Hi, I am confused on the pictures that you have vs the recipe. In the picture it looks like you add salt/herbs right before oven or for the brine?

You'll have to get the styling and photographic staff to weigh in on this, with respect to the particular bird in the photo . . . but as the recipe creator, I can tell you that the correct procedure is to brine using salt and herbs well in advance.

It looks like they used a rather large quantity of herbs and took care not to disturb them - and quite possibly, added more back on before baking. The salting makes the turkey a bit moist during the brining process, which results in some of the herbs coming off the bird.

Also, Food52 evidently left quite a few of the herb leaves whole. I blitz mine in the food processor with the salt, as noted in the instructions, which breaks the leaves down. My turkeys therefore have never looked like that.

Hope this helps. ;o)