NEW SHARON — Tim Henderson carefully weighed the fresh turkey, tucked it into a clear plastic bag and used a marker to write down its weight on a tag.

Sixteen pounds, five ounces.

“That’s an ideal-sized bird, right there,” said Henderson, who along with his wife, Pauline, owns of Pine Tree Poultry in New Sharon, about a 15-minute drive from Farmington.

He fastened the tag to the bag with a zip tie and placed the bird on a table next to more than a dozen other turkeys.

Workers hauled the fresh turkeys from the processing room to a large, walk-in cooler or refrigerated truck, ready to be delivered across Maine, with a final destination of Thanksgiving tables. The bagging and tagging was the last step in the process for the last batch of the season, as Henderson and Pine Tree Poultry employees finished their work on about 100 turkeys.

“Fresh is always good no matter what food it is,” Henderson, 60, said on a chilly morning at the farm on Friday. “People say, ‘It costs more,’ and that’s true, but why should that be any different than buying a good steak?”

Pine Tree Poultry is one of several turkey farms across Maine where customers can order a fresh turkey, according to the Visit Maine tourism website.

The cost disparity between farm-raised fresh and frozen turkeys from factory farms is wide. Factory-farmed frozen turkeys at the grocery store can cost about 50 cents per pound or even less, while Pine Tree Poultry charges $6 per pound. Prices for whole fresh, farm-raised turkeys from other turkey farms in Maine are comparable to Pine Tree Poultry.

Tim Henderson said Pine Tree Poultry usually sells about 2,200 turkeys per year and is sold out of whole turkeys for the season. The farm also sells other turkey products, such as pot pies, sausage and empanadas.

He said the turkeys at the farm are allowed to range in three large, open-air barns. The farm tried free range several years ago, letting 100 turkeys out into a pasture, but predators — coyotes, eagles and bobcats — killed two per day, so they had to abandon letting the turkeys out of the barn, he said.

David Turin, owner of David’s restaurant in Portland, said in a phone interview with the Press Herald that local, farm-raised turkeys will generally be more moist and taste better than frozen, factory-raised turkeys.

“The meat in any kind of bird raised naturally will be more flavorful,” said Turin, who used to purchase locally raised turkeys for Thanksgiving dinners in his restaurants. David’s restaurant is no longer open on Thanksgiving to give employees a day off. “The fowl’s taste is very influenced by what they’re fed.”

The turkeys at Pine Tree Poultry are fed a grain mixture of corn, wheat and soybeans, Tim Henderson said. Pauline Henderson, 57, said the farm does not use antibiotics or added hormones and does not inject the turkeys with sodium preservatives.

Pine Tree Poultry raises Holland white and Andover heritage turkeys and other breeds.

Tim Henderson said they pick up the day-old poults in January from a distributor in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. For the first week of life, the birds have to be kept in a 100-degree environment or they’ll perish. Raising the birds healthy and free from diseases is relatively simple, he said, if you provide them fresh air, clean bedding, clean food and water.

Heritage turkeys grow slower than industrial turkeys and contain a higher percentage of dark meat, according to Penn State University Cooperative Extension.

The Hendersons moved from Wayland, Massachusetts, to Maine a decade ago to realize their dream of purchasing their own farm. Along with turkeys, the farm also raises chickens and cattle.

“We did this on a wing and a prayer,” Tim Henderson said, laughing. They invested about $100,000 in facility improvements and in the first year they sold about 500 turkeys. Their turkey business has more than quadrupled since they opened. It’s expensive to raise turkeys, he said, but worth it.

Pauline Henderson cooks the various turkey products in their on-site kitchen.

“It’s a hard business, but when someone tells us how much they enjoyed our turkey products, it picks us up, keeps us going,” she said. “We know we are doing what we are meant to be doing.”