of where your vitality starts is in your food.

Ramon Vela (49:19.31)
Yeah. and I would, if I was to add that, I know we didn't talk a ton about this a little bit, but this is, this is such a win-win situation for a lot of folks. because not only are you getting this, not only, well, it's a win-win in several different areas. So not only are you supporting family farms out there and, and keeping this type of, type of business, you know, going.

Heidi Diestel (49:49.091)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (49:49.356)
versus what we all would complain about, which is all these conglomerates and them just doing all sorts of different things to the turkeys and everything else that we just don't appreciate. And we're seeing that the value of the nutrition is going down and so forth. But really supporting a family farm like yours is one thing that I think is also valuable for folks. The other, of course, is the nutritional value and the way the practices and the things that you guys do.

Heidi Diestel (49:54.126)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (49:59.79)
Yeah.

Heidi Diestel (50:12.078)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (50:18.574)
And then of course, the regenerative practices that are also good for the earth and sustainable. mean, like you're hitting different points that I think people are going to find all three of those things that I just mentioned pretty cool and attractive and things that they want to support. Or if it's just even just one of them, just like the nutritional value, like, hey, I want really good food. want organic food. want, I don't want all these chemicals and everything pumped in water and pumped into the, into the

Heidi Diestel (50:20.952)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (50:48.398)
into the products that I buy because they're not good for you or whatever. And then also taste and so forth. There's a lot of people that's all they care about, but I think in many ways you're hitting on so many different things that people can care about and do care about more and more each day, especially regenerative. So if you're interested in the regenerative side, in the About Us section of the website, they talk about the regenerative practices.

Heidi Diestel (50:53.23)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (51:15.63)
their responsibility, their composting, their water usage and more. So I highly recommend people to go take a look at that. And I honestly, I feel like you guys really meet our tagline, which is products worth buying, brand we're supporting because there's a lot there to support.

Heidi Diestel (51:30.502)
thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. I mean, yeah, it's a labor of love. It's a lot of work, but I really appreciate that.

Ramon Vela (51:39.628)
Yeah. And again, I recommend you guys listening out there, if you're looking to a good source of protein and you're also looking for food that has grown correctly and with all the things you're looking for, give it a try. Give it a taste. I think really the taste is going to be the thing that's going to drive people towards you guys. Just get in the door, taste it, and then I think you'll become a customer.

Heidi Diestel (52:01.667)
Yes.

Heidi Diestel (52:05.848)
Definitely.

Ramon Vela (52:09.24)
But this has been fantastic, Heidi. I really appreciate you making time for us. And it's been a pleasure just learning about your business and about your family and about what you guys do. And I love highlighting and featuring companies like yours. So thanks very much for making time for us.

Heidi Diestel (52:25.358)
Yeah, thank you.

Ramon Vela (52:27.426)
Well, everyone out there, have just had Heidi Destel, who is a fourth generation turkey farmer. And you can go to Destelturkey.com. It's a website. By the way, what is the social media?

Heidi Diestel (52:41.188)
Deestil Family Ranch, that's our handle.

Ramon Vela (52:43.267)
Okay, Deestil Family Ranch is the handle for social media. We're going to have all those links on our podcast description, which you can find at Spotify, Apple, and pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. Simply type in the story of our brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, I would definitely, as I just mentioned, go to the website, sign up for the newsletter. That way you keep up to date on all their promotions and their products and what else are coming out with and so forth. But you'll see the whole thing and that way you can also be reminded, I'm sure, when they have...

promotions for Thanksgiving and ordering early and whatnot. So go do that. And then I always tell you to stay safe, stay sane, and stay healthy. This is a great way to stay healthy is you need protein and you need a good source of protein, a good clean source of protein. And this is definitely one that you should be looking into. So go into the website, take a look. I think you'd be pleasantly happy.

with what you're seeing there. And also just give it a try because I think once you try it, you're really gonna have an enlightened experience and think, wow, what was I eating before, right? Anyhow, so go do yourself a favor and do that. Beyond that, everyone, one last thing. We've all been going through a lot of crazy stuff, the pandemic and COVID and then geopolitical wars and the economy and politics and everything else. Let's just do ourselves a favor.

Let's just remember that everyone is going through something and let's just try to be a little kinder to each other. And if we can do that, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.